Lavish life of Mugabe's looter-in-chief

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

December 21, 2008

As starving Zimbabweans face their bleakest Christmas ever, the head of the
state bank puts the last touches to his 47-bedroom palace
Jon Swain, Harare
IN the rich and leafy northern Harare suburb of Borrowdale Brook, Gideon
Gono, who as governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is President Robert
Mugabe's right-hand man and financial adviser, is having the finishing
touches put to a lavish mansion that he started building several years ago.

The castle-like house has 47 en suite bedrooms and a glass swimming pool
with underlights, a gym bigger than many good houses in the Zimbabwean
capital, a mini-theatre and landscaped gardens.

His house is one of the biggest in Harare - bigger, in fact, than Mugabe's,
which is nearby, hidden behind a high wall and guarded by soldiers.

No one except Gono knows for sure how much the mansion cost, but the
architects originally said they expected it would reach more than $5m on
completion. This is enough to build and equip at least four primary schools
in Zimbabwe.

Related Links
  a.. 'Zimbabwe is mine - I will never surrender'
  a.. Zimbabwe cholera epidemic toll rises above 1,000
  a.. Zimbabwe wildlife staring at extinction
Gono is not ready to move in just yet. Extra security sensors were recently
installed on the outside perimeter and bio-metric iris recognition and
finger print authentication systems were fitted in the interior, but he has
yet to be convinced that it is entirely safe.

Whether he moves house or not, Gono is hardly facing a miserable Christmas,
unlike the millions whose lives have been wrecked by the once-prosperous
country's economic meltdown. They are coping with constant power and water
cuts, food shortages and now the terror of cholera. The disease has struck
because the government has spent so much money corruptly rather than
investing in a clean water supply for its people.

More than 1,100 have died in the epidemic, nearly 21,000 have been infected
and there is no end in sight.

"Where is the joy this Christmas?" asked Mercy Gunda, a housewife, as she
stood in a long queue at a bank to withdraw money last Friday. "The city is
full of people queueing at banks. They are not doing Christmas shopping. If
there are any Christmas presents to be bought for the children this year it
will be school uniforms."

Last week I met Palimaga Malani, a 67-year-old blind widow whose task this
Christmas is to look after seven children whose parents have died of Aids.
They live together in Bulawayo in a house hardly bigger than a walk-in
wardrobe in Gono's mansion.

Somehow she makes sure that with the donations she receives from a local
church the children are neatly turned out and fed. "I am very well really,
but I am hungry," she said. The cataracts that caused her blindness are
curable but she cannot afford the operation to restore her sight.

A few streets away was another family of orphaned children, the youngest two
being cared for by a 15-year-old girl, Anyanga. They survive by selling ice
lollies on the streets. Gono, however, has plenty of houses and several
farms that were seized from white commercial farmers over the years.

Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of southern Africa and one of the world's top
exporters of tobacco until 2000, when Mugabe started seizing white farms
under the guise of redistributing them to black Zimbabweans to right the
wrongs of the colonial past. But he gave them largely to his cronies and
entourage.

This chaotic land reform programme, plagued by violence, was condemned as
racist by five African judges in southern Africa's regional court in a test
case bought by 78 farmers, a ruling that Zimbabwe has refused to accept
although it is bound by treaty to do so.

The land seizures have created chronic food shortages and a crisis that has
led a third of the population to flee abroad and half of those remaining to
depend on food aid to survive.

As Mugabe's right-hand man, Gono is a beneficiary of the crisis. "He has
been looting big time," said one of his many critics, a once wealthy Harare
businessman who had crossed swords with Gono several times. "Mugabe has just
reappointed him governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe [RBZ] for another
five years, so it must be great for him.

"Any loot that comes in he grabs. It is no longer the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe; it is a bank reserved for him and the president's cronies. If
Mugabe has a degree in violence, which he has often said he has, Gono has a
degree in corruption."

In fact, Gono, who started out as a tea boy at the central bank, has a
doctorate in strategic management, but it is from a nonaccredited American
university.

Some of Gono's farms are not in working order - far from unusual among
Mugabe's entourage, who have so many farms that they sometimes do not know
what to do with them.

Take the case of Elias Musakwa. A stalwart of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, he is
a gospel singer at night with his own recording studio, a banker by day
working with Gono in the upper echelons of the RBZ, and an occasional farmer
at the weekend on a farm he seized.

Last year he grabbed a dairy farm that once supplied 2% of Harare's milk. It
now has four goats and a few sheep, while hundreds of cows that produced the
milk have perished.

"If you do not have a sense of humour you don't survive here," said one
Zimbabwean, who told of government officials using their posts to steal
fuel, pay their children's school fees and fund the inflated wages of their
gardeners and maids, all for a few hours' work a week. "Everything is weird
in this country," he said.

While so much is collapsing all around, one of Gono's biggest farms near
Norton, 50 miles from Harare, where he has installed two white managers, is
fully functional, a glaring example of how he and the powerful men around
Mugabe abuse their power. When it is dry, the farm draws water to irrigate
the fields though a pipe-line linked to a reservoir 25 miles away which Gono
installed at vast expense. The reservoir water is supposed to be for the
people of Harare.

The city has minimal municipal water of its own. In the poorest suburbs,
where houses are made out of tin and plastic, children were playing in pools
of untreated sewage last week and families were still collecting water from
broken pipes.

Cholera has killed 224 people in Harare, with more than 9,000 suffering from
it. Many affluent parts of the city have no municipal water but survive on a
system of privately dug boreholes.

In 2003, when Gono took office, inflation was 619%. It is now well in excess
of 231m%. A police inspector's Christmas bonus last week was worth one
American cent on the widely used parallel black market.

Little wonder that, on Friday, anger against Gono spilt into the streets of
Harare for the second time in a month. A mob threw rocks at the Reserve Bank
building. Many were low-grade civil servants such as prison staff who had
been trying to get money for Christmas, only to find that the banks had run
out of cash despite the introduction that morning of new Z$1 billion, Z$5
billion and Z$10 billion notes.

"We have fallen into the abyss," said a friend. "Economically we were
teetering on the edge. Now we have fallen over and it is demonstrable for a
number of reasons. You go into a shop and if you don't have US dollars you
starve. People don't want Zimbabwean dollars. They are worthless."

He pointed out of the window into a grubby lane below where people had
dumped thousands of banknotes which had become redundant.

There are many heroes in Zimbabwe still trying to make the country work. One
is a 28-year-old male nurse at a Bulawayo hospital who was struggling this
weekend to care for a ward of 63 children on his own.

Unable to obtain their wages from the banks because of the shortage of
banknotes, many of his colleagues have given up coming to work. It was too
burdensome and expensive for them to travel or they have moved to South
Africa to try to earn a living.

Behind the male nurse was the body of a two-year-old boy lying under a sheet
on a table. He had died that morning from severe malnutrition and
septicaemia from sores on his body.

"We survive by so many ways," the nurse said. "We adjust; we barter. I have
been tempted to leave like many of my colleagues so many times, but I need
to look after my mother, father and young brothers and sisters."

Looking at the small bundle beneath the sheet, he said: "This boy should
never have died."

"When you meet somebody like that young man you feel that is why there is
still hope in this country," said Stella Allberry, health secretary of a
faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who has been jailed
before. "The one God-given thing we have is hope. And the one thing I don't
want Mugabe to take from me is hope."

Hope for too many has disappeared, however. At a cholera clinic near the
Mozambique border, a 23-year-old mother was watching her seven-year-old
daughter die of cholera and malaria on Monday. It had taken her almost 12
hours to bring the child to the clinic on foot. Others were carried there in
wheelbarrows.

As the country crumbled, Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was desperately
trying to put on a show of unity at its annual party conference. Even before
it began, the facade of unity was cracking. The party is increasingly riven
with factionalism, shown by an unprecedented outbreak of fighting at its
Harare headquarters on Monday night. Police had to use water cannons to
break up a pitched battle over the election of a new leadership for Harare
province.

This internal party violence followed the mysterious wounding of Perence
Shiri, the powerful air force chief, in an alleged assassination attempt,
and the arrests and abduction of opposition members, human rights activists
and journalists who have vanished without trace.

The government charges that the opposition has set up secret military
training camps in Botswana to overthrow it, aided by the West.

Zimbabwe is entering an unpredictable, unstable and dangerous phase. In the
next few days Gono is expected to head off for a holiday in Malaysia. Mugabe
would normally go there, too.

Apart from a holiday, both men have assets in the region in the aftermath of
western sanctions and it is a favourite destination. But diplomats last week
wondered whether the 84-year-old president would risk leaving Zimbabwe at
this time.

He has been in power for 28 years and is outwardly still defiant. "Zimbabwe
is mine," he said on Friday, rejecting calls to step down. "I will never,
never sell my country. I will never, never, never surrender."

Nor, say many suffering Zimbabweans, are they going to surrender hope for
change as they celebrate the bleakest Christmas of their lives.

In Bulawayo, 1,000 people, black and white, turned out for a candlelit carol
service in the rundown amphitheatre of a once beautiful park. The children
were delighted. There was a nativity play and a brass band played.

"It made the children happy," said a mother. "When it came to the end we
prayed for them. Our prayer was that the children would not be hungry next
year."

Failed nation

- Health

The toll from cholera has left more than 1,100 dead; 1.3m people have HIV.

- Economy

Official inflation rate is 231m% and 80% of workforce are unemployed.

- Hunger

47% of population undernourished, 34% of children under five chronically
malnourished.

- Political violence

200 opposition activists were killed, 5,000 abducted and 200,000 forced to
flee in June presidential election.

Sources: United Nations, WHO, media reports

Comment
For all those that have never set foot in Africa and lived their, this is
the African mentality.
African born whites know this have warned you do gooders about this and your
your arrogance created this
Colonization left to run its course would have produced a stable Africa
under its own rule

peter , raintree, australia

US Department of State: Daily Press Briefing, 19 December 2008

http://www.isria.info

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 19, 2008

10:37 a.m. EST

MR. MCCORMACK: Good morning, everybody. I don't have anything to start off
with, so we can get right to your questions.

QUESTION: Zimbabwe.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: President Mugabe has said that - or is quoted as having offered to
name Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister. Do you take this seriously, or do
you think this is another dodge on the part of Mugabe?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I haven't seen a response from Mr. Tsvangirai, but one
suspects, given the history of Mr. Mugabe in these kinds of proposals, that
this is probably just a head fake. He - you know, he probably sees a lot of
the pressure growing on him, and he's looking for a way out, potentially. I
don't know. I can't tell you exactly what his motivations might be. But
again, based on history, one would take such a proposal with a grain of
salt.

QUESTION: And about Mugabe, he just said Zimbabwe is mine and he vowed never
to surrender to calls to step down. So do you have any reaction to "Zimbabwe
is mine"?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, last time the world checked, Zimbabwe belonged to the
people of Zimbabwe. You know, again, it's a statement that I think sums up
in a concise way what is at the root of Zimbabwe's problems.

QUESTION: Which is?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, he thinks that the state of Zimbabwe and the people of
Zimbabwe are there only to serve his interests. It's the other way around,
or it should be the other way around. Those who govern should govern in the
interest of the governed. The governed should be able to determine who
governs them and in what manner. And in a democracy, which Mr. Mugabe says
Zimbabwe is, supposedly, they should be able to freely express their views
through the ballot box. They clearly haven't been able to. Hence, our
statements from - you heard from the President as well as the Secretary over
the past couple weeks, as well as many, many, many others in the
international system.

Mugabe Never Invited Tsvangirai - MDC

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 22:05

THE two MDC formations yesterday dismissed claims by President Robert
Mugabe that he had sent invitations to Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara to join him in an inclusive government.

Speaking to thousands of Zanu PF delegates at the just-ended
conference in Bindura, Mugabe said he had written to the two leaders
following the gazetting of Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 19.

He said he was yet to hear from "one of the opposition leaders"
(Tsvangirai) whom he accused of taking instructions from the West.

But the formations said yesterday Mugabe never sent any letters to
them and was bent on misleading the world into believing that he was
committed to the power-sharing agreement.

"We have not received any communication from Mugabe or his office,"
said Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T spokesperson.

"The only communication we are receiving are the abductions of our
officials and supporters across the country."

"In any case, the President (Tsvangirai) is not in the country in
circumstances caused by Mugabe himself. He needs his passport back."

MDC spokesperson Edwin Mushoriwa also denied that his party received
an invitation from Mugabe.
"We have not received the letter as of now. It might be still on its
way," he said.

But Mushoriwa said it was imperative for Tsvangirai to return home so
that discussions on the formation of the inclusive government were
concluded.

"In as much as we understand his (Tsvangirai) reasons of staying out
of the country, it is imperative that he comes back and we form a government
as quickly as possible because people are suffering," Mushoriwa said.

Speaking in Botswana, where he has been stuck for weeks after his
emergency travel document expired; Tsvangirai said he would quit the
power-sharing talks with Zanu PF if the abduction of his supporters did not
stop.

He also wants over 40 of his supporters, who are allegedly being held
by state security agents released by next week.

 Forty-two members of the MDC, including the party's director of
security, Chris Dhlamini and civil society activists have been abducted in
the past two months and their whereabouts are still unknown.

Among those abducted recently was former personal assistant to
Tsvangirai, Gandhi Mudzingwa and Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director
Jestina Mukoko together with two workers from her organisation.

 Tsvangirai said the abductions were a clear sign that Zanu PF does
not respect the Memorandum of Understanding and the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) the parties signed on July 22 and September 15 respectively.

 Tsvangirai's warning coincided with Mugabe's renewed threats to go it
alone if the MDC formations did not respond to his invitation to join the
unity government.

 Tsvangirai said he would withdraw from the Sadc-mediated talks unless
all MDC supporters and human rights activists seized from their homes since
last month were released or charged in a court of law by January 1.

He said there would be no meaningful talks while Zanu PF was waging a
campaign of terror against his supporters.

"Therefore, if these abductions do not cease immediately, and if all
the abductees are not released or charged in a court of law by January 1,
2009 I will be asking the MDC's National Council to pass a resolution to
suspend all negotiations and contact with Zanu PF," said Tsvangirai in a
statement.

Chamisa said they had raised the issue of abductions with the African
Union and Sadc, who were the guarantors of the unity deal. The MDC has also
raised the issue with Zanu PF but had not received any response.

Chamisa said four armed men abducted MDC youth chairperson for Ward 26
in Makoni South in Manicaland, Graham Matehwa, last week.

The whereabouts of another MDC youth, Bothwell Pasipamire of Kadoma
Central constituency in Mashonaland West province remain unknown after he
was abducted.

He said 11 of the opposition party's 12 councillors in Bindura, had
fled their homes after the police arrested Ward 10 councillor, Norbert
Dhokotera and two other MDC activists in a pre-dawn raid last week, ahead of
the Zanu PF conference.

Efforts to get a comment from police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
were fruitless.

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE

Fears Mount Schools May Not Re-open For 2009

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:58

ZIMBABWE'S teachers are demanding at least US$2 200 a month before
they resume work, fuelling fears 2009 could be another wasted year for the
education sector already weighed down by an unprecedented staff exodus.

The Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (ZIMTA) has taken the unprecedented
step of presenting their salary demands to President Robert Mugabe saying
they "feared for the worst".

The school attendance rate had already fallen to 20 % by last term
from 85% in 2007 as a result of the prolonged job action by teachers and the
mounting political and economic uncertainty, a December United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) report reveals.

Analysts say primary and secondary schools lost 70% learning time
after teachers started boycotting work in March protesting against poor pay
and the political intimidation ahead of the June 27 presidential election
run-off.

Prospects that the situation would improve next term have been
dampened by the prolonged delays in the formation of a new government,
analysts said. "The outlook is gloomy," said ZIMTA acting chief executive
officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, who confirmed the latest demands by teachers.

"If the political environment does not change in the few coming days,
schools are unlikely to reopen next term." Teacher organisations estimate
that up to 30 000 teachers resigned from government to seek employment in
neighbouring countries while others turned to the informal sector as the
authorities continued to ignore pleas for better pay.

The staff exodus resulted in the massive shutdown of mainly rural
schools and the trend is likely to continue next year. Galloping inflation
also forced schools to close earlier than usual as budgets for the term were
wiped out in a matter of days and parents began suffocating under the
dollarisation of the economy.

ZIMTA and the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) - the two
biggest teacher organisations - say barring a "miraculous" turnaround in the
country's economic and political situation, the education sector would
ground to a halt next year.

In its proposals made early this month, ZIMTA warned that without
foreign currency denominated salaries, the remaining 100 000 teachers would
continue with their job boycott. They said the absence of a government since
March had forced them to direct their demands to the President's Office.

This month the least paid teacher was paid an average of $12 billion,
which translated to about US$10 on the parallel market. "Teachers will not
go back to school as long as their salaries are not in foreign currency,"
said Aswald Madziva, the PTUZ national co-ordinator.

Towards the end of last term parents with access to foreign currency
began contributing, providing incentives for teachers but analysts warned
the intervention would not be sustainable.

They said the move would force more children out of school as private
institutions could accommodate only a few. "Trust schools will certainly
open next year because for the past four years we have emphasised that
teachers are the most important factor in moulding our products," said
Jameson Timbe, the chairman of the Association of Trust Schools (AST), "and
as such the responsible authorities should make sure they are taken care
 of." "But as a result of the economic and political crisis in the country
the majority of our public schools will not be re-opening."

Timbe said although there could be some Zimbabweans with free funds,
private schools could only absorb a limited number of children. "It is
unfortunate that trust schools only represent plus or minus one percent of
the total population of school going children," he said. "At the moment
demand for private education far exceeds capacity." Ndlovu said besides poor
pay and deteriorating working conditions, the relentless political violence
continued to force teachers to flee their schools.

Zanu PF supporters targeted teachers in rural areas in the run up to
the election run-off accusing them of supporting Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who beat President Robert Mugabe
during the first round of the presidential election.

"Although we are still collecting figures the indications are that we
lost an average of three teachers per school, which gives us a figure of 30
000 teachers a school," Madziva said. Stephen Mahere, the permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture was not available
for comment last week as he was said to be out of the office.

Unicef said the crisis in the education sector had also been
exacerbated by the dire humanitarian situation in country, as children were
now required to assist parents in looking for food or conducting income
generating activities. The crisis spread to universities and colleges this
year as lecturers embarked on a series of strikes demanding better working
conditions.

BY KHOLWANI NYATHI AND RUTENDO MAWERE

Chegutu Cholera Outbreak Worst

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:52
RELIEF agencies were last week still struggling to contain the
devastating cholera outbreak in Chegutu, which has so far claimed at least
160 lives in less than two weeks.

 The disclosure came amid reports by the United Nations (UN) on Friday
that more than 1 100 people had died of the curable disease since the
outbreak began.

 "The current situation in Zimbabwe is extremely worrying but aid
agencies, donors and the government of Zimbabwe are continuing to respond in
an intensive and co-ordinated manner to bring the epidemic under control,"
said John Holmes, chief of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York.

 The aid agencies said the epidemic in Chegutu had been the "worst so
far" since the disease was first detected in August with medical personnel
on the ground attending to at least 140 cases a day.

 Last week health workers had reportedly attended to more than 800
cases.  Relief agencies say the death rate in the small town, with a
population of around 150 000, was worrisome.

 In other parts of the country, they said the outbreak was far from
being contained.   In the Harare townships of Budiriro and Glen View, the
epidemic was reportedly still wreaking havoc with at least 100 deaths having
been confirmed in the area.

The OCHA says more than 20 500 cholera cases have been reported in
Zimbabwe since August.

The agency also blamed the recurring outbreaks in Chegutu on the lack
of clean drinking water, poor sanitation and worsening conditions in the
health sector.

BY BERTHA SHOKO

Daggers Out For Dabengwa Over PF Zapu Revival Links

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:49
BULAWAYO - The nomination of former Zanu PF politburo member, Dumiso
Dabengwa to lead the revived PF Zapu has sparked an acrimonious battle for
the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) amid reports ruling party
officials want to oust him from the organisation.

Dabengwa, former Zipra military intelligence chief under PF Zapu, was
elected interim chairman of the party at a convention held in Bulawayo to
kick-start the revival of the former liberation movement last weekend.

 Sources said several Zanu PF officials from Matabeleland were already
angling for the chairmanship of the MZWP - held by Dabengwa - arguing the
former Home Affairs minister was no longer suitable for the post.

 The Zanu PF heavyweights who are reportedly threatening court action
against Dabengwa and his group over the use of the name Zapu are also
alleging embezzlement of funds from the project.

 The MZWP was set up to mobilise funds for the implementation of the
massive water project to bring Zambezi water to Bulawayo and the southern
parts of the country.

 Dabengwa, who still uses the MZWP offices, had managed to mobilise
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) funding for the first phase of the project
that included the construction of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam.

 However, the construction of the dam was stalled this year after the
RBZ stopped releasing funds under unclear circumstances.

 "Dabengwa's election to lead PF Zapu last week has not gone down well
with some people inside Zanu PF," said a source. "They feel that he should
be relieved of his post at MZWP so that he can concentrate on the PF Zapu
project."

 Nathaniel Manheru, a Herald columnist believed to be a senior
government official, has also called for an audit of MZWP books and Dabengwa's
removal from the board.

 Dabengwa said he was aware of calls for him to step down but said he
would wait for the board to decide his future.

 "The decision whether I should be replaced or not should be a
decision that is taken by the board," he said. "The board will meet early
next year to review the progress on the project and that is when the
decision would be made."

 He said he was prepared to face those accusing him of diverting funds
meant for the project.
 "In spite of the explanations that I have given to those that allege
I embezzled funds for the water project, the allegations have not ceased
coming," Dabengwa said, adding: "All they want is to discredit me and make
me appear unsuitable to lead PF Zapu."

But Angeline Masuku, a Zanu PF politburo member and MZWP secretary
general, said calls to oust Dabengwa were misplaced as people would be given
a chance to elect a chairman of their choice to lead the project.

 "There is no need for pushing and lobbying for the removal of
Dabengwa," she said. "The people of Zimbabwe, given that they are the ones
who gave him the mandate to lead the water project, are the ones who should
say whether he should be replaced or not."

 The MZWP had suffered from lack of funding that has also hampered
major water projects such as the Tokwe-Mukorsi and Kunzvi Dams, which have
all taken years to complete, Dabengwa said.

BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA

Mugabe, Villager In Graveside Spat

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:40
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, who used to be revered in his home area, got
the shock of his life last week when he was openly challenged by one of his
own people in Zvimba.

The incident occurred at the burial of Mugabe's cousin, Beatrice
Matibiri.

In a graveside speech, Adoman Matibiri, an uncle to the deceased and a
village headman in Zvimba, lashed out at Mugabe accusing him of fanning
divisions in the family.

Adoman said Mugabe was not the right person to accuse other family
members of consulting traditional healers.

Mugabe had invited the anger of members of his clan when he told them
that the whole family consulted traditional healers and that Beatrice's
death was not a natural occurrence.

Beatrice died after what relatives said was a short illness.

Mugabe said the village was full of false prophets.

"I don't want to hear that someone has gone to an n'anga to find the
cause of her death," Mugabe warned his family members.

"Who is Tsika? Tsika chii? Vamwe vanatsika vavakutsika vave mutorongo",
he said in a reference to Rotina Mavhunga, the diesel n'anga who duped
government ministers into believing that she had found diesel in Chinhoyi
hills.

Mugabe also complained that his own people had turned against him and
were now supporting MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai.

The President's complaint, villagers said, was aimed at Adoman, the
village head, who Mugabe believes has allowed the MDC to flourish in his
village.

After Mugabe finished speaking, Adoman stood up and started by
registering concern that he, as village head and not the President, should
have been allowed to speak at the funeral.

Mugabe, who was sitting with his wife, Grace, interjected harshly
saying that the old man should say whatever he wanted to say.

Adoman said it was disheartening for Mugabe to accuse him of being a
supporter of Tsvangirai.
But Mugabe would have none of that.

"I know personally that you are an MDC supporter," Mugabe said.

But before Adoman could finish speaking, a close relative of Mugabe
stood up and pleaded with him saying it was inappropriate to say such things
at a funeral.

She said the family should not wash its dirty linen in public.

Adoman was taken away from the graveside, ending his brief stand-off
with Mugabe.

After Beatrice's burial, Mugabe left for Harare.

BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

UN Agencies Move In To Re-open Hospitals

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:37
CONCERNED with the closure of the maternity wings, which risks the
lives of expectant mothers, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) last
week paid striking health workers in hard currency.

The unprecedented move ensured that the closed maternity wings were
re-opened, providing relief to expectant mothers who have failed to access
maternity services.

The maternity wings at major hospitals and other sections of the
hospitals were closed down mid-October as health workers protested against
deteriorating conditions in the health sector and poor salaries.

The Standard understands that in an effort to resuscitate the health
sector other UN agencies had started consultations with government over the
possibility of aiding the reopening of state hospitals.

Sources say the United Nations Children's Fund is set to fund the
reopening of the neo-natal units and children's wards at state hospitals.
The agency will also support health workers with similar incentives.

The World Health Organisation will offer support to ensure hospitals
are re-opened, sources said.

Setting the ball rolling was the UNFPA which made hard currency
payouts to health workers at the Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Wing at
Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare on Thursday and Friday.

UNFPA also donated emergency reproductive kits.

UNFPA national reproductive health officer, Dr Hillary Chiguvare,
confirmed the foreign currency payouts but said he was not at liberty to
disclose the exact amounts paid out.

Sources told The Standard that nurses, doctors and support staff who
took up the offer were given between US$60 and US$500.

However, the singling out of maternity staff has reportedly sparked
controversy in the health sector.
Health workers recently rejected a similar pay structure proposed by
the government saying it was too little.

Chiguvare said this gesture was not meant to affect any ongoing
negotiations between government and the striking health workers.

He said the UNFPA was concerned that a number of expectant mothers
were failing to access medical care.

"As UNFPA we are concerned about the number of women being prejudiced
because of the closure of the maternity sections of these referral
hospitals, that is why we have initiated this scheme," Chiguvare said.

"We are not trying to undermine the industrial action by health
workers as we understand why they are on strike and all their grievances.

"But we are also concerned about the welfare of our women, that is why
we came up with all these incentives."

But Dr Amon Siveregi, the representative of the Zimbabwe Health
Workers' Association, urged members of his organisation not to accept any
amounts below what the organisation was pushing for.

Siveregi said workers should continue with the work boycott until
government addressed their grievances.

To support maternal health in the country, UNFPA donated about US$200
000 worth of medical supplies to all government hospitals across the country
as part of an emergency plan to rescue the country's health sector.

Handing over the emergency reproductive health kits on Monday at
Parirenyatwa Hospital, UNFPA assistant country representative, Gift Malunga
said priority in distribution of the medical supplies would be given to
referral hospitals.

"UNFPA is aware of the fact that without solving the human resources
issue these commodities will remain on shelves in storerooms," Malunga said.

 "The scope of our support in human resources is being guided by
ongoing and anticipated incentive schemes that the ministry and partners
have put together.

"Ideally we would want all health workers to be cushioned so that they
get back to work and therefore urge government and other development
partners to urgently contribute to solving the human resources challenge."

Health and Child Welfare Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa agreed with
Malunga saying the shortage of staff was negatively impacting on the health
sector.

BY BERTHA SHOKO

Court Orders Active Search For Missing ZPP Activists

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:34
THE High Court last week ordered police to actively search for two
missing employees of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) who were abducted from
their Harare office a fortnight ago.

  The two - Pascal Gonzo and Broderick Takawira - were seized five days
after suspected state agents abducted the human rights group's director,
Jestina Mukoko, from her Norton home on December 3.

They all disappeared without trace and police have been accused of
dragging their feet in investigating the kidnappings.

High Court Judge, Justice  Alphas Chitakunye on Wednesday ordered the
police to advertise in the media and to search for Gonzo and Takawira in all
areas they have jurisdiction over.

 "The Respondent (police) shall do all things necessary to determine
the whereabouts of Pascal Gonzo and Broderick Takawira including
advertising, within one week of the granting of this order on all state
media including all radio stations, ZTV, The Herald and Chronicle
newspapers," Chitakunye said.

He delivered the ruling after Gonzo and Takawira's relatives sought an
urgent court order compelling the police to act on the disappearances.

 Chitakunye also ordered the police to dispatch a team of detectives
to work with the missing persons' lawyers to search for them at all holding
cells and other places within their jurisdiction.

 Takawira is the ZPP co-ordinator for Harare and Mashonaland East.
Gonzo is employed as a driver.

 Mukoko's family on Friday said they were yet to get feedback from the
police almost two weeks after High Court Judge, Justice Anne-Marie Gowora
ordered them to investigate the missing former television personality's
whereabouts.

 "Nothing positive has come up," her brother, Simon Mukoko said. "We
have not heard from the police yet but we are still hoping they will soon
make headway in their investigations."

 Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said the investigations were
still in progress.

 "We do not have anything yet," he said. "Investigations are still
going on."

 Concerned by the increase in abductions of civil society and
political activists, the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations last week wrote to the police seeking protection for human
rights defenders and activists.

 At least 27 people including Mukoko and her two workmates have been
reported missing during the past month.

Yesterday the High Court ordered police to produce freelance
photojournalist Shadreck Manyere, who went missing  week ago.

BY JENNIFER DUBE

Hungry Soldiers Raid Potato Farm

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:27
HUNGRY soldiers at Pomona Barracks in Harare have resorted to stealing
potatoes from a nearby farm allegedly to complement their meagre rations,
The Standard learnt last week.

Investigations by The Standard revealed that soldiers at the Pomona
barracks near Borrowdale survived on a diet of sadza with vegetables as the
army's budget was running low.

The soldiers, who are engineers, reportedly steal potatoes from
Teviotdale Farm to prepare as part of their relish, or for sale on roads
leading to the city. Teviotdale is owned by a Mr R Fox, who was reportedly
out of the country.

The farm has an electric fence and shares a boundary with Pomona
Barracks. The soldiers reportedly gain entry into the farm at night where
they harvest potatoes.

 A senior manager, who declined to be named, said they had lodged
formal complaints with the army following a spate of thefts at the farm.

"We reported the issue to the army bosses and they gave us an
assurance that they will put an end to this," he said.

"But the thefts haven't stopped and we have turned to police for
 help."

The manager said the farm had suffered huge losses as a result of the
thefts.

Security guards said they were having sleepless nights as the soldiers
often struck during odd hours.
A fortnight ago four soldiers were arrested, they said.

"Last week we made three arrests. One of them was caught in the act,"
said Veiwa Chagwisa, a security guard.

  Chagwisa said the other three soldiers were caught selling the
potatoes along Harare Drive.

"Most of them sell the potatoes in foreign currency along the
 streets."

 They were taken to Borrowdale police station.

Police at Borrowdale however declined to comment on the matter and
referred all questions to Harare provincial police spokesperson, James
Sabau.

 Sabau on Thursday said he had not received reports of the arrests.

  Zimbabwe Defence Forces spokesman Ben Ncube referred questions to
Colonel Simon Tsatsi, the ZNA spokesperson, whose phone went unanswered.

 The soldiers complained that they were starving at the barracks.

"We are having serious food shortages at the camp and this has forced
some of our colleagues to steal," said a soldier who requested anonymity.

 "They have no option but to steal for survival as we are being served
plain sadza and we have to find our own relish."

There are reports of growing disgruntlement in army barracks because
of poor living conditions and low remuneration.

 Earlier this month, angry soldiers embarrassed the authorities after
they ran amok in Harare protesting against failure to access cash from their
banks. Some of soldiers  reportedly smashed shop windows and looted various
items including clothes and eletronic appliances.

BY GODFREY MUTIMBA AND EDGAR GWESHE

Up To 4 500 Tortured During Farm Invasions, Says Report

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:24
A new report on the government's chaotic land reform programme has
revealed that up to 4 500 Zimbabweans were tortured and commercial farmers
incurred up to US$1 billion in damages during the exercise.

 The report compiled after an investigation into human rights
violations and losses suffered by commercial farmers and workers since the
violent land invasions began in 2000, questions the government's rhetoric
that the programme brought social justice.

 The comprehensive report titled Human Rights Violations and Losses
Suffered by Commercial Farmers and Workers in Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2008 was
compiled by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) on behalf of Justice for
Agriculture (JAG) and General Agriculture And Plantation Workers' Union Of
Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ).

 John Worswick, the JAG chief executive officer, said the report was
aimed at providing detailed evidence on a widespread and systematic series
of violations in former commercial farms.

 "The report brings out that this (land reform) was not about land at
all," Worswick said.

 The controversial land reform programme, which displaced the bulk of
the country's productive farmers, has widely been cited as the cause of the
country's unprecedented economic meltdown.

  The report says at least one million violations occurred across the
country, with the majority resulting from political motives aimed at
eliminating MDC support and reinforcing Zanu PF's following.

 "These (violations) were inflicted by officers and agents of the
state in most instances, and in all others were condoned implicitly or
explicitly by the state," reads the report.

 "The fact that a minimum of 4 525 citizens were tortured in a case of
what is purported to be a socially just land reform programme is
fundamentally at odds with the state rhetoric on the matter."

 Participants at the launch also discussed the implications of a
recent Sadc Tribunal's ruling that ordered government to allow 78 commercial
farmers facing eviction to keep their farms.

 The Namibia-based regional court last month ruled in favour of
Chegutu farmer Michael Campbell and 77 others who were seeking an order
barring the government from acquiring their farms without compensation.

 "The tribunal's judgement gives us hope," another farmer, Ben Freeth
said.

 "Over the past eight years, there was no accountability for the
actions which have left the country in the state that it is in. But what has
happened now is the start of accountability.
 "It demonstrates that there is an alternative to chaos."

 The participants said for the country to move forward, it was
important to implement suggestions provided in the report, among them the
return to the rule of law, respect for property and human rights and a
non-selective application of justice for all citizens.

BY JENNIFER DUBE

Female MPs Challenge Leaders Over Deadlock

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:21
FEMALE legislators from the country's three main political parties
last week challenged their leaders to consider the suffering of ordinary
Zimbabweans and show more commitment towards improving their lives next
year.

Speaking at a training workshop for women parliamentarians in Harare,
the female MPs expressed concern at delays in the setting up of an
all-inclusive government, despite the signing of a power-sharing deal three
months ago.

The two-day workshop was sponsored by the Southern Africa
Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) to discuss gender issues and encourage
legislators to move motions in Parliament on women's rights and the economy.

The MDC-T MP for Dzivarasekwa, Evelyn Masaiti, said the delays in
setting up a government were affecting women mostly.

 "As women legislators, we are concerned that there is nothing coming
out of parliament since our election in March," Masaiti said. "You will
understand that things are at a standstill because of the lack of a cabinet.
"This is a bad situation especially for women who are most affected by
the prevailing challenges, which Parliament can help solve."

Masaiti said ordinary people had suffered enough, and called on the
three signatories to the September 15 power-sharing deal - President Robert
Mugabe, and the two MDC leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur
Mutambara - to reach a compromise, saying this was the only way out of the
current misery.

"Everything rests on our principals and we are saying it is high time
they realised the plight of the people. People have suffered enough," she
said.

 When Zanu PF and MDC leaders agreed in September to govern the
country together, hopes were raised that the deal would be the antidote to
the economic decline of the past 10 years.

 But the implementation of the deal has been stalled over the
allocation of ministries, among other things.
On Mugabe's recent statement that an election could be conducted to
break the impasse, Masaiti said: "Unless a new electoral law is put in
place, as women legislators, we would not support an election under the
current conditions.

 "I for one dread to see a repetition of the violence I saw during
previous elections."

 Muzarabani  Senator Jenia Manyeruke (Zanu PF) said women in rural
areas were most affected by the crumbling health sector and urged donor
organisations to intensify their operations during 2009.

There was an observation that most organisations involved in HIV and
Aids work were channelling resources into awareness campaigns and it was
recommended that they also focus on treatment programmes.

The legislators said they would lobby for challenging ministerial
posts such as Home Affairs, Finance, Health, among others.

Chairperson of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus, Flora Buka, urged the
legislators to translate their rhetoric on gender into concrete deliverables
in parliament and in their respective party structures and activities.

"Emancipation of women has to end, not only with social equality of
men and women, but also with meaningful participation of women in the
economy," Buka said.

  "Constituting 52% of our population, women surely must be occupying
similar space and playing a proportionate part in the economy."

There was consensus that the legislators should work above party
politics in issues affecting women, as well as the current cholera epidemic,
girl child education, HIV and Aids.

They pledged to work jointly towards the resuscitation of the
crumbling health system, which they said has been under-funded over the
years.

BY JENNIFER DUBE

Zimpapers Loses Case Against Editor Case

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:18
BHEKINKOSI Ncube, the editor of Zimpapers' Bulawayo-based publication
Umthunywa, who was suspended for allegedly insulting President Robert
Mugabe, has been acquitted of all the charges by the government-owned
company's disciplinary body.

Ncube was first suspended in September after his paper published a
front-page picture of MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai with a caption that read
"Uyalile ukusayina" (He refused to sign).

Tsvangirai had reportedly refused to sign a power-sharing agreement
with Mugabe. The MDC chief subsequently endorsed it on September 15.

Ncube faced three charges that included criticising Mugabe in personal
e-mails he exchanged with friends.
Zimpapers also wanted to fire him for publishing a picture of a sick
Bulawayo man who was being pushed to a clinic in a wheelbarrow.

Accompanying the picture was a caption that read: "Ufuna senzeni
uGono?"  (What does Gono want us to do?). The story was about the
difficulties ordinary Zimbabweans encountered due to their failure to access
their cash from the banks.

The media group, the publishers of The Chronicle, The Herald, Sunday
Mail and Sunday News among other titles, said the paper's editorial slant
was too critical of the government and the ruling Zanu PF.

But the three-man disciplinary committee chaired by prominent lawyer
and chairman of the Zimpapers' board's human resources committee, Sindiso
Mazibisa, dismissed all the allegations and ordered Ncube's immediate
reinstatement.

"The committee rules the accused has no case to answer.therefore the
suspension of Bhekinkosi Ncube be and hereby is lifted," reads the judgment
delivered on November 18.   The Zimpapers board only discussed the judgment
a fortnight ago, sources said.

"And for the avoidance of any doubt (he) is found not guilty and
acquitted of the charges.
"He must be reinstated on full pay and benefits with effect from
September 16, 2008," reads the judgment.

Paul Chimedza, the vice-chairman of the Zimpapers' board and Chronicle
deputy editor Tumeliso Makhurane were the other members of the disciplinary
committee.

Sources at Zimpapers said despite the ruling Ncube had not resumed his
duties amid fears the government had not accepted the ruling.

"The ruling was rejected by some board members who said the government
will not accept it," said a senior board member who attended the meeting.
"They were not happy that Bheki managed to get the judgment before it was
discussed by the board because the intention was to get him fired."

Efforts to get a comment from Zimpapers' human resources manager,
Hebert Simemeza, were fruitless.
Zimpapers came under fire from human rights activists for hacking
private emails belonging to the group's editors.

According to minutes of the hearing, chief executive officer, Justin
Mutasa personally authorised the hacking of the e-mails to sniff out
journalists who were critical of the government.

Mutasa also revealed that the company had no say in the appointment of
editors as individual Information ministers had their own preferences.

BY OUR STAFF

Political Commissar: Zanu PF's Death Post

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 21:13
ZANU PF held its annual conference in Bindura last week without its
political commissar Elliot Manyika.

Manyika could have electrified the dull-as-ditchwater conference with
his song, Nora, which had become a hit at such gatherings.

After seeing him in action, some were tempted to speculate that
Manyika could abandon the sinking Zanu PF party for a flourishing musical
career.

 But all that is history. Manyika's remains are interred at the
national shrine where those of Border Gezi, his predecessor at the Zanu PF
commissariat department, lie.

 Manyika died in circumstances strikingly similar to those of Gezi,
the Zanu PF secretary for the commissariat, who was killed in 2001.

 While great care should be taken when writing about the way people
die, the deaths of the two Zanu PF comrades - in strikingly similar traffic
accidents - compels me to take a peek at the mysterious misfortunes that
have dogged the ruling party.

 There have been several accidents, some involving "black dogs" but
the political commissar's accidents deserve to be examined because someone
will have to fill the position sooner or later.

 An official report of Manyika's accident reads exactly the same as
that of Gezi's. According to official reports, Manyika's Mercedes Benz burst
a tyre and veered off the road. Like Gezi, Manyika was taken to a hospital -
Mater Dei in Manyika's case - where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

 It is a curious coincidence that the two Zanu PF commissars died when
their cars veered off the road after tyre bursts.

 It is also an interesting coincidence that the two died on their way
to restructure provinces rocked by infighting.

 Was it a coincidence that the two comrades, both from Mashonaland
Central, faced stiff resistance from the party's old guard opposed to the
restructuring programme?

  News  of Manyika's death prompted me to reflect on the way Gezi died.
I was at the Civic Centre in Masvingo waiting to cover Gezi's meeting when
news filtered through that the political commissar had perished in a car
accident. He had been involved in a fatal accident near Mvuma after his
official Merc Benz burst its tyre, resulting in the driver losing control.

 In Masvingo, Gezi's arrival had been eagerly awaited because a week
earlier he had caused a stir when he arrived unannounced and toyi-toyed
around Mucheke Hall. In a short period of time the bearded politician had
drawn a large crowd.

 The youthful Gezi was fearless and sought to tackle the factionalism
that pitted the late Eddison Zvobgo's camp and a faction led by then
Masvingo provincial governor Josiah Hungwe.

At one of the meetings that I attended Gezi said Masvingo province
could succeed without Zvobgo and his group. Many people who attended the
meeting felt Gezi had gone too far, and did not understand the dynamics of
Zanu PF politics.

 A few days after Gezi's rather unfortunate remarks, the crowd that
turned up to see him at Civic Centre learnt with shock that he had died.

 Manyika replaced Gezi, and sadly set himself on similar restructuring
goals in troublesome provinces.
 Manyika faced similar accusations that Gezi had run into -
disrespecting and defying party elders.

The harshest criticism came from Bulawayo where he tried several times
to restructure the province at a time when many - including senior
provincial party leaders - wanted to see the revival of PF Zapu.

Vice-President Joseph Msika openly complained that some people in
Harare wanted to impose leaders in Matabeleland.

Manyika failed to heed the warning signs.
 According to his brother who spoke at the Heroes' Acre, Manyika was
warned he would die if he went to Gwanda on the fateful day - December 6.
Gezi was also warned he should not go to Masvingo.

The way these two politicians died leaves me wondering whether anyone
in his right mind would be ready to assume the vacant Zanu PF commissariat
position. In Shona, we would say basa iri rine munhu  pasi (the task is
certainly a dangerous one).

News Focus Walter Marwizi

Sweden Boosts Relief Support For Humanitarian Crisis Efforts

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:27
DECLARING the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe "even more serious"
than earlier feared because of the cholera outbreak, the Swedish government,
through the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida),
last week announced additional funding to support the humanitarian emergency
in Zimbabwe.

Sten Rylander, Sweden's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the support was
their response to the cholera epidemic and formed part of the international
donor community's efforts in assisting Zimbabwe.
Sweden contributed an additional SEK20 million (Swedish Crowns)
corresponding to US$2,5 million towards the humanitarian emergency in
Zimbabwe.

This is in addition to the over SEK90 million already provided in
Swedish humanitarian support to Zimbabwe.
The total Swedish government's humanitarian assistance for Zimbabwe in
2008 is SEK 93 million, equivalent to over US$11,5 million. This has been
channelled through the UN Consolidated Appeal Process, UN-led financial
mechanisms, the Red Cross movement and non-governmental organisations.

"In the midst of social turmoil, political deadlock and economic
meltdown, Zimbabwe is currently affected by the largest cholera outbreak in
its modern history," Rylander said, appealing to Zimbabwe to work closely
with the international community in responding to the humanitarian crisis.

He said it is a priority for any nation to try and protect all its
people, adding there was a link between the worsening political situation
and the humanitarian crisis.

By December 10, 2008 there were 16 403 cases of cholera and nearly 800
deaths, according to the Office of the Co-ordinator of Humanitarian
Assistance, while the World Health Organisation estimates that another 60
000 people were at the risk of being affected.

"The overall fatality rate is well above the 1% of international
threshold at about 4,5%," Rylander told a Press conference in Harare. "The
situation has been exacerbated by erratic water supplies and a breakdown of
the sewage system in most urban areas.

"We are alarmed by the deteriorating humanitarian situation; the loss
of lives to cholera is unacceptable. Contrary to other assertions, the
cholera pandemic is actually worsening and we in the international community
are doing our best to save lives and alleviate suffering guided by the
humanitarian imperative of neutrality and impartiality.

"I repeat my appeal to the Zimbabwean government to work closely with
the international community to respond to the humanitarian needs. I also
take this opportunity to call upon the Zimbabwean government and all
political players to end the political deadlock so that the country can move
forward and lives can be saved.

"The food situation is also worsening, the joint government, FAO and
WFP Crop Food Supply Assessment Mission undertaken in April/May 2008
estimated a cereal deficit of 1,232 million tonnes.

"Given the scale of the foreseen deficit, from January to March 2009
the number of people in need of food is likely to be 5,1 million."

The Swedish allocation will be channeled through the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) - SEK 5 million, the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) - SEK 5 million, World Vision Zimbabwe - SEK 4 620
000, Catholic Development Commission (Cadec) - SEK 4 620 000 and Save the
Children Sweden totalling SEK 475 000.

Cadec's project targets more than 10 000 people and aims at enhancing
food security of community members with a special focus on child headed
households, the chronically ill, orphans, the elderly and school children in
Masvingo.

World Vision's project aims at providing emergency water and
sanitation assistance to protect the health status of Bulawayo's residents.
This project is partly responsible for the lower cholera death toll in
Bulawayo.

The Swedish assistance would be useful in addressing the deteriorating
sewer system and in arresting the spread of cholera.

IOM aims to respond to the ongoing cholera outbreaks throughout the
country with particular focus on border areas and mobile and vulnerable
populations.

It plays an important role in protecting border points such as
Beitbridge and with the Swedish assistance has established a reception
centre at Plumtree, where between 300 and 400 deportees are processed every
month.

IOM is working together with the Ministry of Health and other
stakeholders to strengthen the national capacity for preparedness and
responding to outbreaks.

The contribution to Unicef is in response to an appeal, made two weeks
ago for the immediate needs of children and women affected by the cholera
outbreak and collapse of the health and education sectors.

Unicef's Roeland Monasch, said the Swedish support will enable them to
continue to deliver water to Harare's high-density areas and water tablets.
"Cholera is still not under control," he said.

In Chegutu, where more than 100 people died of cholera inside a week,
he said they were trucking in 50 000 litres of water a day.

BY OUR STAFF

ILO To Probe Crackdown On Trade Union Leaders

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:22
THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) is dispatching a
high-powered delegation to Zimbabwe to investigate allegations of gross
abuse of rights of trade union activists and workers by the government,
Standardbusiness can report.

 The probe comes after the Zimbabwe Congress Trade Unions (ZCTU), the
country's largest labour body, made representations to the ILO outlining
cases of abuse by government against its members and leaders.
 For the past two years, Zimbabwe has been on the ILO's "Special
Paragraph" on allegations of breaching the Conventions on freedom of
association as well as collective bargaining.

 According to minutes of the ILO 303rd session held in November in
Geneva, Switzerland, "the governing body decided to refer the matter (on
Zimbabwe), without further discussion, to a commission of inquiry set up in
accordance with article 26 (4) of the Constitution".

 ZCTU deputy secretary-general Japhet Moyo confirmed that an ILO
commission of inquiry would come to Zimbabwe "as soon as possible" to
investigate allegations of abuse of workers by the government.

 He said the union decided to appeal to the ILO after government
continued to interfere in collective bargaining processes as well as the
banning of peaceful protests by workers throughout the country.

 Moyo said heavy-handedness of the police and other state security
agents had made operations of the labour body extremely difficult.

"Workers and trade unionists want to reclaim their right to peaceful
demonstrations and not assaults and torture by the police," Moyo said.

 "We also want government to stop interfering in collective bargaining
processes."

 Early this year, the government intervened and stopped "newly
resettled  farmers" from paying their workers wages they had agreed on with
the General Agricultural and Plantations Workers' Union of Zimbabwe
(Gapwuz), saying they were "too high".

Gapwuz represents the interests of farm workers.

 "These are some of the issues. We are saying government must not
interfere in such processes," Moyo said. "It's not their mandate."

 He said the police and state security agents continued to disrupt
ZCTU's meetings in violation of the country's laws.

 Moyo said the ZCTU as a union was not supposed to apply for
permission from police to hold its meetings but the police insisted they
should do so.

 ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe and scores of other trade
unionists were early this month arrested while demonstrating for higher
withdrawal limits in the face of hyperinflation.

Chibebe and the ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo were arrested in May
and face charges that they made statements prejudicial to the state during
addresses marking Workers' Day, May 1 this year.

 Early this month, Chibebe was arrested while addressing workers after
handing Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono a petition over
the cash withdrawal limits.

 The arrests were widely seen as the beginning of a total clampdown on
dissent by President Robert Mugabe's government, which has now become
unpopular for failing to contain inflation.

 The ILO probe team is expected to meet government and employers'
representatives.

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas
Goche could not be reached for comment.

 Senior judge at the International Court of Justice, Judge Raymond
Ranheva, will lead the ILO delegation.
  He is also a conciliator at the World Bank International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes.

 Other members of the delegation are the director of the Institute of
Development and Labour Law at the University of Cape Town, Evance Rabban
Kalula, and Dr Bertrand Ramcharan, a member of the Permanent Court of
Arbitration and former director in the UN political department, focusing on
Africa.

 Moyo said if the government was found to be at fault, the UN could
impose sanctions on the country.

 "The sanctions may come in many forms but the worst would be economic
sanctions against the country," Moyo said.

 The ILO is a tripartite UN agency that brings together governments,
employers and workers from its member states in common action to promote
decent work throughout the world.

 It is devoted to advancing opportunities for workers to obtain decent
and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human
dignity.

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE

Economic Crisis Could Have Terrible Impact: UN

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:20
TOKYO - The global financial crisis could have a "terrible" impact on
humanitarian efforts around the world, the head of the UN refugee agency
said on Friday, as many donor countries focus on their own economic woes.

Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, urged major
industrialised nations to place the same importance on human lives as
multi-billion dollar bank rescues.

"I'm afraid this will have a terrible humanitarian impact," Guterres
said at a news conference during a visit to Tokyo when asked about the
fallout the economic downturn would have on aid.

"It will be inconceivable if in a world where people are spending
hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars to rescue banks, the same
determination will not be shown to rescue human lives."

The UNHCR in October urged governments not to cut aid to humanitarian
agencies, but leading economies have plunged into recession since then and
the global economic outlook remains bleak.

The largest donor to the UNHCR is the United States, which gave more
than $505 million between January and October 31, followed by the European
Commission at around $130 million and Japan at about $110 million, the UNHCR
website showed. Other major donors include the United Kingdom and Germany.

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, also welcomed Japan's
plan to accept a small number of refugees seeking "third country"
resettlement outside both their home country and the country to which they
initially fled. - Reuters

AirZim Mulls Private Sector Partnerships

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:17
AIR Zimbabwe is considering partnerships with private investors
following the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s announcement that it will
stop bailing out struggling parastatals with effect from next month, airline
chief executive officer, Peter Chikumba said last week.

Critics have in the past accused the RBZ of fuelling inflation by
printing cash to finance its quasi-fiscal activities that include generous
loans to parastatals.

RBZ governor Gideon Gono has on several occasions complained that Air
Zimbabwe was gobbling up more  state funds than any other government-owned
company.

Accepting his re-appointment as governor last month, Gono said with
effect from next January, the RBZ would cease financing parastatals, local
authorities, ministries and other government departments.

Briefing the media after making a Christmas donation to a Harare
children's home, Chikumba said Air Zimbabwe was already discussing the way
forward with government and the RBZ.

"One of the options we have is to divest some of the interests of the
current shareholder (government) and bringing on board other investors,"
Chikumba said. "It is about partnerships."

Chikumba however said the final decision on who to partner with would
rest with the government, which is the shareholder.

In the past, the government has been accused of dragging its feet in
the privatisations of loss-making parastatals to save them from collapse.

But Chikumba said three-quarters of the Air Zimbabwe's operations were
financed from its own resources and was confident it would survive without
RBZ funding.

He said the problems faced by the airline were mainly structural and
both the government and the board were aware that the airline required new
equipment.

The airline continued to suffer from the effects of the downturn in
the tourism industry as a result of the country's international isolation.

The latest challenge emanated from the effects of the cholera epidemic
in the country that has seen some countries, mostly in Europe, issuing
travel warnings discouraging their citizens from   visiting  Zimbabwe.

BY JENNIFER DUBE

Gono's Foliwars: Evaluating The Benefits

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:10
ON September 10, 2008 the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr
Gideon Gono issued a press statement introducing what he termed Foliwars
(Foreign Exchange Licensed Warehouses and Retail Shops), Felocs (Foreign
Exchange Licensed Oil Companies) and Felopads (Foreign Exchange Licensed
Outlets for Petrol and Diesel).

In terms of the relevant exchange control directive licensed
businesses would be eligible to sell goods in foreign currency.

Since then a number of businesses have been licensed and authorized to
sell goods or fuel in foreign currency. According to the monetary
authorities the objectives of the move were to harness the foreign currency
floating in the country, increase local industry's capacity utilisation and
most importantly improve availability of basic goods and commodities.

Admittedly the measure is well intentioned, albeit this article will
highlight the negative effects of specifically the Foliwars. There is a need
to be more explicit about the negative economic numerous costs and
fatalities.

A cost-benefit analysis of the Foliwars programme reveals that the
economic and social costs far outweigh the "perceived" benefits. It is also
a fallacy to believe that the Foliwars programme is the panacea to the
country's industrial capacity under utilisation, acute basic commodity
shortages and acute foreign currency shortages.

Far from ameliorating the suffering of the public, Foliwars have
worsened it. The Foliwars have far reaching detrimental effects which are
far beyond the imagination of the inventor as elucidated below:
Foliwars will not promote tangible productive activities by local
industry. Instead the programme is promoting foreign industries and
accelerating Zimbabwe's de-industrialization.

Most if not all the commodities that are being sold by the Foliwars
are imported from neighbouring countries mainly South Africa and Botswana.

Recently, Botswana authorities had to impose restrictions on the
quantity of maize-meal that can be bought by foreigners to only two after
they had realised their shops were being cleaned up by Zimbabweans.

The foreign currency that is being generated by the Foliwars instead
of benefiting the local industry is only flowing back to accelerate the
growth of the foreign industries.

Simply stated, Zimbabwe is now sustaining industries and creating jobs
in those countries from which Foliwars are importing.

It is therefore crystal clear and it does not call for an economics
guru to realise that the Foliwars programme will not raise the local
industry's low capacity utilisation levels and the accompanying high
unemployment levels.

Instead the programme will worsen these problems. Critical shortages
of basic commodities still exist due to poor industrial production.

Another negative effect is the feeding of inflationary impulses in the
economy and worsening the depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar.

The only sector of society that the Foliwars measure has brought
smiles to are the so-called "Osiphatheleni". This is because the advent of
the Foliwars gave renewed impetus to the depreciation of the Zimbabwean
dollar against major currencies, mainly the US dollar, rand and pula.

Ordinary citizens resultantly have been pushed into extreme levels of
desperation as they seek foreign currency. The Foliwars programme has
resulted in exacerbating the suffering of those earning local currency.

It has also led to dollarisation of the economy. The measure was a
tacit admission by the monetary authorities that they too have lost
confidence in the local currency. After the introduction of the Foliwars and
the dollarisation of the economy, the demand for foreign currency has risen
astronomically without any matching supply.

The question that begs an answer is why the monetary authorities allow
the public to sell foreign currency to banks, yet if one requires foreign
currency they cannot buy from the same banks. Is this not directly promoting
the "black market" or to be politically correct, the parallel market? This
has seen the local currency take a nose dive of proportions not witnessed
before.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has failed in one of its critical
duties which is to protect the value of local currency.

By introducing Foliwars, the RBZ tacitly dollarised the whole economy.
It should not blame those unlicensed businesses who have joined the band
wagon and are also selling products in foreign currency.

The monetary authorities have therefore failed to protect the
vulnerable as products that are supposed to be sold in local currency such
as maize-meal and cooking oil are being sold in hard currency in the
Foliwars outlets. This is happening in the absence of any effective
monitoring mechanism.

There is now distortion of the business supply chain. This has been
caused by failing to holistically look at the supply chain but selectively
licensing certain components of the supply chain to the exclusion of others.
As an example, every business has fuel as an input cost directly or
indirectly.

By licensing Felocs, who are part of every business's supply chain it
makes business difficult for those companies that are not licensed to sell
in foreign currency yet have to pay for their inputs such as fuel in foreign
currency. Resultantly, the monetary authorities have distorted the whole
business supply chain.
  Foliwars have worsened the country's hyperinflationary condition due
to imported inflation.

Another negative effect has been the profiteering that has resulted.
Local products are being packaged as imports and sold in foreign currency.

The country's Balance Of Payments (BOP) deficit is also set to worsen
due to Foliwars. The BOP deficit will be worsened because the demand for
imports is now very high and local industries have not been capacitated to
raise productivity and therefore export to earn the much needed foreign
currency.

The point is that the foreign currency that is being generated by the
Foliwars is flowing back to import more commodities. It is a fallacy that
the Foliwars measure will result in improving productivity levels of local
industries. It is apparent that what it will only achieve is to officially
turn the Zimbabwean economy into a "traders'" economy.

The country's GDP (gross domestic product) which has been negative for
the past 10 years is set to further decline due to the impact of Foliwars.
No economic growth will flow from the Foliwars programme.

Economic growth for a country according to Professor Simon Kiznets is
defined as "...long term rise in capacity to supply increasingly diverse
economic goods to its population."  Local industry is even finding it more
beneficial to import and resell than to produce.

Productive hours are being lost as employees spend hours on end in
bank queues to get cash to exchange for foreign currency. The loss of
productive time works against economic growth.

Finally, another notable detrimental effect is financial
disintermediation. This has been worsened by the introduction of Foliwars.
Cash is being withdrawn and kept outside the banking sector as people make
frantic efforts to purchase foreign currency in a bid to purchase
commodities that are now priced in foreign currency even in non-licensed
shops.

*Noah Nkiwane is business consultant and economic analyst. He wrote
this article in his personal capacity.

BY PROF NOAH NKIWANE

Justice For Women: Mukoko's Last Task

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:57
ON December 3, 2008 up to 15 armed people in unmarked vehicles, so far
identified as Mazda Familias, raided Jestina Mukoko's home in Norton, 40km
west of Harare between 4am and 5am. They abducted her in the presence of her
17-year old son. Mukoko, who was Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Peace
Project, was still in her night dress. She was not allowed to take her
spectacles with her or vital medication she requires.

It is nearly three weeks since she was abducted. Below The Standard
publishes a paper she presented on the occasion of 16 Days of Activism
Against Gender Based Violence. Her topic was on Women and Justice.

She spoke about the need to say the truth about the violence that has
happened to women, bring justice, pay restitution and then start a
reconciliation process for all Zimbabweans.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project was involved in documenting cases of
violence and her presentation was informed by the evidence the organisation
has gathered from throughout the country.

The evidence documents the perpetrators, where they live and the
victims, and the nature of the violations. Shortly after that she was to
disappear. But maybe someone, somewhere with a conscience knows where she is
being forcibly held and that what her abductors did is illegal and a gross
violation of her rights.

 Violence against women is a major human rights concern. Violence
against women in Zimbabwe is a social problem that warrants immediate
co-ordinated response from multiple sectors. The year 2008 has seen the
violation of women's economic, social, civil and political rights.

Violence against women feeds on discrimination and discrimination of
any kind, be it racial, political or social status. The political violence
we witnessed in Zimbabwe, worked to restrict women's choices, increased
their vulnerability to violence and made it harder for women and girls to
obtain justice.

The fact that Zimbabwe is signatory  and  has acceded to international
protocols such as CEDAW, Universal Declaration of Rights and others has not
been reflected in Zimbabwe's the respect of women's rights.

Instead, the year 2008 saw an upsurge of violence against women in
unprecedented levels. Violence against women in the year 2008 took many
forms to include: Rape; Sexual harassment; intimidation; Murder; Torture;
Severe ill-treatment as houses and property were burnt and their livelihoods
were destroyed.

Some women even witnessed their babies being killed.

In the months that have passed to date, Zimbabwe Peace Project
recorded that:
Over 20 143 people were victims of violence, more than 41 women and
girls were raped and this could be an understatement as many cases went
unreported.

A very sad case  stands out of a Buhera women who was raped by 18 men
and only five wore condoms, more than 202 people were murdered among them
women. Some 917 were victims of malicious damage to property as their houses
and property were destroyed. The year 2009 will be very sad as some women
and girls will bear the labour pains of children from rape and whose fathers
they may not even know as a result of violence.

It is necessary to stop violence against women and the time to act is
now. There are a number of actions, that must be taken to stop violence
against women in Zimbabwe and these include:
Women need to be empowered to report cases of violence. Many cases go
unreported for fear of ostracisation;

Authorities need to be responsive to women who report violence as many
have reported and it seemed that nothing was done to achieve justice;

The media has to be sensitised on violence against women and their
reporting needs to show empathy;
n There is need to strengthen advocacy efforts to help policy makers
understand the gravity of violence against women;

A comprehensive data base must be created on violence against women
and girls including published and unpublished data on domestic violence,
rape, murder, sexual assault and child abuse;

Training of trainers must be conducted to make primary health care
providers and authorities more sensitive to the needs of women; and

 Women need to be involved in conflict resolution and sustainable
peacebuilding as they are more vulnerable in conflict situations.

While this is not a comprehensive list, it will allow us to explore
other approaches that can be adopted to stop violence against women.
Violence against women is a human rights violation that cannot be justified
by any political, religious and cultural claim.

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

Sunday View By Jestina Mukoko

Alex Magaisa: Reflecting on Christmas Past, And Christmas Present

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:53
LITTLE Tarisai often goes kwaFirimoni, the remains of a once vibrant
local township just a mile from Warikandwa School.

The locals called the place kwaFirimoni after the local entrepreneur,
a man called Phillimon who opened the first and for a long time the only
store at the place. A few years later a building housing a grinding mill was
added. For a long time the two stood on either side of the road that runs to
Maware Township.

A few years later, another businessman introduced alcoholic beverages,
a perfect accompaniment for greater vibrancy. This is where people met to
drink masese (opaque beer), process maize, buy a few necessities or just
chat and catch up on gossip. But now the place is back to the barren old
days.

There is not much to come for here. There is no maize to process, let
alone the diesel to run the mill.

Tarisai often joined other kids on their weekly pilgrimage to the
township. But now, with her mother, Mai Tarisai, ailing at home, there is
not much time for Tarisai to do what little kids should do.

She does not have the luxury to behave like the little girl she is.
But she was there last weekend, a rare opportunity only because it had been
announced that some kind-hearted people from Harare would be handing out
packets of food. And food here is desperately needed. They waited but nobody
came round.

They were later told that some bigger people had asked the kind-hearts
to turn back to Harare.

It's December, normally a wet month during the Zimbabwean summer but
for the villagers it is more like September in these parts. It's hot and
dry.

At this time little boys and girls would usually be out in the
pastures looking after cattle and guarding the maize fields. But it doesn't
matter anymore. The few cattle that remain are left to roam the fields.

There is nothing in the fields to guard. Nothing to eat. Tarisai and
her fellow villagers have been reduced to scrounge in the bushes; to compete
with wild animals for the little that nature has to offer.

Chava chirimo chisingaperi, they lament, it's a long, never ending dry
season - itself a mirror of the hard times across Zimbabwe; of the dry
season that Zimbabwe is going through. Wedenga adarirei kutiseka kudai?
(What have we done to deserve such a curse? the villagers often ask, looking
up the blue, cloudless sky and the shrivelled bushes around them.

Only the pastor at the church reminds them that Christmas is around
the corner. He exhorts them to prepare to celebrate the birth of the Son of
Man. He is an energetic man, the pastor - he never wavers from his faith and
every Sunday makes sure that his flock feeds on the good Word.

Part of the church's roof was swept away by the wind last August. But
there is no money to repair the roof. But still the flock comes to worship.

Talking to their Lord gives them reassurance, that whatever happens,
there is always a higher authority up there who, on one good day, will show
his abundant mercy.

2008 has been a dark year for Tarisai and her fellow villagers but the
future looks even darker. The sun set a long time ago in these parts and
whenever they look east for signs of the dawn of a new era they have been
disappointed. It has been a long night, one that never seems to end.

They had quietly celebrated in September after news filtered that the
big men in Harare had signed chibvumirano (the agreement). Then they thought
then that they were closer to reaching the oasis; that their thirst would be
quenched when they got there.

But no sooner had they started celebrating did they get news that
squabbles had commenced yet again. Days passed into weeks and weeks passed
into months until they resigned to fate.

More bad news arrived. They heard that some shady people were going
round grabbing those who talk too much; those who see more than they should
see. It is said they take them away and some are never seen again. So here,
they learned a long time ago that politics is not part of their vocabulary.

When it comes to politics, they have mastered the language of the
monks. They keep their silence. "After all, what can I, a little girl do?"
Tarisai often asks herself. She struggles to find an answer.

They heard, a few weeks ago, that there is a disease sweeping across
the country. Chodokufa, who arrived back in the village after a trip to
Harare spends the day following the beautiful shade of the big Msasa tree.
He is gaunt and weak - they have to carry him around to follow the shade
whose position is dictated by the earth's daily motion.

His frail wife regularly fixes a sugar and salt solution for him to
drink. But they are running out of sugar. And the diarrhoea has not stopped.
They heard it could be cholera, the disease that has claimed hundreds
elsewhere. There is no point going to the local hospital kwaSadza. There is
no medicine. Just a few unhappy and hungry nurses.

They heard that some soldiers had run amok in Harare. Rumours spread
that the boys had been sent on a mission. Others said the boys were just
hungry and as frustrated as everyone else. Either way, villagers always
scurry for cover whenever they hear the sound of a big vehicle.

They fear they will come for them one day. They just don't know when.
For older villagers, running away from the soldiers brings back many sad
memories of the war; a war for which they sacrificed everything.

They have heard little about the government, save that Mr Mugabe is
still in charge. He has been at the helm for the past 28 years and shows no
signs that he will be saying au revoir anytime soon.

No doubt he will celebrate Christmas with his wife and kids. They will
eat, drink and talk about the good life - the pleasures of power.

They might even wonder why people are so ungrateful for daddy's long
years of service and sacrifice to the nation. In January they will probably
hop onto the big national bird and fly away to the Far East. There they will
eat more and shop; they will relax and enjoy in preparation for another year
at the office. They will be attended to by good men of medicine to fix their
bones and all.

And when they return men and women will welcome them at the airport
singing, clapping and dancing for the great gift the nation has even known.
They will ululate; some will shed tears of joy, all for the Greatest
Zimbabwe has ever seen; the indispensable kind the likes of whom might never
be seen again.

They also heard that Morgan Tsvangirai is somewhere in Botswana.
Villagers look up to Tsvangirai, the man who not so long before appeared to
lead them to a better land until he got thwarted on the way.

But the trouble is they do not know what their leaders are going to do
next. They have been told that their leaders are unhappy with the agreement
that they signed in September. They are unhappy with Mutongi Gava (the
mediator), Thabo Mbeki, whom they have long thought to be biased.

They are unhappy that Robert Mugabe doesn't want to give them the
positions they want. They are unhappy too that Mugabe and Zanu PF have
caused fundamental breaches to the agreement. But what's to be done? The
villagers search and find no clear answers from their own leaders.

Their leaders say despite all these problems, the unhappiness, anger,
alarm, etc, that they are nevertheless still committed to the dialogue. Pane
chinobuda ipapa? (Will there be a successful outcome under these
circumstances?), the villagers often ask.

Meanwhile Tarisai has little to look forward to on Christmas Day. She
will go to church, as always, to pray for her mother and for a good future.
She will join other members of the flock to petition the good Lord to bring
salvation to Zimbabwe. Their petition will be loud and clear, as always and
they will hope this time a positive answer will be forthcoming.

Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the University of Kent and
can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.zw or a.t.magaisa@kent.co.uk

Comment: RBZ Puts A Damper On Christmas

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com


Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:52
THIS year's festive season was always going to be one of the hardest
in recent memory, but actions by the financial authorities have ensured a
season of misery all round.

The authorities continue to abuse Zimbabweans no end. Cash queues
surfaced exactly this time last year. Subsequent measures designed to
address the crisis have only confirmed the authorities' determination to
keep the bulk of the country's population in cash queues at any given time.

When the workers decided at the end of November this year that enough
is enough and they should be allowed access to their earnings
unconditionally, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) began to weave a web of
deceit.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) decided to embark on a
campaign of defiance and on December 3, called out all the workers in the
country to approach their banks at exactly 8.30 in the morning demanding to
withdraw their cash.

People were dying because they could not afford to withdraw their
money to buy the necessary medication or even pay bills for hospitalisation
and treatment. Teachers, health personnel, as well as other workers could
not afford to travel to work because of the RBZ-imposed maximum cash
withdrawals - in the majority of cases totally inadequate for a single
commuter trip to work, crippling the few companies that continue to soldier
on against the odds.

Fearing a revolt, the RBZ ensnared the ZCTU, ostensibly to listen to
their demands and act in a manner that would remove the RBZ-imposed
obstacles to people accessing their money held by banks.

The RBZ promised that workers would "soon" access their salaries. From
December 12, they could withdraw $500m a week; from December 19, each worker
could withdraw $10 billion a month "upon presentation of a genuine pay slip".
This is an economy that has become more than 80% informalised!
Then the biggest hoax, designed to forestall any disturbances: from
January 12 2009, all workers would be able to receive their full salary
"without any limits" as long as they present a genuine pay slip.

That was just a carrot. It turns out the $10 billion equates to $500
million for each working day in a month. Just what that does against
galloping prices defies logic, particularly at Christmas and when the
majority of parents also need to begin putting aside something for their
children ahead of the first school term of 2009.

What the RBZ has done, is to deftly mislead the ZCTU, but ensured that
parents will not be able to access money to send their children to schools
which will be demanding cash when they reopen in January.

Parents will have a choice to shop for Christmas with their $10
billion and be faced with the challenges of how to get their children in
school when they cannot access further funds until after a month - which
means the third week of January.

The RBZ has worked tirelessly to undermine the people's confidence in
the banking sector, but most of all it has forced people to resort to
extra-legal means in order to meet all their obligations. In particular, the
RBZ has conspired to bring misery to all at a time of festivities.

Enough of this denial of reality! Everywhere, goods and services are
offered in US dollars and the rand. The RBZ and the government are remnants
from a Dickensian era. And Scrooge-like, they are spoiling everything for
everyone. Please Dr Gono,  give us a break!

Zim Standard Letters

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com

Cholera Hits Production

Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:43
THE current agricultural season was always going to be dogged by
problems after the government failed to plan and ensure that the necessary
farm inputs were in place ahead of the start of the 2008/2009 planting
season.

Now, as if that is not enough the cholera epidemic that has claimed
more than a 1000 lives and affected in excess of 16 000 others means the
majority of villagers will abandon their planting activities as they try to
deal with this health crisis. Others will be too weak for some time to carry
out any activities related to growing food.

There is a real danger that food production will be affected and we
will suffer hardships as families battle to provide for their dependants. In
the run up to the March elections families were forced to flee their homes
as Zanu PF supporters conducted a campaign of violence against suspected MDC
supporters.

That campaign is in part responsible for the current food shortages
after families fled without enough food to see them through to March next
year. Others had their granaries and homes burnt down during the purge.
The cholera epidemic will force many to scale down on activities
related to food production, resulting in inadequate food  for the nation.

T Wize
Nhakiwa

----------
Standard, Independent Not Impartial When Reporting On MDC's Mutambara

Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:39
WHEN the MDC faced imminent split over the Senate elections, The
Standard and its sister newspaper, the Zimbabwe Independent were very harsh
and went on to relentlessly attack Morgan Tsvangirai's indecisiveness on
policy issues.

You sharpened your knives and dissected the man's political life. But
you were rather lenient on Professor Welshman Ncube because you felt his
group was trying to uphold the democratic principle of going by the will of
the majority of the people, following voting.

Painful as it was, I also saw developments in the same light as your
papers. To me, Tsvangirai was responsible for the split in the original MDC.
I was angry. I was frustrated.

I had been at the Chitungwiza People's Convention when the idea of
forming a new party was mooted. During the plenary session, I worked with
Tendai Biti, Ncube, the late Professor Masipula Sithole and Paul Themba
Nyathi.

For me such brilliant guys should never have allowed the split to take
place. The Kenyan syndrome had been discussed and warnings of how former
president Daniel arap Moi infiltrated the constitutional movement in that
country. So I wondered why these guys could allow this to happen.

However, my concern is on how The Standard and its sister newspaper
have treated Professor Arthur Mutambara. You treat him with kid gloves.

If he takes office, he will do so without any scars. He will move in
as a political saint. But is that really the case? After his interview on SW
Radio Africa, I expected you to come down very heavily on him. Did you
listen to the crude language he used? Did you discern the anti-people stance
in his remarks?

To Mutambara, Tsvangirai and the people were the problem. It was clear
he was no longer on the people's side. It was as if he had been promised a
post by Robert Mugabe and was therefore impatient to land his prize.

True, his formation has a problem with Tsvangirai's formation but of
the two, Zanu PF or MDC-T which is worse?

In an attempt to keep his formation and himself relevant to the
political landscape, he has not endeared himself to the suffering majority.
His juggling so far has worked well for him and Ncube and kept them
relevant, but doubtful in the eyes of the suffering majority.

We had hoped for a united front against foxy Mugabe. It is my humble
view that your newspapers have not been ruthless enough in exposing
Mutambara's weaknesses as they did with Tsvangirai. Mutambara himself said
that the people were now the opposition and I agreed with him.

 Let him also perfect his oratory skills to articulate his vision
without the assistance of the media as appears to be the case.

We need his faction for our democratic options but it's up to him to
build a political base.

Odrix Moyo Sithole
Pelandaba
Bulawayo

---------------
Cholera Tragedy In Bikita

Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:37
I want to inform the nation of the recent tragedy that struck the
people of Bikita in the wake of the current cholera epidemic.  On Sunday,
December 15, I returned from Marecha village in the  Bikita district  of
Masvingo Province.  I had gone to bury my uncle who died of what has been
confirmed to be cholera.

It was on Thursday (11/12/08), when he started complaining  of a
running tummy after he had attended a funeral of one of his subjects. He was
a Village head.

The following Friday we got a message that he could no longer talk.
The next day in the morning we then received the bad news that he had
already died on the way to Silveira Mission Hospital which is several
kilometres away.

There is no transport in the area and the car in which he died en
route to hospital had been hired from Masvingo town, which is at least 100km
away.

The process to get a car from Masvingo took more than eight hours
while the patient was fast losing life.

When I arrived there, I was shocked to hear that four deaths including
my uncle's had occurred on the same day and all were suspected cholera
cases. In total and including neighbouring villages, six deaths were
reported on the same day. When I add others that died in the same week, the
number is more than 10.

Perhaps if this is highlighted, my village folk may get assistance
from well-wishers and the authorities in the form of preventive medicines,
health personnel, drips, transport and other assistance and be saved from
dying from cholera.

Bikita is one of the remote districts of Masvingo province and I do
not know how many villages have been affected but I think they could be
many. There may be need to pronounce our area a cholera zone so that
appropriate measures are taken to combat it and also protect unsuspecting
visitors to the area and passers-by.

E Maundu
Harare

---------------

The Standard SMS
Saturday, 20 December 2008 20:32
Give him long rope
MORGAN Tsvangirai should let Robert Mugabe take all the ministries
because this will hasten Mugabe's total demise. We can afford to suffer for
a while. - Matigari.

******
ROBERT Mugabe's propaganda minister has publicly admitted that the
cholera epidemic is genocide. Therefore, the United Nations should move in
to unmask the culprits and punish them. - Justice.

State terrorism
ABDUCTIONS in Zimbabwe are proof of state terrorism. Zimbabweans are
unarmed, hungry and weak. Can the United Nations Security Council during its
next session act decisively and avert further acts of state-sponsored
terrorism against humanity. - Help!

Mystery of Zim wealth
NOW that these deals are being exposed as it is said your past will
always catch up with you", people can begin to see that most of these deals
were quite silly and not a sign of extreme intelligence but a sign of
compromising one's integrity by engaging in silly and demeaning deals, just
for the love of money. The question one must ask is: How does one explain
one's wealth when Zimbabweans have the fastest shrinking economy in the
world. - Oracle, Harare.

******
WE have all heard of how when a man dies his relatives use the pretext
of culture to grab his property that the man and his wife struggled to
acquire but a woman's relatives are as equally bad in using the same pretext
of culture to demand expensive property such as pots, plates, furniture,
clothing, electrical gadgets and in some extreme cases even a car - things
that don't have any cultural significance and the sort of property the man
and his wife would have acquired themselves during their lifetime, while
leaving items such as reed mats and clay pots that are part of our cultural
heritage. It just shows pure greed. - Reality, Harare.

Who's fooling who?
ROBERT Mugabe says he discovered a British plot behind the cholera
outbreak and yet does nothing to foil it and save lives. Why does he think
we should take him seriously?- UN impressed.

******
THE closure of most of the country's mines must surely be good news
for President Robert Mugabe and his grab-happy cronies. Let us see a fast
track mining reform! - S G, Kadoma.

Only ashes remain
WHEN the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Gideon Gono was asked about
"burning money" he responded by saying that when you burn something you get
ashes. For sure, the ashes are there for all to see. - Victim.

******
I would urge fellow Zimbabweans not to buy from the foreign currency
trading shops because that is where the Reserve Bank is getting the money to
fuel the dying regime's last bowl of foreign currency through taxes. - Alex
Nyett, Harare.

******
THANKS to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Now one can have his/her
Zimbabwe dollars rejected by shops because they have become worthless.
Together with his principals, the Governor of the Reserve Bank has destroyed
our local currency, which had taken years to nurture. And yet this man comes
in and in five years destroys it just like that! - Tecko, Harare.

POSB business hours
POSB management should spell out clearly what their business hours
are. Nowadays one gets frustrated because when one gets to the banking hall
at 2.30pm you find them closed, yet they are supposed to close at 3.30pm.
Maybe the workers are bitter because management cut their overtime
allowances. Now some of the workers, particularly the "guards" have become
militant towards the bank's clients. What they fail to realise is that the
customer is king. - Depositor, Harare.

******
IT'S been five months now since the June Zimsec results, yet they have
not been released. I wonder what has gone wrong with our only schools
examinations board. - Concerned, Harare.

Drop anti-media laws
AIPPA, POSA and Broadcasting Services Act should be repealed. No more
crimes against democracy. We need a self-regulatory media. Let information
and ideas flow freely and all the ills in our country will die a natural
death. - Charlal.

Disband Zinwa now
HEADS must roll at the Zimbabwe National Water Authority. Imagine an
average of 15 deaths a day because of heartless, corrupt people. My view is
that this institution should be dissolved and the water management returned
to local authorities. - Cholera survivor, Harare.

******
NETONE is sending out atrocious bills that range from Z$100 million to
Z$250 million for contract line owners and are refusing cheque payments. I
suspect they are doing this guess work in order to raise enough money to pay
their workers Christmas bonuses. In a totally lawless country such as ours,
who cares? Let NetOne collapse. -Maneto, Harare.

All talk, no action
THE biggest problem with Zimbabweans is that we are all talk and no
action. This is why Robert Mugabe and his cronies mess us around. Let's not
blame Thabo Mbeki, the African Union or Sadc because we are to blame for
allowing this chaos. Let's stand up and fight for our rights. - Fed up,
Bulawayo.

Dump unity deal
I strongly advise the MDC-T to withdraw immediately from the
power-sharing deal or risk collapsing with a regime that is condemned from
all corners of the globe. The unenforceable power-sharing deal will give
rise to the possibility of the MDC-T being a casualty. The MDC-T government
would have a lot to offer without Zanu PF. I believe Morgan Tsvangirai was
politically mature enough to see that and it is for this reason that he got
my vote.  The scourge of rampant inflation, human-tsunami Robert Mugabe,
hunger, a collapsing health and education sectors and cholera are the
problems on the table for him to tackle. Heroism has no degree of
legality. - Cure/kill.

The African Union, Sadc and South Africa always ensure that violence
in Zimbabwe runs its full course. They hate to disturb it. But when the West
calls for Robert Mugabe's ouster, they jostle over each other in order to
protect him. Why? Morgan Tsvangirai was right to describe Sadc as cowards.
We the people he represents call them worse things. We support him for
telling them the truth. If solutions to Zimbabwe's crisis come from us then
why is Mugabe clinging onto mediation despite calls for him to step down? -
Gift.

It does not make any sense for the government to allow Zimbabwe to
become the dumping ground for second hand cars from Asian countries at the
expense of our own motor industry. At any rate these cars are not built for
our roads and climatic conditions, hence they have high maintenance costs,
which translate into a drain on the little foreign currency that Zimbabwe
has. IN addition this is destroying our local motor industry and in the
process creating unemployment. Beside the second-hand car sector, a similar
trend is happening in the clothing and textile sector, where cheap clothes
are also being dumped here at the expense of our local industries. -
Sabotage.

A party with a majority in Parliament must be the ruling party and the
one with less must be the opposition. Therefore Zanu PF should be the
opposition while the MDC becomes the ruling party because it constitutes the
majority. - D E Dzimbahwe.

Robert Mugabe ranted and raved about countries that were wanting to
attack Zimbabwe because of the cholera outbreak. What these countries are
failing to do is to find a credible reason to attack a regime that abducts
its citizens alive and returns them as dead corpses. Historians should also
chronicle his atrocities so that we can judge for ourselves. - Recorder,
Harare.

Although those who are responsible for the pain and suffering in this
country live in luxury, one day they will pay for their deeds. God is
watching. - Harare.

ZBC should not gloat over President George W Bush's humiliation in
Iraq because there are similarities between President Robert Mugabe and
Bush. They both had disputed elections and they both violated people's
rights. They wage wars against defenceless people and are the most disliked
by their own people. If we had a trillion shoes we would throw them at our
ruler. - Irate, Harare.

The police should give us a break. How can they start saying they want
to impound commuter buses without number plates now and yet vehicles without
them were moving freely during the elections? Those vehicles were
responsible for abducting MDC supporters. What we know and will want to see
is if they are going to impound the CAM and Mitsubishi trucks which are said
to belong to the Central Intelligence Organisation and which bear no
registration numbers. If the police succeed, then we will know they are
serious. They should also make similar strong statements against the
abductions taking place and tell us what they intend to do. Otherwise, we
will not take them seriously as we already are. - Eyewitness, Harare.

If there was a referendum asking people who between foreigners and
certain locals were responsible for the suffering Zimbabweans are undergoing
and political murders, they would be unanimous on the correct answer. Let
us, as Zimbabweans accept the correct definition of an enemy of the
people. - Wide awake, Harare.

The World Health Organisation has issued a figure of 20 581 as the
toll of cholera victims in Zimbabwe so far. This resembles the number of
innocent souls who were massacred during "a moment of madness" in
Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces during the 1980s. Another "moment of
craziness" is playing itself out. - Serial victim, Gwabalanda, Bulawayo.

I wish PF Zapu a successful return to mainstream politics. It would be
great for this country's democracy if another strong political party were to
enter the landscape. My advice is that they should try and emulate what
Terror Lekota and Congress of the People (COPE) have managed to do in South
Africa. They should engage all the political parties and canvass for their
support so as to challenge the Zanu PF dictatorship, while giving the MDC a
good run for their money. We definitely need an alternative to these two and
their never-ending squabbles. - Change we can trust, Masvingo.

I refuse to read the book by the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr
Gideon Gono. Why should anyone in his/her right mind read a book on how to
fail? I guess the book is full of excuses of his gigantic failures. It must
also have 10 reasons to succeed at banking when your non-performing debt has
been taken care of by the government. - Teko, Harare.

Can the United Nations Secretary-General be asked what he thinks about
the people who are disappearing without race? If he thinks the government
has nothing to answer for, he will have no reason to be in his position. The
first thing he should know is that no single person deserves to die, unless
it is through old age. Why does Robert Mugabe think other people's children
should die willy nilly? How would he feel if he were in their shoes?
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu needs to undergo some profound soul-searching instead of
congratulating Ban Ki-Moon for blocking efforts designed to stop the
slaughter and suffering of Zimbabweans. Next time there is Jambanja, it
should be taken to the doorsteps of those who fuel and support human
suffering so that they too can have a taste of their won medicine. -
Chaminuka's ghost, Gonakudzingwa.

Is Zupco still operating and has it got any buses on the road or has
it collapsed as it has been awhile since I last saw a Zupco bus on the
road. - Commuter, Harare.

If Zimbabwe is to succeed in turning around the economy, it is
imperative that we start to listen to fresh, innovative and practical ideas.
For years we have had numerous turnaround plans that have failed to produce
any results. It is time we started thinking outside the box and consider
what things can be and not what they are and then give a chance to the
younger generation. What we need are results-driven ideas. We need to start
looking to those who remember the post-democratic South African soccer team
which was judged as the most skilful team in Africa with their own brand of
shoeshine football. - Nyabinde's song, Harare.

The African Union, Sadc and South Africa always ensure that violence
in Zimbabwe runs its full course. They hate to disturb it. But when the West
calls for Robert Mugabe's ouster, they jostle over each other in order to
protect him. Why? Morgan Tsvangirai was right to describe Sadc as cowards.
We the people he represents call them worse things. We support him for
telling them the truth. If solutions to Zimbabwe's crisis come from us then
why is Mugabe clinging onto mediation despite calls for him to step down? -
Gift.

It does not make any sense for the government to allow Zimbabwe to
become the dumping ground for second hand cars from Asian countries at the
expense of our own motor industry. At any rate these cars are not built for
our roads and climatic conditions, hence they have high maintenance costs,
which translate into a drain on the little foreign currency that Zimbabwe
has. IN addition this is destroying our local motor industry and in the
process creating unemployment. Beside the second-hand car sector, a similar
trend is happening in the clothing and textile sector, where cheap clothes
are also being dumped here at the expense of our local industries. -
Sabotage.

MDC-T and Zanu PF cannot work together. They are like water and oil.
This evidenced by failure to agree on an all-inclusive government. The only
way forward is for fresh elections monitored by Sadc, the African Union and
the United Nations as suggested by Botswana President Ian Khama. - Cheated
voter, Harare.