Airline fees double, prices jump over the course of a meal as inflation soars in Zimbabwe

Santa Barbara News Press

ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer

December 3, 2007 10:03 AM

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The state airline doubled its fares Monday and the
cost of a new Zimbabwe passport went up thirtyfold.

Restaurant and bar prices also doubled over the weekend, with prices
sometimes increasing during a meal. Waitresses in a sports club advised
patrons to place their orders before a price hike came into force an hour
later and some restaurants began accepting American currency as chronic
shortages of local cash worsened.

The new spate of price increases dealt a further blow to official efforts to
combat black market dealing in money and goods and left Zimbabweans facing
the reality of living in a U.S. ''dollarized'' world as their own currency
slumped in value.

The nation's agriculture-based economy began to crumble following seizures
of white-owned farms ordered by President Robert Mugabe's government in
2000, upending a country that once exported food. The economic crisis has
been accompanied by a crackdown on Mugabe's political opponents and
increasing international isolation. As a result, Zimbabwe suffers from
runaway prices, chronic unemployment and acute shortages.

In a statement to travel agents, Air Zimbabwe said Monday a round trip to
London doubled to 804 million Zimbabwe dollars, about $400 at the dominant
black market exchange rate or a massive $27,000 at the obsolete official
exchange rate of 30,000-1.

The central bank has not officially devalued the local currency but has said
imported luxuries for the upcoming Christmas period can be sold at an
exchange rate equivalent of 850,000-1, less than half the black market rate.

That pricing would be monitored by government price control inspectors,
making imports available only at a loss to businesses already battling to
stay viable.

Notices in the Harare passport office Monday showed a range of higher costs
from immediate effect in local currency for passports and other documents.

A regular passport went up thirtyfold and passports were also being issued
in a ''fast track'' service over several days for $220 in American bills.

The nation's chief statistician said last month that Zimbabwe was so short
on bread, meat and other goods, the government couldn't calculate inflation.

Official inflation in October was nearly 8,000 percent, by far the highest
in the world. Independent finance houses estimate real inflation stands
closer to 40,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it
reaching 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

After an absence of five months, cigarettes have reappeared in stores after
the price doubled to about 50 U.S. cents a pack, still among the cheapest
tobacco products in the world at the black market exchange rate, but the
most expensive at $40 a pack at the government's official exchange rate.

A senior teacher earns about the equivalent of $10 a month at the unofficial
exchange rate.

Until disruptions to the agriculture-based economy began with the often
violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in 2000,
Zimbabwe was the world's second largest tobacco exporter after Brazil.

With price increases Monday, local beer was catching up with international
prices of up to $3 a bottle.

According to additional independent estimates, inflation last month exceeded
70,000 percent for upper income Zimbabweans who travel, use mobile phones
and e-mail and buy scarce gasoline, car spares, computer accessories and
luxuries such as liquor and restaurant meals.

AP-WS-12-03-07 1247EST

U.S. to slap new sanctions on Zimbabwe

Reuters

Mon 3 Dec 2007, 17:09 GMT

WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The United States plans in the next few days
to slap new travel and financial sanctions on about 40 more people with ties
to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a senior U.S. official said on
Monday.

"The goal is to highlight the absolutely abysmal human rights situation in
Zimbabwe," said the official, who asked not to be named. U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, was set to make the
official announcement later on Monday.

Europe and Africa

The Times
December 4, 2007

The EU-Africa summit must add Zimbabwe and Darfur to its agenda
Sir, In a few days heads of state and government from Africa and Europe will
meet in Portugal to discuss issues common to two continents whose histories
have intertwined for centuries. This is an historic opportunity to
inaugurate a new era founded on shared values and a genuine friendship where
we can support and learn from each other.

But that will not be possible while the summit meeting shies away from
discussing two of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, those in Zimbabwe
and Darfur. Despite Europe and Africa’s shared responsibility to address
such crises, neither one is on the agenda. No time has been set aside for
formal or informal discussion.

We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage. When they fail
to do so they leave all of us morally impoverished. Where they funk the
difficult issues they make themselves irrelevant. Why should we listen to
the mighty when the mighty are deaf to the cries of the afflicted? Millions
of Africans and Europeans would expect Zimbabwe and Darfur to be at the very
top of the agenda. It is not too late.

Vaclav Havel

Günter Grass

Roddy Doyle

Tom Stoppard

José Gil

Colm Toibin

Jürgen Habermas

Dario Fo

Franca Rame

Professor Wole Soyinka

Mia Couto

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Gillian Slovo

Ben Okri

Nadine Gordimer

John M. Coetzee

Goretti Kyomuhendo

MDC in talks to forge a united front against Mugabe

By Tichaona Sibanda
3 December 2007

Over two years after the acrimonious split in the MDC, rival leaders of the
two factions are expected to meet this week for discussions designed to
bridge their differences.
The crucial meeting between Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara comes at
a time when the MDC is expected to announce a major decision concerning
their participation in the SADC sponsored talks in South Africa.

A highly placed source told Newsreel on Monday that Tsvangirai and Mutambara
and their close aides were to meet 'very soon' to finalise a deal to unite
the two factions that split on 11th October 2005.
The fear of splitting the opposition vote and handing Mugabe a victory on a
silver platter may have forced both factions to try and reconcile their
differences before next year's elections. Secret talks have been held
recently over the unification pact between the two factions.

Our source said top of the agenda at the planned talks would be the
sensitive issue of seat allocations, especially in urban constituencies. The
two sides have agreed in principal that Tsvangirai will lead a united
opposition MDC in next year's general election.

As a concession, it is believed they would let all MPs from the Mutambara
faction seek re-election without going through party primaries. Political
analyst Glen Mpani indicated that the opposition stands a better chance of
dislodging Mugabe if they fight the poll as a united party.

'Talks to unite both factions are long overdue and it is no secret that
facing a repressive regime like Mugabe's, it is better off fighting him as a
united party that a fragmented opposition,' Mpani said.
If the rival opposition factions can reach agreement on a set of proposals,
it would increase pressure on Mugabe's regime. It's not yet clear if the two
sides can agree on a common set of demands. If they do, it would certainly
make life more difficult for the authorities. For the moment all these moves
appear to be part of what could become a long drawn-out political process;
and the meeting of rival opposition leaders is just the first tentative step
towards trying to rebuild the unity that was lost over two years ago.

Mpani believes the fragmented nature of the opposition in the country has
helped sustain the regime in Zimbabwe. Many Zimbabweans have been subjected
to untold horrors for over 9 years under the Zanu-PF Party rule. Opposition
activists are arrested and imprisoned on a daily basis with no due process
or the application of basic human rights.

The Tsvangirai led faction is believed to have sent a letter to President
Thabo Mbeki on Saturday with an ultimatum saying that unless Zanu-PF stops
the violence against the MDC immediately, they will pull out of the talks as
a matter of principle.

'This was a message sent to Zanu-PF through Mbeki. Though the MDC is not
expecting any positive answers, they nonetheless are going to make an
announcement about the talks this week,' the source said.

Tsvangirai on Sunday dismissed as 'paper discussions' the ongoing talks with
Zanu-PF. He said if people checked how far the talks had gone in the last
five months; 'they would see it was just paper discussions'.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

MDC needs to be ‘reborn’

Mail & Guardian

Percy Zvomuya: ANALYSIS

03 December 2007 11:59

       It has taken the Movement for Democratic Change eight years to
go from a being potent symbol of change to an organisation torn apart by
divisive, childish rivalries and personality cults. And as the situation
deteriorates, the party’s fractious and self-important leadership may
irrevocably turn the once vibrant party into an empty shell, its once
inspiring name and slogans into bywords for indecision and ineptitude.

      To be fair to the MDC, one of its difficulties is the simple but
telling fact that it is not a party born of a liberation movement; this,
coupled with its naivety in dealing with the cunning Zanu-PF machinery which
used the opposition party’s white support as incontrovertible evidence that
the MDC was bent on “reversing the gains of the liberation struggle”.

      This major weakness meant that the MDC was forever going to be
viewed with suspicion by Africans and the rest of the Third World. The
scenario wasn’t helped much by the fact that, apart from its hatred of
Robert Mugabe and its cataloguing of the ills associated with his rule, the
MDC doesn’t seem to know quite what should be done to reverse the slide in
Zimbabwe.

      The fact that some of the party’s leadership has known little
other than Zanu-PF’s top-down culture has manifested in its own intra-party
violence and dictatorship. The party leadership’s disregard for its own
constitution was demonstrated by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s recent
suspension of Lucia Matibenga, head of the party’s Women’s Assembly, a move
which did not follow party procedure.

      Eldred Masungunure, a political scientist at the University of
Zimbabwe, said the MDC is afflicted by the “founding leader’s syndrome”, in
which disregard for the constitution and the supremacy of the individual
over the people are problems. “We are very good at drawing up perfect
constitutions but we have little respect for the documents we come up with.”
He added that if “those who crafted the constitution disregard it they
should leave”, before tellingly asking, “But who will bell the cat?”

      In spite of the many pressing issues that the MDC could be
pushing — inflation, unemployment and poverty — the party is largely
reactionary, allowing the ruling party to set the agenda.

      Following the disputed presidential elections in 2002, urban
voters were willing to defend their votes and take to the streets, but
Tsvangirai refused to channel this anger, saying instead “the people will
decide”. Soon after, most people decided to leave the country in droves.
Operation Murambatsvina, the state clean-up campaign in which tens of
thousands of urban dwellers lost their livelihoods and their homes presented
yet another opportunity on which the MDC failed to capitalise.

      Most observers accuse the MDC leadership of having become too
comfortable. “They want to be party to the gravy train,” said one analyst,
adding that Tsvangirai has built a bureaucratic wall around himself, turning
simple matters such as a request for an interview into a mission impossible.

      While some analysts have said the MDC’s raison d’être has
expired, Masungunure pointed out that the party still occupies an important
space but is in urgent need of renewal. “It needs to be reborn so that it
not only channels the people’s discontent but aggregates all the forces”
that are fighting for change. He added that if the MDC is to remain relevant
it must go beyond serving the whims of its leadership to serving the
interests of its diverse constituencies.

      Masungunure expressed surprise at the fact that it is Zanu-PF
that is being revitalised while the MDC is struggling to be relevant.
Perhaps, as a liberation party that has been around for more than 40 years,
Zanu-PF has the means to reinvent itself and come out renewed and raring for
a fight with a bloated opposition that can’t expel noisome gases from its
system.

Tsvangirai says talks have ‘yielded nothing’

Zim Online

by Thabani Mlilo Tuesday 04 December 2007

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has told
supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party that talks with
the government have “yielded nothing”, citing continuing political violence
and human rights abuses.

Addressing close to 10 000 supporters in Harare on Sunday, Tsvangirai
described the talks as mere “paper discussions”, adding he had voiced his
dissatisfaction to South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, who is facilitating
the dialogue.

He said: "We have been talking for the past five months and it has yielded
nothing. People are still being beaten up and increasingly subjected to all
sorts of abuse. These talks are just paper discussions with no evidence of
any change of behaviour by ZANU PF (President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party).

Tsvangirai, who has hinted his MDC could boycott elections next year if it
is not convinced the polls would be free and fair, did not repeat the threat
to boycott polls or to pull out of dialogue.

Mbeki, who told reporters in Harare two weeks ago that he was happy with
progress on the talks, was last March tasked by Southern African Development
Community (SADC) leaders to spearhead efforts to resolve Zimbabwe’s
eight-year political and economic crisis by facilitating dialogue between
the MDC and ZANU PF.

A key objective of the talks – that are widely regarded as probably the last
chance to save Zimbabwe from total collapse – is to ensure combined
presidential, parliamentary, local government elections next year are free
and fair.

Tsvangirai, who leads the main faction of the divided MDC, said Mugabe and
ZANU PF are neither sincere nor committed to dialogue, saying the government
was refusing to repeal tough security laws that are hampering the opposition
from carrying out its political work and to freely campaign for next year’s
polls.

"ZANU PF does not want to repeal POSA (Public Order and Security Act). It
does not want a new constitution. Where is the confidence building measure
from ZANU PF in this process?” said Tsvangirai.

ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira was not immediately available for
comment on the matter. However, the ruling party has in the past said it was
committed to dialogue and rejected as false, charges that it was behind
political violence against the opposition.

Zimbabwe, which was once an economic model for Africa has plunged into
political and economic crisis in the last seven years due to what critics
say are Mugabe’s controversial policies such as seizing white-owned
commercial farms to give to blacks.

The crisis is seen in the world’s highest inflation of nearly 8 000 percent
(some estimates say inflation is way beyond 14 000 percent), 80 percent
unemployment and acute shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.

Mugabe - who once boasted that no one could have managed Zimbabwe’s economy
better than him – denies ruining the country and blames the economic
meltdown on what he calls sabotage by Western powers who are angry over his
often violent programme to hand out white-owned farms to blacks. – ZimOnline

More hardships for Zimbabweans next year

Zim Online

by Never Chanda Tuesday 04 December 2007

HARARE - The comatose Zimbabwean economy is in for another bumpy ride next
year, thanks to an empty 2008 budget that offers no hope for a nation
battling world record inflation and grinding shortages of foreign currency
and basic commodities.

Analysts said yesterday Zimbabweans must brace for higher prices and more
hardships in 2008 following what they described as a "meaningless", "empty"
and "disastrous" national budget presented by Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi last Thursday.

University of Zimbabwe business lecturer Anthony Hawkins said the budget was
highly inflationary, worsening an already fragile situation where prices of
goods and services are rising daily.

"This was just an exercise with no meaningful impact on the economy. It was
like building castles in the air because some of the targets like the input
schemes require foreign exchange which government does not have at the
moment," said Hawkins.

He said most of the targets proposed by the minister would soon be overtaken
by inflation.

Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation, with changes in the cost of
goods and services estimated at nearly 15 000 percent in October.

Bulawayo-based economic commentator Eric Bloch described the budget as a
mere "statement of intent" which is devoid of any tangible measures to
stimulate the struggling economy.

"It was a disastrous budget full of contradictions and which expresses all
sorts of positive intents but proposes no real measures to stimulate the
economy," Bloch said.

Mumbengegwi presented a $7 800 trillion "people's budget" for 2008 dominated
by expenditures to boost the rural economy or poor communities, with nothing
of substance to revive the productive sector reportedly operating at below a
third of its capacity.

Among other things, he allocated $8 trillion for the development of
community-based infrastructure projects in rural areas as well as $103
trillion to support farmers for the 2007/08 season that has been dubbed the
"mother of all agricultural seasons".

An investment banker with a Harare-based commercial bank described
Mumbengegwi's budget as "the emptiest financial statement" he has ever come
across and said Zimbabwe was doomed unless the government changed course
away from dolling out funds to non-productive activities.

"What is worrisome is that we haven't seen the end of these reckless
patronage programmes, particularly as we head towards elections in the next
few months.

"The nation must brace for more hardships in coming months as the economy
starts to take a knock from the effects of the government's charitable
ventures," said the banker who could not be named for professional reasons.

The Harare authorities have since 2000 relied on a patronage system under
which they have dolled huge sums of money in the form of fuel and
agricultural inputs to ruling ZANU PF party supporters.

The input schemes failed to produce the intended results and are blamed for
the country's runaway inflation.

The analysts warned that Zimbabwe's inflation could hit 30 000 percent by
March 2008 unless there is a change of course away from populist policies to
measures that stimulate economic growth.

The International Monetary Fund projects that the Zimbabwean economy would
decline by four percent this year. - ZimOnline

Zambia urges UK to maintain pressure on Harare

Zim Online

by Own Correspondent  Tuesday 04 December 2007

JOHANNESBURG – Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa at the weekend called on London
to maintain pressure on Zimbabwe in remarks that appeared to be out of sync
with regional leaders’ expressions of solidarity towards Harare.

Mwanawasa, who caused a stir earlier this year when he labelled Zimbabwe a
“sinking Titanic”, said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown should continue
to speak out until the crisis in Zimbabwe is resolved.

“I have said the nation (Zimbabwe) faces a lot of challenges. Now, he
(Brown) shouldn't get tired of speaking and he must continue until the
harvest (of his efforts).

“I appeal to Brown and the entire British nation that they should continue
with their efforts until the situation in Zimbabwe has been resolved,”
Mwanawasa told local media.

Mwanawasa spoke before he left Lusaka for Germany en route to the European
Union-Africa Summit that begins in Lisbon, Portugal next weekend.

The Lisbon EU-Africa summit has been dogged by controversy over President
Robert Mugabe’s attendance with Britain and several other European countries
saying they will boycott the summit if Mugabe is invited.

Mugabe has however received backing from African countries who have also
threatened to pull out en masse if the Zimbabwean leader was barred from the
summit, the first between Europe and Africa in seven years.

The Zambian leader said he was disappointed with Brown’s boycott of the
summit.

Mwanawasa has been among the few African leaders who have spoken out over
the deteriorating political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

At a Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit held in Lusaka,
Zambia last August, Mugabe is said to have reacted angrily to a suggestion
by Mwanawasa that regional leaders discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe. -
ZimOnline

Freedom Defenders Under Attack in Zimbabwe, United States Warns

USINFO

03 December 2007

State Department’s Frazer reviews human rights violations in Zimbabwe

Demonstrators in central Kampala, Uganda, hold up banners November 22 calling for freedom in Zimbabwe. (© AP Images)

By Charles W. Corey
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- As International Human Rights Day approaches on December 10, the world must be concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe -- where defenders of freedom are under attack and where the human rights situation is becoming worse every day, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs warns.

In Zimbabwe, under the government of President Robert Mugabe, “the attacks, arrests and abductions continue unabated with more than 500 instances of human rights abuses reported each month, Jendayi Frazer told USINFO November 30. “In fact,” she added, “the number of victims requiring medial treatment this year alone was 3,463 -- nearly triple that of 2006. So … the defenders of freedom in Zimbabwe are under attack.”

Frazer noted that there have been more than 6,000 instances of human rights abuses reported by Zimbabwean nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) since January. “The world must focus on the crisis in Zimbabwe,” she said.

Asked what should be done, Frazer said that “it is extremely important for the international community to put pressure on this [Mugabe] regime to accept freedom of expression rather than beating people down -- to prepare for free and fair elections.

“I think that the neighboring countries -- the Southern African Development Community countries -- certainly support the efforts of President [Thabo] Mbeki to negotiate an agreement between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and the [Mugabe] government, but we think that most important to signing an agreement is actually implementing an agreement.”

However, Frazer said, “We have not seen that will being carried out by this [Mugabe] government, so we are a little bit concerned that even if an agreement is signed, it won’t be implemented.”

Looking ahead to the December 8-9 European Union-African Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Frazer said, “We are certainly concerned that the issue of Zimbabwe became a sticking point [in planning the conference]. We feel that Zimbabwe should not be invited to the EU conference but the fact that Zimbabwe will be discussed at the conference is extremely important in our effort to try to change the human rights abuses which are taking place there.”

Frazer added, “It is interesting that African countries would seem to come to the defense of a government that is so counter to all of the principles that they put forward -- the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, good governance, peer review -- clearly they are not reviewing this peer of theirs by pushing for his attendance at the summit.”

Frazer spoke to USINFO prior to a scheduled appearance December 3 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on a program examining the ongoing human rights crisis in Zimbabwe.

Frazer called that CSIS program an “important forum for exchange to again look at how we can collectively work to see Zimbabwe return to democracy, return to its former strong economy [and] end the human rights abuses -- the ongoing crisis that is taking place there. …. I definitely think this is an opportunity to bring world attention to try to end President Mugabe’s reign of terror on his population,” she said.

“There are many in Africa who look at President Mugabe and the ZANU-PF legacy as advocates of liberation against the Rhodesian government and that certainly is a legacy that … should be held up for commendation, but President Mugabe at the time opened schools for children,” Frazer said.

“Now that they are adults and free thinking people, he is beating them down. So he really has gone back on that legacy. He has actually failed the people of Zimbabwe and he has failed the aspirations of liberation of the region as a whole -- so I do believe that again, hopefully the SADC mediation will help to end this crisis” and that the international community will continue to focus on improving the situation there.

“Freedom loving … Zimbabweans that are trying to return their country to democracy deserve our support and our assistance and we certainly will provide it,” she said.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Add Another Verse to Country's Litany of Want

Business Day (Johannesburg)

COLUMN
3 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007

Dianna Games
Johannesburg

A REPORT recently did the rounds in Harare on a government letterhead
suggesting that companies on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) were
profiteering and would be forced to reveal the source of their wealth.

It also threatened a crackdown on the stock exchange, now officially valued
at Z$10-quadrillion (whatever that is), accusing it of fuelling rampant
inflation.

There were question marks over the authenticity of the document. The
government denied knowledge of it. Industry and International Trade Minister
Obert Mpofu called it "malicious", saying it was designed to bring "panic"
into the business sector. This suggests that the government's recent
disastrous price blitz, the passing of legislation enforcing indigenisation
of company shareholdings and an official grab of mining companies were not.
But I digress.

The mere notion of a crackdown on the ZSE, which is about the only place to
put money, was enough to briefly shave about 25% off the market
capitalisation of the exchange. This reflects the mistrust between the
government and the private sector.

The report turned out to be a hoax and although business was relieved, there
was momentary concern that perhaps the prankster had given the Zimbabwe
government food for thought. Could the ZSE be an "agent" of the private
sector bent on destroying the economy?

But things move quickly in Zimbabwe. Business people now have new things to
worry about.

Among these is the massive cash shortage. The government blames the usual
suspect -- the black market on which the government itself trades when in
dire straits. And of course this is likely to be a factor with the US dollar
trading on the parallel market at anything between Z$1,6m to Z$3m.

But the reality is that, with inflation now at 15000%, there are simply not
enough notes around to undertake transactions.

The Reserve Bank governor says it is "illogical" that there should be cash
shortages with Z$58-trillion in circulation. When he replaced the currency
last time there was Z$43-trillion in circulation. (In real terms this is
less than $50m -- much less than in either Zambia or Malawi, for example.)

The currency was replaced in August last year when the reserve bank shaved
three zeroes off it -- allowing the politicians to try to persuade people
that life was getting cheaper, even as inflation soared.

And, as many predicted would happen, just over a year later the exercise is
about to be undertaken again. The reserve bank has promised proper bank
notes this time round , to replace the "bearer's cheques" that have passed
for notes for the past four years, but which are cheaper to make.

Depositors had until December 1 to put all their spare cash in the banks
without disclosing where they had got it from. But the reality is no one
wants to put their cash in a bank as it loses value so fast. There is also
little on the shelves to buy so there is a run on the US dollar as a store
of value.

The Central Statistical Office last week entered the sorry fray by stating
that it could no longer calculate the rate of inflation as there were not
enough goods left in the shops to allow price comparisons.

After the July price blitz, allegedly designed to bring down inflation,
analysts remarked how strange it was that the government triumphantly
reported lower inflation even though most of the goods in the inflation
basket were not available on the shelves (prompting someone to ask how much
it was for the actual basket -- straw baskets, at least, are still available
in Zimbabwe).

A doubling of inflation in October from 8000% in September is scary and it
is no wonder the government wants to put its head in the sand.

And, anyway, President Robert Mugabe would not want such bad news dogging
his triumphal appearance on the European Union stage next week, no doubt to
the loud cheers of his African peers.

But as he struts his stuff, buoyed by the prospect of another term as
president, Zimbabweans will not be sharing his "triumph". They will be
scrabbling for food, counting their worthless bank notes and wondering how
much worse things can get.

Games is director of Africa @ Work, an African consulting company.

Hundreds stranded after "million-man" march

By Henry Makiwa
3 December 2007

Hundreds of people who were bused into Harare for Robert Mugabe's "Million
man march" on Friday, were left stranded all weekend as Zanu PF failed to
get them transport back to their homes.
Living up to it's reputation, the ruling party shipped in thousands of
people to Harare on the promise that they would be swiftly returned home
after Mugabe's rally. Our sources however say that no return transport was
provided and many were left stranded.

Observers say every bus terminus and the train station in the capital were
chaotic all weekend. Many reportedly used their own funds to return home,
while hundreds were forced to sleep in the open.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa, reported that people complained of hunger
and exhaustion. Many had only been given a loaf of bread for taking part in
the march.

He said that Mugabe in his customary manner had abandoned those who were his
supporters. In addition there were many people who were forced out of their
homes and violently beaten if they refused to join the march. Many were
bused in from as far as Hwange, Mhangura, Bulawayo and Chipinge on buses and
trains hired by Zanu PF, using tax-payers money.

Analysts say Mugabe staged the march as part of a propaganda onslaught to
try to portray him as having grass roots support. They say Mugabe
manipulated his bused-in rural supporters, to counter growing internal
opposition to his rule ahead of the extra-ordinary Zanu PF congress later
this month.
Zanu PF reportedly spent a fortune, with some estimates running into
trillions of dollars, for the one-day political campaign exercise.
Economists say the closure of shops and industry had a serious impact on the
economy.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Judiciary versus Executive: Tyranny has gone too far

The Zimbabwean

Monday, 03 December 2007 14:32
The Judiciary versus the Executive: A Cry For Independence
“Give me liberty or give me death!” cried Patrick Henry in 1775.
It is over five weeks now since judicial officers downed their tools
to push the government to reform the judiciary.
From the common angle, it really looks like an ordinary
employer-employee conflict over pay.  Looked differently, it is something
much more than that.  It is a historic battle, the first of its kind on the
Zimbabwean land.  The conflict started long back but had remained latent for
a while, but then everyone has got their limits.  What has happened is the
inevitable of overstretching someone’s patience and abusing loyalty.
So if the battle is not over salary, what is it about?
One of the grievances of the striking magistrates is the government’s
unwillingness to implement the Judicial Services Act which seeks to move the
whole bench from the Public Service Commission to the Judicial Services
Commission.  Precisely, the Judicial Services Act seeks to establish a truly
independent judiciary, in line with the spirit of 79B of the constitution of
Zimbabwe.
As made explicit in our constitution, Zimbabwe has embraced the
doctrine of separation of powers for the simple reason that our history
makes it so easy for us to mistrust politicians with power.  The whole idea
is to preserve and work towards a full civilisation of good governance which
entails a clear discrimination of powers, an independence whereby each power
conducts its deliberations free from external influence, and a dependence
whereby the actions of each are subject to scrutiny by others.
History has made the executive, (headed by the president) to be the
chief suspect of these safeguards against tyrannical instincts.  And sure
enough, the executive in Zimbabwe has not disappointed.  Although always
under pressure to create an independent judiciary, they have never been
sincere. That explains why the Judicial Services Act took generations to
pass.  It was only signed by Joyce Mujuru, who was the Acting President
after the Judge President Justice Makarau breathed fire.  Still the same,
that was it.  Nothing else was done.
Since 1980, the executive has systematically stripped the judiciary of
its dignity and independence, making it a subsidiary of the executive.  You
will remember the firing of the Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, the invasion
of the Supreme Court by the war veterans, the harassment of judges and many
others.  The crusade did not stop then.  Meanwhile the groans of the
judiciary grew louder.  No wonder why the cry, “Give me liberty, or give me
death.”
The executive, for the purposes of foreign policy needed a judiciary
that simply appears to be independent.  The truth on ground, however, leaves
a lot to be desired.
While judges of the superior courts are executive appointees, perhaps
the security of tenure offers protection against potential assaults of the
executive.  Section 88 (2) of the Constitution provides that the judges’
salary shall not be reduced during his tenure of office.  This however is
academic security.  In a hyperinflationary economy like ours, not adjusting
salaries accordingly is tantamount to reduction.  The executive has not been
able to abstain from offering bribes to judges to win favourable decisions.
This is the lighter picture.  The real picture is worse than that.
The bench has been invaded by the executive.  Real judges have been chased
and imposters have been put in place.  Politicians find their way to the
bench were they hide in judicial regalia, yet they are too ready to shout
party slogans.  No wonder why the questionable decisions that come from the
bench.  My apologies to the Chief Justice Chidyausiku, but it is
heartbreaking when you look for politicians and you find them dressed as
Judges.  Where then is the separation?
The inferior courts do much of the donkey-work in Zimbabwe.  They are
closer to the society and handle the day to day cases.  These are worse than
the superior courts.  These are literally owned by the executive.
Magistrates work under one master and yet they are paid by the other.  They
work under the Judicial Services Commission and are paid by the Public
Service Commission.  Thus they are paid by the executive, which determines
their conditions of service.  They have no security of income or security of
tenure.
If they pass rulings that rile the executive, they are easy to
victimize.  They can be posted to work anywhere without a say as a way of
victimization.  Their salaries can be tempered with.  The Public Service can
decide to transfer a judicial officer to another department, even in a
different capacity.
In a democratic context, independence entails adequate salaries so
that officials are above the dangers of stooping.
The executive in this country has used this weakness to maintain a
grip on the judiciary.  Certain members of the magisterial bench have also
become politicians in judicial robes.  They have received farms and other
benefits, while those who are not useful to the executive are languishing in
abject poverty.  That explains why the Judicial Services Act is facing
resistance from the executive, because it creates a truly independent
judiciary capable of keeping an eye on the executive without fear of
victimization.
This is the battle which has culminated in the recent action by
judicial officers.  It is important for us as a nation to see the truth, to
realize that this is not about salaries.  History could be in the making.
The government has failed to uphold the spirit of the constitution as far as
the judiciary is concerned.  Their lackadaisical response to the strike is
testimony that they don’t really care.  They actually wish to replace all
the judicial officers with militias.
It was an unfortunate oversight that the parties negotiating in the
SADC brokered talks focus on the electoral laws and ignore the independence
of the judiciary, which is saddened with the duty to interpret those laws.
But why does the executive hate an independent judiciary with such
passion, to the extent of starving judicial officers by paying them a little
less than US$16, and bugging even their toilets?
It is all for the sake of power.  They are not comfortable with having
someone check upon them and they are fast sliding into the overdrive of
tyranny.  History cannot acquit them.  The judiciary has got a duty to
ensure that the supreme law of the land is well interpreted, and the rights
contained are protected.
In carrying out this constitutional mandate, the judiciary has been
undermined by the dealings of the executive which unfortunately ends up
abusing even the legislature.
Three basic methods have been employed by the executive meet its
immoral ends.
The first one has been an open defiance, simply ignoring court orders.
In the 1980s, several orders were made by the courts for release of
detainees as well as orders for compensation.  The executive found refuge in
the Liabilities Act which offers a shield against attachment of state
property.
In January 1999, two journalists were kidnapped by the military police
and were severely tortured for more than a week for publishing a story about
an alleged coup.  After an application was made, the Supreme Court ordered
the Commissioner of Police to institute an investigation.  The Commissioner
openly refused saying the matter involved highly sensitive matters of
national interest.  We do not know which exception in law he was basing his
refusal on.  But we clearly remember the President fuming that the
‘journalists had forfeited their right to legal protection by acting in such
a blatantly dishonest manner’.  Again we are unaware of such a legal
exception to the protection of a citizen’s rights.
The second method was simply changing the fabric which caused
discomfort.  Thus the executive sponsored and influenced the changing of
certain laws to absolve it from compliance and suit its needs.
Since May 11 1990, amendments to the Declaration of Rights, as well as
any other provisions of the constitution, could now be passed by at least
two-thirds of the new unicameral Parliament.  Before that, a unanimous vote
of the Assembly, the lower house, in what was then a bicameral house was
required.  The executive went for a kill, pulling down every safeguard
against tyranny in our constitution and barricading themselves against any
kind of scrutiny.
During the 17 years honeymoon up to this date, what the executive (or
is it the executive-owned legislature) has done to our constitution is
exactly what the devil would do if entrusted with the bible.
Real civilisation offers protection to the weak citizen against the
powerful state.  In our case, the executive has through numerous amendments
barricaded itself against a poor citizen whose only weaponry is a vote.
The third weapon of destruction has been the Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures) Act.  One example of the gross abuse of the Act against
the judiciary was when on 8 December 2000 the President issued a
Proclamation seeking to validate the results of the June elections which
were being challenged by the opposition in 37 constituencies.  The effect
would have been to overthrow the jurisdiction of the court which was waiting
to hear these cases.  This proclamation was declared null and void by the
Supreme Court.  However, the official mind of the dictator had been
revealed.
The crusade against the judiciary goes on and on.  The executive has
almost taken control of all the three arms of government.  What kind of a
democracy are we?  A constitutional democracy?  No!  The constitution had
got so many patches and it can be changed so easily by a dominant party in
Parliament.
A parliamentary democracy?  No!  The parliamentarians are told which
song to sing, and how to dance to it.  It is called the ‘party line’.
Margaret Dongo has got a way of expressing it:  they are all wives of one
person.  I have no reason to disagree.  At the end of the day, the executive
has become like an octopus, with its tentacles in all the arms of
government.  What then shall we call Zimbabwe?  Perhaps we are an executive
democracy.  In the West they call it dictatorship.
In accurate terms, it is this dictatorship which the judiciary is
currently fighting.  Salaries are just part of the story.  It is a historic
battle that will define a new course of history in this country.  The
judiciary has no army of its own.  It has no police force.  How can it
effectively stand up against a tyranny that is armed to the teeth?  All
players in the legal fraternity need to be alert to the revolutionary
fervour in the sector.  There maybe no other chance to tell the bullying
executive that enough is enough.
The free-the-judiciary-crusade must gather the remnant of the
civilized of our society and fearlessly confront the enemy with whatever
ammunition we have.  The time for a showdown is now.
The judiciary cries for much more than salaries.  Give me liberty, or
give me death!

Even if millions march, where is the bread?

Zimbabwejournalists.com

3rd Dec 2007 08:50 GMT

By Chenjerai Chitsaru

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s most celebrated African American hero must be
Coltrane Chimurenga, not Louis Farrakkan, a Muslim.
Chimurenga can be loosely translated into English as a revolutionary
struggle against oppression.

Coltrane Chimurenga has visited Zimbabwe several times over the years, each
time being feted by Zanu PF and Mugabe himself. He is, without doubt, one of
the most committed supporters of everything that Zanu PF stands for, but
particularly its struggle against imperialism, particularly Brtitish and
American imperialism.

Like many Zimbabwean journalists, I have been remiss in researching Mr
Chimurenga’s real surname. It is highly unlikely that his parents were
called the Chimurengas, who would have to have originated from Mashonaland –
East, West or Central.

Our duty as journalists would have been to establish that Coltrane
Chimurenga’s original surname was either Smith, Murphy, Koto (Yaphet) or
Poitier or Belafonte, apart from Bush, Clinton or Washington (Denzel).

But Farrakhan sounds like a Muslim name and Farrakhan’s name is more
associated with The Million Man March than Coltrane could ever be. Of
course, this doesn’t mean that Coltrane didn’t take part in that march in
October 1995 which had absolutely nothing to do with any politician’s
campaign for re-election, but essentially an African American attempt to
reassert the race’s human rights in their adopted land.

As a Muslim, Farrakhan began his address to the marchers thus:
"In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. We thank Him for his
prophets, and the scriptures which they brought. We thank him for Moses and
the Torah. We thank him for Jesus and the Gospel. We thank him for Muhammad
and the Koran. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Allah."

Now, without meaning to cast any aspersions on either Coltrane Chimurenga or
Farrakhan, how the hell does a Zanu PF-organised  Million Men (and Women)
march, like the one held on Friday, 30 November in Harare, do anything
materially or spiritually salutary for the people of Zimbabwe – like
bringing back bread to their tables or eliminating their driving need to
leave the country and seek freedom in foreign lands?

If I was Farrakhan or any of his ardent disciples  I would feel very
offended at this seeming plagiarism.

How dare they (Zanu PF) give to their self-serving campaign to buttress
their personality cult obsession the name of a noble attempt by the
African-American community to assert their right to respect in a nation
which has always seemed to look down upon hem?

In reality, the march, in which hundreds of thousands of mostly grumpy
people (not a million) took part, was a graphic illustration of how
desperate Mugabe and his supporters are to give the impression that he has
already won the nomination of his party as the presidential candidate for
2008.

If he has the nomination in the bag, why is it necessary for him to drag
people out of their homes at the crack of dawn to march to Zimbabwe Grounds?

Once there, he decides to bore them into a stupor with incredible tales of
his nationalistic exploits and a badly edited version of the history of the
struggle which has so many holes in it, many of the people buried at Heroes
Acre must have turned in their graves?

But for many of those listening to his spiel, the most astounding
declaration was this: why did they bother about the shortages of sugar or
any such commodities?

What they had to dwell on and be proud of was their victory over
colonialism, the very act of having won their independence after a heroic
struggle.

This must have stuck in many people’s throats, not that many citizens can
remember having anything resembling food stuck in their throats these days.

To many people, that statement confirmed their worst fears about Mugabe’s
present state of mind. He is still celebrating the victory over colonialism
and has not emerged into the sunshine of what independence ought to mean to
the lives of the people, including himself.

Independence ought to mean an improvement in the lives of ordinary people.
It ought to mean less hunger, less ignorance, less disease, less trauma from
being constantly harassed by the police and by the politicians, insulting
their intelligence needlessly – as he did - by suggesting they have
forgotten why thousands of their relatives sacrificed their lives during 15
years of a bloody war.

Zanu PF is in dire straits. The facade of unity, as the elections draw
nearer and nearer, is being perforated by the day. If the Million Men and
Women march had been the result of a spontaneous outpouring of zeal among
all party members, there would not have been any need to coerce so many of
them to march.

Although Farrakhan’s march was more than ten years ago, I have no memory of
him or Elijah Muhammad having to coerce people to join it.

We should look at the aftermath: the spirit of the people is still low. On
the Sunday after the march, the conversation was about how naïve Zanu PF
must be to believe that the march achieved the purpose for which it as
intended.

Mugabe is still going to have a tough ride at the forthcoming congress this
month. He will not be a “shoo-in” for the presidential candidacy. There will
either be a lot of horse-trading or there will be an open revolt. Some of
those eyeing  the presidency have invested so much it is unlikely they will
give up the fight without trying their utmost to make life thoroughly
unpleasant for Mugabe.

Most such Zanu PF congresses have in the past been carefully stage-managed,
the choreography as faultless as anything done for Fred Alstaire and Ginger
Rogers.

But never has there been such a prelude: the political knife-throwing has
been unprecedented.

It is being predicted, rather gloomily, that if Mugabe does get his way,
Zanu PF will never be the same again. Mugabe may be acutely aware of this,
but his critics say that to save his own political skin, he is prepared to
sacrifice the unity of the party.

His erstwhile loyal colleagues, recognizing what an unmitigated Disaster a
permanent split in the party would mean for all the leaders, have tried as
obliquely as they could to remind him that there is no way that his victory
would be without dire consequences for himself and his fellow leaders.

Mugabe probably has his reputation for ruthlessness in adversity working for
him. A few of what critics have called the yellow-bellied among the
leadership will just not risk his ire by opposing him.

Yet there are those who see another Mugabe term, however brief, as bringing
closer and closer a day they may find themselves having to answer awkward
questions at the International Court of Justice or some other such tribunal
where neutral people will probe them about their role in the bloodshed that
followed the country’s independence.

Mugabe is not yet out of the woods, that is clear, or he would not have
resorted to the Milllion Men and Women March.

Unfortunately for him, part of his speech at Zimbabwe Grounds may have
scuttled his chances of winning the election, if he overcomes adversity at
the congress.

By making light of the people’s deprivation and suggesting they should
concentrate on the struggle, he may have reminded them that he is really
past caring about bread and butter issues.

As someone said:  “We can’t eat the country. We need bread.”

The rise of Zim’s 'one party tyranny'

Mail & Guardian

      Mail and Guardian reporter

      03 December 2007 11:59

            Two former leading lights of Zimbabwe’s struggle era can
testify to how tough life can be for those who try to chart their own course
outside the liberation movement.

            In 1988 Edgar Tekere was sacked as secretary general of
Zanu-PF and formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), pledging to stop what
he saw as Zimbabwe’s slide into “one-party tyranny”.

            “A one-party state,” Tekere told President Robert Mugabe
then, “was never one of the founding principles of Zanu-PF and experience in
Africa has shown that it brought the evils of nepotism, corruption and
inefficiency.”

             Having been one of the most influential figures in the
liberation movement and in the post-war government, Tekere would have been a
good bet to pose a serious challenge to Mugabe.

            But, on a free-market platform that contrasted sharply
with Mugabe’s plan of more control, Tekere fared badly in the 1990 election,
winning just 16% of the vote. After that election he slipped into oblivion
and penury, living off donations from former comrades.

            In 2005 he wrote to Zanu-PF asking to be allowed back.
Zanu-PF grudgingly took him back -- on condition he did not seek any office.

            Some still believe Tekere’s ZUM was an elaborate ruse by
Mugabe to create the impression that he allowed opposition, a suspicion
likely to haunt any possible future splinter party.

            Then there was Margaret Dongo, a popular Zanu-PF MP.
Protesting at corruption in the party, she left to form the Zimbabwe Union
of Democracts. But the project soon fell apart.

            Today, despite Mugabe’s recent triumph over rivals, talk
of a possible future split refuses to go away.

            But lessons were learned from Tekere and Dongo and their
fate will weigh heavily on the minds of any Zanu-PF figure thinking of
branching out on his or her own.

            There is evident frustration in Zanu-PF with Mugabe
clinging to power. However, there has been little talk -- at least not since
2004 -- of any of his rivals leaving to form a new party.

            In 2004 six of 10 party provinces supported Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s bid to become deputy president. But Mugabe vetoed the vote and
sacked the chairpersons from the six provinces. In the ensuing fallout
Mnangagwa loyalists, such as Jonathan Moyo, who had been information
minister, talked up their new United Peoples’ Movement, a party, it was
suggested, that would be home to disgruntled Zanu-PF figures.
            Mnangagwa resisted, stayed on in Zanu-PF and, at least for
now, is one of Mugabe’s closest allies.

            A senior Zanu-PF official said Mugabe had spent the past
27 years amassing so much power that, should he leave, the party would
struggle to hold itself together.

            Mugabe himself said he went back on an earlier pledge to
step down next year mainly because he believed his party would fall apart in
his absence as “greedy” factions were impatient for power.

            A senior Zanu-PF official told the Mail & Guardian this
week: “Quite frankly we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves. There is
agitation from his [Mugabe’s] peers wanting a chance to lead and there is
that layer below the liberation heroes, the younger leaders, also really
impatient to get a look in.”

            But, he said: “I don’t think a lot of people would want to
leave Zanu-PF and all the opportunities it presents.”

            There is the opinion that part of the Movement for
Democratic Change’s failure can be blamed on its lack of “liberation
credentials” and that a Zanu-PF splinter group would fill such a gap in the
opposition. However, analysts said any Zanu-PF splinter group would need
some sort of alliance with the existing opposition to stand a chance of
making an impact, but that such coalitions would lead to inevitable
differences over policy.

Zimbabwe - A symptom of Africa

Blogger News Network

December 3rd, 2007 by Peter Davies
Why, in a whole continent of failed countries is Zimbabwe the most tragic of
them all?  Under severe Western pressure, Rhodesia was forced to capitulate
to Marxist terrorists, and Mugabe assumed power in 1980.  During
“independence” celebrations for the newly re-named Zimbabwe, two of Mugabe’s
most active supporters – President Samora Machel of Mozambique, and
President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania told him “You have the jewel of Africa
in your hands… Now look after it.”
What was so different about Zimbabwe, and why did Mugabe’s fellow Marxists
regard the former Rhodesia as the “jewel of Africa”?
Rhodesia (along with South Africa) was one of the few African countries
occupied permanently by European (predominantly, but not exclusively
British) settlers.  It was NOT a British Colony.  Elsewhere, Colonial
Administrators merely managed affairs for the benefit of their Home
Governments before going “home” to retire, or for another posting elsewhere
in the Empire.  This was the case in both (Portuguese) Mozambique and in
Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika, under German Rule until the end of World War
1, then mandated to Britain).
On the contrary, self-governing Rhodesia benefitted from generations of
settlers who cared about the country they’d come to live in.  By the 1970s,
there were second and third generation white settlers in Rhodesia.  They had
every interest in developing infrastructure such as roads, water reservoirs,
pipelines, sewerage, electricity supplies, education, commercial farming,
mines and industry; and in preserving civilised government.  Most black
Rhodesians were contented, and a growing well-to-do African middle class,
who were entitled to vote, was developing.  By contrast, Mugabe’s, and other
African Nationalists’ call was for “one-man-one-vote”.  Rhodesians had seen
that, in the rest of Africa, this invariably meant “one-man-one-vote… ONCE”.
This is what the long Rhodesian Civil War was all about – not white against
black, but western values against Marxism.  There were far more black than
white professional soldiers and policemen in Rhodesia.
The “one-man-one-vote… once” concerns of decent Rhodesian blacks and whites
have, sadly been proven in Zimbabwe – so called elections are not free or
fair and never have been.  But then “democracy” only works in Africa as long
as the voters choose to vote for the Party that is in power.  The moment
there is a threat to the ruling party, elections become even more rigged and
violent.  Last week, Mugabe’s thugs forced thousands of reluctant but
terrified “supporters” to attend a rally in support of his candidature for
yet another term in office as President of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s infrastructure is collapsing, and the country that was the
breadbasket of Africa has become another BASKET CASE in Africa.

END

Author, Peter Davies was a soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975, where he
took part in the capture and interrogation of terrorists.  His novel,
Scatterlings of Africa, is based on his own experience during Rhodesia’s war
on terror, and personal observations of how terrorist activities impacted
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and its people.

Readers who would like to make a contribution to help innocent pensioners,
who are unable to buy food and other basic necessities in Zimbabwe, should
please contact Patricia Williams by email patashnix@btinternet.com.

Protest Mugabe's attendance at EU-Africa Summit

Dear colleagues,

This Friday President Robert Mugabe will be landing in Lisbon ahead of the
EU-Africa Summit on 8th-9th December 2007. The current the EU Common
Position on Zimbabwe restricts President Mugabe and members of his
government from travelling to EU due to its gross human rights violations.
The situation has not improved but worsened since the travel ban was first
imposed. The inconsistency on the part of the EU is very disappointing and
allowing President Mugabe to attend the summit will lend legitimacy to his
regime and grant him the platform for his destructive propaganda rather than
an opportunity for engagement of world leaders.

Join ACTSA in a demonstration outside the Portuguese Embassy, 11 Belgrave
Square, London, SW1X 8PP nearest tube Knightsbridge at 12.30pm - 2pm on
Thursday 6th December.
If you are unable to attend this demonstration or you wish to make your
voice heard please send an email to European Commission President José
Manuel Barroso
(http://www.actsa.org/Pages/Page.php?pID=1283&title=Protest%20Mugabe\)
Please let ACTSA know if you are able to attend, email: campaigns@actsa.org
In solidarity.

Simon Chase
Campaigns Officer

Action for Southern Africa
231 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London
SW1V 1EH

T: +44 (0) 20 3263 2001
M: +44 (0) 78 0939 6128
F: +44 (0) 20 7931 9398

Skype: simonactsa
E: simon.chase@actsa.org
W: www.actsa.org

Join the campaign against unfair corporate contracts which are crippling
Zambia. Visit www.actsa.org

Anglican Priest threatening his colleagues in Harare

3 December 2007

By Precious Shumba

Harare- AN Anglican priest stationed at St Columbus Church in Kuwadzana,
Alfred Munyanyi on Sunday 2 December 2007 took the matter of the ouster of
Nolbert Kunonga as the head of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Harare
into his own hands when he abandoned service at his congregation to go on a
campaign of intimidation and harassment of laity, priests and church
wardens.

He threatened them with unspecified action, vowing that they would be
severely punished for their endorsement of the newly appointed Bishop of the
Diocese of Harare under the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA)
Sebastian Bakare.

Munyanyi, using a white pick up truck registration number ABC2490, went to
St Paul's in Highfield, St Elizabeth in Belvedere and at the Anglican
Cathedral in the Central Business District where he threatened the priests
and warned them against supporting Bishop Bakare. He was accompanied by six
other men, believed to be hired hooligans to instill fear into the hearts
and minds of the church leaders supporting Bishop Bakare.

The Anglican Diocese of Harare covers Mashonaland East, West, Central and
Harare provinces.

When called on his mobile number (011 405 299), Munyanyi , also formerly the
Chaplain of the Anglican Vabvuwi Guild said he will discipline everyone who
opposed Kunonga and will do everything within his capacity to unleash
'security people to all churches to stop Bakare from holding further
services in Harare'.
Munyanyi said: "We are in a state of crisis. I will visit people who support
Kunonga in their homes, and they will sing in praise of Kunonga once I have
done something to them. I want to come to your house and beat you up.'

Eye witnesses at the visited churches say Munyanyi was disguised in boxer
shorts, a t-shirt and a sunhat instead of being in his priesthood attire.
Kunonga voluntarily left the Anglican Church in October and tendered his
resignation with the then Arch-Bishop of the CPCA, Bishop Malango, who
accepted his resignation.

On 7 November 2007, the Dean of the CPCA Alfred Chama appointed Bakare as
the Acting Bishop and also the Vicar General of the Diocese of Harare (CPCA)
until a new Bishop is properly elected within a year at a properly
constituted Synod (Church annual general meeting).

Since his appointment, Bakare has been credited with coordinating the
activities of the Diocese of Harare by holding successive weekly meetings at
various churches where priests, churchwardens and laity have attended and
endorsed his appointment and dissociated themselves from Kunonga.

Despite the overwhelming support being given to Bishop Bakare, it is widely
believed that only Reverend Munyanyi and Reverend Wisdom Changoza of St
James Anglican Church in Warren Park have refused to recognize Bishop
Bakare.

Changoza and Munyanyi are part of a group of untrained priests, drawn from
the Vabvuwi Guild to spy on liberal priests, church wardens and laity who
opposed his dictatorial leadership of the Anglican Church.  Munyanyi was
imposed on the Vabvuwi Guild to try to manage the Guild which is totally
opposed to Kunonga after he banished them from using the word 'Amen' in
prayer in also banished them from carrying out healing sessions for the sick
and troubled during overnight prayer vigils.

At a meeting held at St Michaels Anglican Parish in Mbare,  attended by 70
delegates from the 72 parishes in the Diocese of Harare, it was resolved
that Changoza and Munyanyi be replaced by compliant priests who understand
their canonical obligations as enshrined in the Provincial Canons and the
Acts of the Diocese of Harare (CPCA).

Key resolutions that have been made include the withholding of monthly
assessments to the Church account in which Kunonga is a signatory, convening
of vestry meetings at which the laity makes a resolution on where they stand
in this crisis and replacing all the priests that continue to collaborate
with Kunonga in destabilizing the Church by removing them from the Church
premises.

The Commonwealth: punching below weight

Open Democracy

Michael Holman

The Commonwealth's evasion of the plight of Zimbabwe at its Kampala meeting
reflects a failure to live up to its own principles, says Michael Holman.

3 - 12 - 2007

We punch above our weight, claimed Commonwealth leaders who held their
biennial heads-of-government summit (CHOGM) in the Ugandan capital Kampala
on 23-25 November 2007.

Who did they think they were fooling?

Far from having a disproportionate influence on world affairs, the
Commonwealth comes across as a punch-drunk fighter living on past memories
and false hopes: not trading blows on center-stage, but shadow-boxing
outside the main ring, where the real action is taking place.

The organisation has a lot in its favour. It embraces nearly 2 billion
people from fifty-four countries spanning the globe. A shared colonial
history and common language are at its foundations, but the acceptance of
Rwanda's membership application at Kampala indicates (as did Mozambique's
entry in 1995) that these are capable of flexible interpretation. The
Commonwealth includes the world's main religions, and its fastest growing
economies as well as some of the world's smallest and poorest states. For
countries in this last category, it is an invaluable source of expert advice
and friendly assistance, covering every subject from how to get external
debt relief to how to prevent their banks from being used for
money-laundering.

Michael Holman was Africa editor of the Financial Times, 1984-2002. He is
the author of the novels Last Orders at Harrods: An African Tale Polygon,
2005; republished by Abacus, 2007) and the sequel, Fatboy and the Dancing
Ladies (Polygon, 2007)A version of this article was published in the Daily
Nation (Nairobi), 2 December 2007

But the Commonwealth can be a rough neighborhood, with some tough
street-fighters throwing their weight around, making bosses who boast about
mixing it with the big boys look foolish. If the Commonwealth is not to
drift further into irrelevance, it needs to deal with these thugs and
bullies on its block.

It must drop its pretensions, and lower its sights. Above all, this "global
club" must stay true to its principles. In short, the Commonwealth needs to
become less ambitious and much braver if it is to be more effective.

Gentlemen vs street-fighters

In Kampala, however, it continued to tilt at issues beyond its reach, at the
expense of problems it should be confronting. The windy and pompous
communiqué issued at the end of the three-day gathering provided little of
substance: trade reform is urgently needed; global warming is a very bad
thing; the millennium development goals need more work if they are to be
achieved; youth is the future; and Pakistan is a "serious violation of the
Commonwealth's fundamental political values".

It is the failure to assert these same values that have sapped the
association of its international influence, and diminishes its presence on
the world stage. And it is a failure that encourages the street-fighters to
brawl, knowing that the Commonwealth won't lay a glove on them - as events
in the run-up to the summit demonstrated:

Biff! A couple of days before the Kampala conference opened, and as
sensitive discussions on Pakistan were getting underway, the Ugandan host -
and new Commonwealth chairman - President Yoweri Museveni chose to wear his
military uniform when meeting former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi.

Bash! Uganda's police and state security officers beat up protesters in
Kampala's city centre on the opening day.

Bang! Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, expresses his contempt for the
Commonwealth which his country left (after a year's suspension was extended)
in 2003.

Crash! Mugabe will, it seems, attend the European Union-Africa conference in
Lisbon on 8-9 December 2007, forcing British prime minister Gordon Brown to
put his threat to boycott the meeting into practice.

Wallop! The Commonwealth response on these issues could not have been
feebler: not a word was said.

It all could have been very different had Commonwealth leaders not lost
their commitment and sense of purpose long before they came to Kampala.

At the previous summit in Malta, in November 2005, they failed to press
Museveni by insisting that his harassment of opposition leaders was
unacceptable; instead they confirmed Kampala as the venue for the 2007
summit. Meanwhile Zimbabwe was, as it has continued to be, swept under the
carpet. There was not single reference to the former member in either the
2005 or 2007 official Commonwealth reports - the country and its problems
might not have existed.

It does not have to be this way. It was a Commonwealth summit in the Zambian
capital of Lusaka in 1979 that laid the foundations for Zimbabwe's
independence elections in 1980. And it was in Harare in October 1991 that
the Commonwealth recovered its dignity after years of indulging the
dictators in its ranks: in the "Harare principles", members reaffirmed their
commitment to human rights, good governance and the rule of law.

If the association had maintained these values over the years that followed,
its credibility would have been sustained. True, some of the most flagrant
abusers of the Harare principles were brought to task (such as Fiji and
Nigeria), but in the case of the military regime in Abuja, the Commonwealth
moved with shameful reluctance. Kampala offered an opportunity to revive the
Commonwealth's values. It was not taken.

A lost bout

It might have been otherwise. In an under-reported speech in Wiesbaden,
Germany on 4 November 2007, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'adua delivered one
of the strongest condemnations of Robert Mugabe to come from an African
leader. "I want to emphasise that what is happening in Zimbabwe is not in
conformity with the rule of law. I do not subscribe to this", Yar'adua said.

If the Commonwealth leaders had asked President Yar'adua to speak for it at
the Lisbon meeting, delivering the same speech to Robert Mugabe's face, it
would have made it easier for Gordon Brown to change his mind and respond to
the Nigerian foreign minister's appeal in Kampala: "We need him in Lisbon."
Alas, no such thing happened.

The Kampala summit missed another opportunity in relation to the desperate
condition of Zimbabwe. The Commonwealth could have seized a practical role
in leading and coordinating reconstruction efforts by calling on the world
to commit generously in cash and kind to the country's recovery.

Zimbabwe's needs are pressing: fuel for its vehicles, medicine for its
clinics and hospitals, books for its schools, buses for transport, and seeds
and fertiliser for its farmers.

The promise of such help, which could be on its way within days of the
restoration of democracy, would encourage Zimbabwe's citizens in their
battle for political change. Indeed, such a promise could conceivably help
bring about a return to democracy sooner rather than later (see "Dizzy worms
in Zimbabwe", 19 March 2007).

The likelihood, however, is that the Commonwealth has thrown away its chance
as it continues to avoid the issue. The tragedy is that this defeat of its
principles will not be at the hands of a giant opponent - but humiliation by
a small-town bully. Far from punching above its weight, the Commonwealth has
shown itself afraid to fight.

The last days of Zimbabwe

Le Monde Diplomatique
December 2007

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, at 83, has outlived Ian Smith, the
final white leader of Rhodesia, who died last month. In 1980 Mugabe began
with a working democracy, a sound infrastructure and a healthy economy.
Inflation is now the highest in the world; there is no work and little
food - and what is available is used to control the remaining population
By Aoife Kavanagh

Some 40 golfers braved the midday heat to battle for the big prize on a
parched nine-hole golf course that had seen better days. The winner of the
weekend competition at the Hornung Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second city, would walk away with 25 litres of unleaded petrol. "Last
weekend, first prize was a box of vegetables," a wiry veteran explained as
he shaped up to tee off. "Veggies are welcome, but the petrol prize is
something special, it's like gold dust these days."

In Zimbabwe, a white elite who once lived a charmed existence can barely
manage to fill their fuel tanks. And years of economic and political
mismanagement threaten the lives of the majority black population. Four out
of every five black Zimbabweans live below the poverty line. Every wage
earner is feeding almost 20 people from a monthly salary. Just over a decade
ago the life expectancy of the average Zimbabwean woman was 66. Today it is
33. The central bank's foreign exchange reserves have been destroyed;
supermarket shelves are bare.

When President Robert Mugabe came to power in 1980 the country was thriving.
Its health and education services were the envy of the region and, thanks to
a first-class infrastructure and a healthy economy, the future looked
bright. It doesn't look like that now.

Last Friday the ritual queuing began at first light in the centre of the
capital, Harare. As dawn broke, two separate lines intertwined on the corner
of Lake Takawira Street. The longest was motivated by a rumour that
circulated around the city overnight that there was bread in town. Up and
down the line people were on mobile phones, texting and calling friends to
give them the latest information. Yet many people walked away empty-handed.
When bread and flour do come on the market, they are often bought up in bulk
and sold on at inflated prices on the black market, which is the real
market.

It's not just bread. Those who have the purchasing power buy what they can
maize, cooking oil or beans often at government-subsidised prices. Instead
of supplying the domestic market, they export the goods to neighbouring
Mozambique or Botswana to earn precious foreign currency, although the
poorest in Zimbabwe can barely afford one meal a day.

"If I don't get the bread today, who knows, maybe I won't be able to afford
it tomorrow," a woman in the bread queue told me. She was probably right.
Within a month inflation, which already stood at 7,900%, the highest in the
world, was widely reported to have jumped to 14,000% (1). For those lucky
enough to have a job unemployment is about 80% inflation rates destroy their
wages. Teachers are still being paid around 12m Zimbabwean dollars a month,
about the cost of six litres of cooking oil.

Absence of cash
The second queue was for the Post Office Savings Bank where scores lined up
to withdraw money. The value of the Zim dollar (2) has fallen so sharply
that the government can't print enough notes to keep up with demand. On a
bad day, by the time the last in line reaches the cash dispenser the
currency will once again have fallen in value.

The government further tightened the screw on the availability of hard cash
by halving the daily limit one person can withdraw from an ATM. The queues
on Takawira Street will lengthen.

The impact of this economic meltdown is much more serious than having to
birdie the ninth to fill a fuel tank or being forced to stand in line for
cash. Four million citizens will need food donations to make it through the
next four months. Zimbabwe gets much of its electricity from South Africa
but supply is at best sporadic a direct effect of the fact that Mugabe's
government can't pay its electricity bills. All over the country, dams are
drying up and people are digging their own wells or making do with foul
water supplies.

The downward spiral of the economy even affects the dead. In rural areas
people can no longer afford to buy coffins for their loved ones. Neither can
they afford to register their deaths. Nobody knows exactly how many people
are dying in Zimbabwe from hunger or disease. In Bulawayo, the state-owned
newspaper, the Chronicle, regularly published the number of deaths from
starvation until the government banned that.

Contaminated water, poor nutrition and a HIV/Aids rate of 15% would put
heavy demands on any health service. But in Zimbabwe it is failing people
when they need it most. Public hospitals are almost at a halt; if a patient
needs a simple procedure, like a couple of stitches or an injection, the
instruments or antiseptic might not be available. Two weeks ago, three of
the main hospitals were without electricity for more than four days. Fires
burned outside the kitchen doors so staff could cook to feed patients. Half
of all medical posts are now vacant as doctors leave for London, Dublin or
Sydney.

Absence of medicines
Dr Andrew Fairbairn, a white Zimbabwean, whose family has been here for two
generations, is one of the few who haven't left. He runs a private clinic on
the outskirts of Harare. Every week he watches the gradual decay of the
health system. "Medical care is almost not available to people who can't
afford it, so that someone needing surgery or chronic medication cannot get
it." He was making plans to travel to Baghdad for two months as a
doctor-for-hire to earn foreign currency before coming home. He is
struggling to keep his clinic going because of the severe drugs shortages
and the spiralling cost of treatment. "It's shocking to see some elderly
people coming in here, wasting away, losing weight because they can barely
afford to buy food," he said. "Many people are cutting their medication in
half, or not taking it at all. They come to me and ask me which of their
medicines they can do without because they can't pay for them."

The shortage of medicines has placed pharmacists in the frontline of the
battle to treat a population in desperate need of care. Restricted by price
or unavailability, pharmacists occasionally stock medicines not registered
by the Zimbabwean authorities. Friends of Fairbairn have been arrested and
thrown in jail for days for attempting to supply their customers with drugs
they need. "A couple of pharmacies have been closed down. It's common for
them to be arrested on a Friday so that they squirm in an overcrowded cell
all weekend without access to a lawyer," he said.

Fairbairn claimed he was determined to stay in Zimbabwe no matter how much
conditions deteriorate. "I feel an obligation to stay until things come
right again." And when might that be? "I am thinking something might change
after next year's elections, but then I am a committed optimist."

'Support the ruling party'
Robert Gabriel Mugabe believes he knows the outcome of the presidential
elections next March; he will win. In almost three decades in power, he has
efficiently quelled dissent and outmanoeuvred all opponents. He has been
consistent in ensuring his ruling party, Zanu-PF, always succeeds at the
ballot box. And he uses every means: intimidation, torture, forced exile.
Infiltration of communities and of the opposition, by his Central
Intelligence Office (CIO), help him stay in total control.

But as the economy of Zimbabwe continues to disintegrate, his most effective
tool is the manipulation of food for political ends. Through the
state-controlled Grain Marketing Board, the government holds the sole right
to import and distribute maize, the staple of millions of Zimbabweans.
Throughout the country, as elections loom, the message is clear: support the
ruling party and you will not starve.

'Show your Zanu-PF card'
Jacob switched on the battered radio and his small, dilapidated shack was
flooded with pounding hip-hop. His baby daughter lying on the couch woke
with a start as our small group pulled a little closer together. "Just so
they will not hear us talking," Jacob said, explaining that CIO operations
are common in the area. "Now you can go ahead and ask your questions."

His home is in Tafara, a huge township about 20km west of Harare. Jacob is a
monitor with the Zimbabwean Peace Project (ZPP), a human rights NGO which
tracks political violence and intimidation. On the couch beside him was
Saveri Mafunga, 32, a victim of Mugabe's efforts to shore up support ahead
of the 2008 elections. He was refused subsidised food because he does not
support Zanu-PF.

Saveri's voice shook a little. He was nervous. He knew it was dangerous to
talk to journalists or human rights groups. It is officially illegal to
criticise the government. Unofficially, he could be beaten or tortured for
doing so. One side of his face was lit by the sun streaming through the
window and he looked gaunt and tired as he said he was sick with worry that
he wouldn't be able to feed his wife and baby daughter.

Two weeks before, he went to a government food distribution point near his
home. Officials were handing out maize, beans and cooking oil at subsidised
prices, all that most people can afford now. He checked if his name was on
the register and was relieved to see it was. For months he had hustled for
part-time work, but there wasn't nearly enough to keep up with runaway
prices.

"When I got to the top of the queue I was asked to show my Zanu-PF card," he
explained. "I do not have one and they told me that even though my name was
on the list, that I was entitled to food, there would be nothing for me."
The government official told him that there was no record his attendance at
Zanu-PF meetings and if he wanted food, he should get it from Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe. "I am also
asked for a Zanu party card when I look for work and often there is no work
without it," he said. "I don't know what we are going to do now to survive.
Anything I have, I get from friends and from good neighbours."

This has been declared a drought year in Zimbabwe and now is the beginning
of the hungry season. Human rights organisations say the government is using
food as a political tool against millions of people who are now at their
most vulnerable. The ZPP has recorded hundreds of people being refused
subsidised food because they don't support Zanu-PF. Their project director,
Jestina Mukoko, fears this tactic will have the desired effect at the ballot
box: "People might be forced to vote with their stomachs, simply because
they want to guarantee their food. For many people it is a matter of
survival."

The project has evidence of discrimination against those too young to vote.
Some households, where both parents are dead and the eldest child is caring
for younger siblings, are being denied food if the parents were suspected or
known to have supported the opposition. "Children are having to suffer for
the 'sins' of their parents," Jestina claimed. "To want to see somebody go
hungry when food is available is inhuman. I think it is within the powers of
the authorities to sort it out."

The government has free rein to manipulate its own subsidised food and has
also attempted to interfere in the distribution of international food
donations. Between now and next March, the UN World Food Programme will feed
3 million in Zimbabwe. When WFP officials first negotiated the distribution
of donor food, there was a stand-off with the government. The ruling party
wanted community chiefs - most of them loyal to Mugabe - to decide where the
food would go. The WFP refused to go along with this but has occasionally
been forced to suspend distribution because politicians have, to quote a WFP
spokesman, "tried to make their presence felt" at distribution points. "We
have a very rigorous and thorough process in place for handing out food,
from registration all the way through to distribution. The beneficiaries get
food strictly on the basis of need," the spokesman said.

Justina Mukoko believes there is a low level of manipulation of
international donations: "Lists are compiled in the community and I think it
takes the international organisations some time to realise that people are
being left out."

Hope of exile
"I think it would be better if we were killing each other in the streets
every night," the owner of a small hotel in Bulawayo told me as we shared a
beer on my last evening in the country. "Then perhaps the world would have
to do something." That day he had been forced to serve notice to half his
staff and feared he would soon have to leave the country.

Instead, Zimbabweans suffer a slow strangulation of their society.
Intimidation by the government is crushing them. Fear prevents most people
from speaking out or rising up. If they can, they leave. Each week, more and
more families are being ripped apart as husbands or wives, or both, leave
their children behind and make for Mozambique, South Africa or Botswana.

Most people have two hopes: that they will make it safely across the
crocodile-infested Limpopo river, which forms a natural barrier between
Zimbabwe and South Africa, and find a way to survive in exile; or that their
83-year-old president will not live to inflict many more years of chaos and
oppression on his people.

Zimbabwe: A Revolution Eating Its Own Children

www.journal-online.co.uk

Examination of the state of affairs in Zimbabwe, and the factors behind the
chaos.

Conrad Nyamutata
03 December 2007

Ian Douglas Smith, the former Rhodesian leader who died recently, will be
infamously remembered for his statement that black people in the Southern
African state—now Zimbabwe—would never be allowed to rule themselves in a
thousand years.

Smith’s resistance to black rule led to a unilateral declaration of
independence from Britain in 1965 and, later, severe repression and a
seven-year guerrilla war, costing about 30,000 lives, most of them black
fighters and civilians. Independence came to Zimbabwe in 1980 with President
Robert Mugabe, now president of the former British colony, playing a key
role as liberation war leader.

But twenty-seven years later, Zimbabweans are now seeing erstwhile
unimaginable similarities between Mugabe—a darling of the international
community at independence—and Smith, the white supremacist. Some of Zimbabwe’s
older generation, who suffered at the hands of the Rhodesian leader’s brutal
regime, are looking back at Smith’s era with a sense of admiration for the
state of the economy at the time.

Such sentiment has a plausible basis. President Mugabe’s repression and poor
governance has left Zimbabwe hurtling down the tubes, plunging what was once
the bread basket of Africa into a crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Zimbabwe’s economic woes result from a series of disastrous political
decisions by President Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party. As greed set in,
Zanu PF parcelled out millions of dollars to its members under a war victims
compensation fund. Ridiculously, some government ministers were awarded
thousands of dollars, claiming disability resulting from the war while
performing their duties without hindrance.

But serious economic meltdown sped up after Zimbabwe sent 11,000 troops to
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1998, to prop up the government of
President Joseph Kabila against rebel forces. Zimbabweans remain puzzled
about the decision to engage in this war. It has, however, emerged that the
ill-advised military adventure was motivated more by self-interest than the
philanthropic desire to save Kabila from rebel onslaught. Investigations
suggested Zanu PF officials eyed diamonds in the DRC.

However, the more recent cause of the current problems is Zimbabwe's land
reform programme. Most of the country's most productive farmland remained in
white hands after independence in 1980, and through the 1990s the government
of President Mugabe worked to shift ownership. By 1999, however, with little
movement, the government unveiled plans to seize land without compensation –
a process which started in earnest the following year.

As hundreds of farms were taken over—sometimes by local people, often by
senior government officials—production, and export, of grain and tobacco
collapsed. The result was a food crisis, and a battering for the economy as
foreign exchange earnings slumped – both from farming and from tourism, amid
violence surrounding the land reform programme.

Today, Zimbabwe has the fastest shrinking economy in the world. The economic
decline has been coupled with horrendous human rights abuses. President
Mugabe’s determination to suppress political challenge is almost akin to
Smith’s ill-famed “not in a thousand years” pronouncement, but this time
against the opposition in independent Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean leader has even inherited some of the repressive legislation
from Smith’s toolkit and added his own. The Law and Order Maintenance Act
used by Smith’s regime has now been refined into the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA). The latter—which requires the opposition and civic
groups to seek police permission before holding meetings—has proved a handy
tool to crush any form of popular protest. Opposition and leaders of civic
society have been battered with impunity.

The Daily News, for which I worked, was bombed twice before it was
eventually shut down in 2003, thanks to another piece of draconian media
legislation. While the world pre-occupies itself with Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, North Korea and Sudan, Zimbabwe is suffering a silent crisis.
Over the years, Zimbabwe has merely flashed intermittently on the
international radar. This has resulted from President Mugabe’s harsh media
laws, referred to earlier, which have also barred the international media in
addition to emasculating the local independent press in Zimbabwe. Writing in
the Press Gazette eight months ago, I stated that the sad story of Zimbabwe
had been reduced to a spasmodic narrative.

So the focus on Zimbabwe has not been sustained. Some have claimed Zimbabwe
does not enjoy internal focus because it does not have oil. I am not sure
about this school of thought. My view is that Zimbabwe has lacked any
sustained dramatic activity or war. On the one hand, Zimbabwe is fortunate
in that it has not suffered any full-fledged civil war to draw continuous
focus. On the other, that lack of civil war has meant that Zimbabwe has
attracted minimal attention.

Britain, for example, has washed its hands of the Zimbabwean case for fear
of having the dispute labelled a bilateral one between the former coloniser
and former colonial state – a message that President Mugabe has trotted out
and that has found resonance in Southern Africa in particular.

And yet the Zimbabwean situation and statistics rival those of war-torn
countries. Inflation is at well over 7,000 per cent, life expectancy reduced
to 34 years for women and 37 for men. The country is experiencing a chronic
shortage of food, fuel, electricity, and drugs, among other basic
essentials.

The tragedy of the Zimbabwean situation is that the state of the political
economy has alienated the majority of Zimbabweans from the political
processes in the country. In essence, Zimbabweans have relinquished the
determination of their destiny to politicians while they concentrate on what
some describe as “the politics of the stomach.” Most people wake up each
morning concerned about feeding themselves and their families. This has
entailed standing for long hours in the queues for expensive goods in short
supply.

Fathers and mothers are looking for ways of fending for their families. As a
result, politics and political agitation has become secondary. It is
understandable: for most of us, self-preservation would be the primary
concern. In any case, political agitation comes with its own risks.
Politicians and civic leaders have been beaten up with impunity.

As someone once remarked, politics is not for the hungry. So Zimbabweans at
this point in time are primarily concerned about bringing food to their
tables rather than the long-term concerns about political transformation.
Zimbabweans now look to the politicians negotiating under a Southern African
Development Community (SADC) initiative—led by South African President Thabo
Mbeki—to bring them salvation. Sadly, Zimbabwe is a story about a revolution
eating its own children.

Weekly water watch

From Bulawayo Morning Mirror

Bulawayo's second last dam Inyankuni has now now been de-commissioned.

This leaves Insiza Dam only to service a city of over 2 million people.
Insiza is gravity fed
and can supply only 40 000 cubic metres of water a day to a city that needs
over 100 000
a day in normal times.

Water will now only be delivered to the CBD twice a week and to residential
properties
once a week.

Graduate Alive, Students Body Tells Students

Zimbabwejournalists.com

3rd Dec 2007 08:56 GMT

By Zinasu

HARARE - Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) joins the rest of the
world in commemorating World AIDS Day. This years' Global theme is focusing
on 'leadership' .

Unfortunatley, as a direct result of obtrusive leadership failure, Zimbabwe
remains one of the worst affected countries with more than 3000 people dying
of HIV/AIDS-related diseases every week. Further, Ruffian leadership,
unbridled corruption and flagrant violations of human rights and fundamental
freedoms has led to the exclusion of Zimbabwe from the beneficiaries of the
Global AIDS Fund this year.

Students in Zimbabwe, just like most youths have not being spared by the
HIV/AIDS incubus. The scary socio-economic and political climate obtaining
in Zimbabwe has forced many students to unwillingly engage in prostitution
as a coping strategy.

Female students are the worst affected. This year, on the 9th of July, the
Vice Chancellor at the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Levy Nyagura
unilaterally closed all the Halls of Residence at the campus, rendering more
than 5600 students homeless. The female students occupied 5 of the 7 Halls
of Residence which were closed.

Tragically, many female students had to seek shelter to their distant
relatives, male-friends among others thereby exposing them to sexual abuse.
It is also allegedly that some unscrupulous public transport operators are
now demanding 'free' sex for a 'free' ride.

To further compound the situation, the Government of Zimbabwe long ceased
the provision of student loans and/or grants. This has left more than 80% of
students in Zimbabwe living in extreme, abject and chronic poverty. Put
differently, the majority of students in our country are surviving on less
than U$1 per day.

Both male and female condoms are being sold at the black market rate which
is way beyond the reach of many students in the present day Zimbabwe.

However, according to UNICEF, it is encouraging to note that the overall HIV
prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees (pregnant women) decreased from
25.7per cent in 2002 to 21.3per cent (2004) and now to 17.7per cent in 2006.
Basing on this, Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and
international experts now estimate the HIV zero-prevalence rate among
Zimbabwe's adult population to be  15.6 per cent.

Zimbabwe was one of the first countries to develop a comprehensive
epidemiological review which resulted in an evidence-based behaviour change
strategy. Promotion of partner reduction and consistent condom use remain at
the core of the strategy.

Mindful of the foregoing, we call upon all students to protect themselves
from the deadly virus and make sure that we GRADUATE ALIVE.

Teachers union demands salary raises to avoid strike

By Tererai Karimakwenda
03 December, 2007

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has notified the
government that teachers will not return to work when the next term begins
in January, unless they are awarded salaries and other benefits that total a
minimum of Z$318 for the first term. PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe
said the teachers met at their annual Congress recently and resolved that
this time they will not budge, and failure by government to meet this bare
minimum will lead to a strike.

Majongwe explained that the Z$318 million includes a basic salary of Z$150
million, a transport allowance of Z$88 million and Z$80 million for housing
allowance. Asked whether any offer below this would avert a strike, Majongwe
said: "If the government is interested in saving the institution of
education then Z$318 million is the bare minimum that is acceptable."

Experienced teachers are currently earning about Z$17 million per month,
with new graduates earning Z$14 million or less. Majongwe said: "This time
around we are not changing and we are not budging because ultimately if we
don't defend out profession we are as good as killing the country."
The outspoken PTUZ leader said teachers are leaving in large numbers and
going to South Africa where the government initiated a recruitment drive
after experiencing a serious shortage of teaching staff. Majongwe complained
that a serious shortage of teachers exists in Zimbabwe because of this. He
said the government is now inviting back teachers who were fired for various
criminal behaviour. "It is a sad scenario that they are bringing misfits and
miscreants", said Majongwe.

Majongwe also warned that a head to head confrontation with teachers is
inevitable, if their demands are not met. He explained that they would
rather avoid such an outcome, but teachers can no longer support their
families in a country with the highest inflation in the world.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Zimbabweans to pay more for passports

Mail and Guardian

Johannesburg, South Africa

03 December 2007 08:51

      Passport fees in Zimbabwe have been increased, Zimbabwe's
government mouthpiece Herald newspaper reported on Monday.

      The fees were last reviewed in May this year.

      According to a notice at the registrar-general's office in
Harare, an ordinary passport for an adult now costs Z$5-million, up from
Z$150 000, the report said.

      An ordinary passport for a child under the age of 12 now costs
Z$2,5-million, up from Z$75 000.

      An adult executive passport processed within 24 hours now costs
Z$20-million and Z$10-million for a child under the age of 12, up from
Z$1-million and Z$500 000 respectively, the paper said.

      The registrar-general's office revised the cost of an adult
passport processed within three days from Z$600 000 to Z$16-million with a
child less than 12 years now paying Z$8-million, up from Z$300 000.

      An adult passport issued within seven working days now costs
Z$14-million, up from ZS500 000.

      A child under the age of 12 will now be required to pay
Z$7-million from Z$250 000 to get a passport within seven days.

      Processing of an adult passport within 14 working days now costs
Z$10-million, up from Z$400 000, and Z$5-million for a child less than 12
years, up from Z$200 000.

      The fee for an emergency passport after working hours has been
adjusted from Z$1,5-million to Z$25-million.

      For lost and defaced passports, the penalty fee has been raised
from Z$500 000 to Z$8-million.

      Those wishing to add another name on their travel documents, be
it a child or spouse, will pay Z$2,5-million, the Herald said.

      Failure to declare a lost passport now attracts a Z$12-million
fine while a passport application form now costs Z$1-million.

      Although registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede could not be reached
for comment, previous increases in passport fees have been attributed to
production costs as the paper used in making passports is imported. - Sapa

Chiwoniso Speaks Out Against Cop Brutality

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

2 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007

John Mokwetsi

MBIRA songbird Chiwoniso Maraire has spoken candidly about her thoughts on
police brutality in Zimbabwe and how it has affected her personally, as a
musician.

In an interview with Freemuse, an organisation advocating artists' freedom
of expression, she said police brutality was "a very bad thing".

The interview was conducted in Denmark where Maraire was performing
alongside poet Chirikure Chirikure, and the Book Café's creative director
Paul Brickhill.

The trio also gave presentations at a seminar entitled "Zimbabwe
Uncensored".

In a video interview Maraire said: "To beat people, to threaten people, to
put a person in a situation where they have to think for the next five hours
about whether or not they are going to be okay -- is a very, very bad thing
to do.

"Like, I had a situation when I performed at the Book Café when riot police
walked in. All of these things now start to come into your work as an
artist, and it puts you in a situation where now you really have to start
thinking about what you are saying and what you are doing. So . . . -- 
dicy!"

Many musicians have been banned on Zimbabwe's state radio and television for
daring to express their political views, about the dire Zimbabwe situation,
with inflation hovering at about 14 000%.

Musicians, such as Leonard Zhakata, Thomas Mapfumo and Viomak have been
victims of this unofficial ban, which was done outside the Censorship Act
but in political offices.

Maraire said: "We have a responsibility. We are not bankers, we are not
doctors, we are not nurses.

"We have another part that we play in society that must be done. So,
regardless of whether the system is going to come in and say: 'Cut what you
are saying', going to send riot cops in to your shows, going to come and
arrest you and (say) 'We are going to try and put you (in jail) . . .' -- it
doesn't matter. We have a responsibility."

Chirikure said artists had a role and their message should be kept alive. He
said music eventually was the winner when confronted by the politicians.

Chirikure said: "One thing which has really kept me going is that in any
culture music is always there in historical situations. The Bible, for
example, talks about the walls of Jericho falling through music.

"And if song and dance destroyed colonialism in Africa why can't it handle
dictators? It will, eventually. Like we said: Poetry and music will always
be there, long after the politicians (have gone)."

Chirikure attacked "the system", saying those employed by the government to
come and threaten artists as they performed or to write bad stories in
newspapers about a particular musician, were only showing that it was very
difficult to put structures which actually controlled the musician's voice.

Brickhill said: "I find it amazing in Zimbabwe that as the crisis has
escalated over the last 10 years, so the role of music and musicians, and
the number of musicians, and the importance of musicians, has grown
phenomenally."

The trio spoke largely on how musicians had resorted to being clever with
their lyrics to convey a message that only the community would appreciate
and understand.

They said: "To someone who is in a situation of struggle, of strive, the
moment you talk about 'I wish I could travel to the village, to Mary, and
kiss you, Mary', it is loaded with meaning.

"The voice is literally saying: 'I have no fuel to drive to the village' or
'There is no fuel for the bus to ferry me to the village', so there is a
deeper underlying message about which innocent ministry or government
officials think . . . 'Okay, they are just dancing (and singing) about their
community problems . . .'

"But it is the deeper underlying messages which keep the community going,
keep the society going."

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

BY RUMBIDZAI BVUNZAWABAYA
RBM Solicitors.

The HS decision has been promulgated and it is the new country guidance for
Zimbabwean cases. It has left many people feeling confused and unsure about
the future, whether they will immediately be deported or if there is an
appeal that has been lodged. The purpose of this article is to demystify the
decision and to explain in very simple terms how the decision may affect
individuals.
I will also discuss the proposals that have been put forward by the Home
Office regarding illegal working and proposals regarding the provision of
healthcare services to illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers.

DEMYSTIFYING THE HS CASE
The two main issues that were addressed in the HS case are
Whether the appellant would be at risk on return on account of having made
an unsuccessful claim for asylum in the United Kingdom whether her return
was voluntary or involuntary.
Whether the general country conditions are themselves sufficiently poor as
to enable the appellant to resist removal to Zimbabwe on that account alone.
The Tribunal stated that they do not accept either that all those having
seen as having claimed asylum in the UK will be thought to be supporters of
the MDC on that basis alone. The Tribunal reaffirmed the risk categories set
out in the case of SM and added another risk category of those associated
with the civil society organisations that have attracted adverse interest
from the Zimbabwean authorities will face the same level of risk as those
perceived to be political opponents.
In simple terms this means that not every person who claimed asylum in the
UK will be deemed to be a refugee and will face the risk of persecution if
returned to Zimbabwe. This position had been stated in the earlier case of
SM and that is the position that the Tribunal has been adopting. This
decision in the HS case does not come as a surprise. It has simply
established the country guidance in this matter.

GENERAL COUNTRY CONDITIONS
The comments of the judges in relation to the general conditions in Zimbabwe
are interesting. The legal team in the HS case argued that the general
country conditions in Zimbabwe are now so bad that there would be an
infringement of her rights under article 3 of the ECHR if she were required
to return.

The Tribunal did not accept that the current economic crises and near
collapsed infrastructure is a deliberate, intended consequence of the
actions of the government. The Tribunal stated that the evidence does not
establish that the current country conditions are the intended aim as
opposed to the unintended consequence of government policy. It was further
accepted that poor living conditions are capable of raising an issue under
article 3 if they reach the minimum level of severity.
The learned judges stated that not all the people that are returned to
Zimbabwe will face living conditions sufficiently severe to reach the
article 3 threshold. Each case must be considered on its own merits. There
maybe some people whose living conditions are sufficiently desperate to
establish the required minimum level of severity necessary to engage article
3. The evidence indicates that some have no housing, income, access to basic
services including healthcare and education as well as no dependable source
of drinking water or adequate supply of food or basic shelter.
In HS's case the Tribunal held that they were not satisfied that removing
her to Zimbabwe would bring about an infringement of the United Kingdom's
obligations under Article 3 on account of the general country conditions or
the living conditions that she would be returned to. This however does not
mean that every case will fail. Each case will be determined on its own
merits. The role of an individual's legal representative will be to
distinguish their case from that of HS and invoke an article 3 argument
regarding the general country conditions to their individual circumstances.
It all depends on the circumstances of the case.

REMOVALS TO ZIMBABWE
Is the Borders and Immigration Agency (BIA) already removing failed asylum
seekers? Since the decision of HS has been promulgated I personally have not
heard of any removals that have taken place nor have any been reported in
the press. The BIA has not made any official announcements to state that
they will recommence removals to Zimbabwe.
The BIA may recommence removals or they may not immediately do so. I am
unable to say definitively. The Refugee Council have not made ay
announcements with regard to whether they will appeal this decision and on
what grounds. What is certain however is that the BIA is proposing to make
life very difficult for failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants? There
are two laws that have been proposed which will directly affect failed
asylum seekers and illegal immigrants and I will discuss these briefly.

CHANGES TO NHS TREATMENT FOR FAILED ASYLUM SEEKERS
The rules say asylum seekers should have free NHS care until their
application to stay is refused. Then they may have free care from a GP -
although the some reports say many GP surgeries turn them away. It appears
that not only are the regulations preventing desperately ill people getting
the help they need, it appears they are also preventing people getting the
care they are entitled to.
An Arab with bowel cancer was admitted to hospital as an emergency because
of uncontrolled bleeding. But once the hospital discovered he was a refused
asylum seeker, he was billed for thousands of pounds and his operation was
cancelled.
There are at least 200,000 failed asylum seekers in Britain - nobody has an
exact figure. Around 5,500 qualify for support on various grounds including
the inability to leave the UK because of illness or late pregnancy.

The government is now threatening to extend restrictions to primary
Care, meaning refused asylum seekers would have to pay to see their GP,
something almost all would be unable to do. The Refugee Council is asking
MPs to sign up to Early Day Motion 220, which highlights support for their
campaign. Readers should Mail their MPs and ask them to sign the motion as
soon as possible before parliament takes a holiday on 18 December. This
proposal will make life very difficult for many ill people who cannot afford
medical care.

Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals to be introduced in 2008
The Government is setting out new measures to prevent illegal working
following a consultation with UK businesses. Under a new system of civil
penalties, employers who negligently hire illegal workers could face a
maximum fine of £10,000 for each illegal worker found at a business. If
employers are found to have knowingly hired illegal workers they could incur
an unlimited fine and be sent to prison.
These measures, which take effect in February, will make it easier than ever
before for employers to carry out checks and for the Border and Immigration
Agency to deal with non-compliance.
The civil penalties form part of the biggest immigration shake-up for forty
years, sitting alongside a programme of changes that will ensure the system
is fit for the future. Other the next 12 months the Agency will also
introduce:

An Australian-style points based system to make sure only workers with the
skills to benefit Britain's economy come to the UK;
A single border force bringing together the Border and Immigration Agency,
Customs and UKvisas providing a tougher, highly visible policing presence at
Britain's ports and airports; and
Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals allowing them to know who is here
and what they are entitled to.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said of the new civil penalties:
"By stamping out illegal working we are making the UK a less attractive
destination for illegal migration.
"The new civil penalties are a more effective way of dealing with employers
who use slipshod or exploitative recruitment methods. Together with the
introduction of compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals next year,
there can be no excuse for not checking the identity of those applying for
jobs.
"By working together with employers and others we have developed a system
that delivers the migrants the UK needs, but which also keeps out those that
it does not."
The Border and Immigration Agency undertakes regular enforcement operations
against illegal working throughout the UK. Last month 49 people were
arrested in a single raid in Chinatown, while an operation in Gateshead led
to ten arrests; and 14 people were arrested after an operation at a
restaurant in Ipswich. In 2006 alone, the Agency carried out over 5,200
illegal working operations and removed more than 22,000 people from the UK.
The new measures are part of a broader package of proposals introduced to
toughen border controls, increase enforcement activity and enhance joint
working with police and other Government agencies in order to tackle illegal
immigration and its consequences. Go to navigation
Many failed asylum seekers are not entitled to any benefits and are not
allowed to work legally in this country. They are therefore pushed
underground and are forced to work illegally. There are many reports of
people who are being arrested for possessing fake papers and using these to
work. Some of these people are literally forced into crime as they are
looking for a means of survival and to support the many starving relatives
who look to them for support from their home countries. It is not an excuse
for committing crime but an explanation of why individuals resort to these
methods
The coming years promise to be very difficult for illegal immigrants and
failed asylum seekers as the immigration rules and the laws of this country
continue to change.

ANSWERS TO THESE PROBLEMS??

I deal on a daily basis with people who are frustrated with the current
situation in this country in that their immigration status is insecure and
they are unable to work or study. Furthermore they are separated from family
and loved ones and unable to return to Zimbabwe because of the political and
economic climate in this country. It is a case of being stuck between a rock
and a hard place. There are no easy answers.
For those who are professionals it may be advisable to consider moving to
countries that are in need of their particular skills e.g. New Zealand,
Australia or South Africa. The governments of these countries are in need of
migrants in certain areas and it may be worth considering leaving the UK for
these greener pastures.
The Immigration Rules themselves have many concessions which I will not
discuss in this article but may do so in a future commentary. The difficulty
that many foreign nationals have found themselves in is due to lack of
proper legal advice and listening to the man on the street. This has left
many people in a situation where they have no papers and are living
underground constantly running away from the Immigration Authorities. If you
are in such a situation it is better to seek Legal Advice from the many
voluntary organisations that offer advice or from a reputable solicitor.
The impact of the HS decision will only be seen in the next few weeks or
months as we see what the Home Office decides to do regarding removals but
in the meantime failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants should brace
themselves for tough times ahead.