The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.

Back to Index

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

Terror on Chegutu farm

12/3/01 7:20:30 AM (GMT +2)


From Painos Dakwa in Kadoma

About 20 farm workers in Chegutu sustained serious burns and were treated at
Kadoma Hospital after their houses were razed to the ground by war veterans
at Blackmorevale Farm, west of the little town.

About 300 war veterans stormed the farm on Friday and burnt 42 houses,
accusing the owners of supporting the MDC and aiding gold panners in the
Chakari area.

The workers were ordered to leave their homes because most of the farm is
now occupied by the war veterans.

The latest attack contravenes the 6 September Abuja Agreement, designed to
restore law and order on the commercial farms occupied by war veterans and
Zanu PF supporters since February last year.

The shocked and frightened workers said yesterday they lost food and
household goods worth thousands of dollars in the fire.

One of them, Asaf Jazire, said he lost goods worth $100 000 - a television
set, blankets and other household goods.

"We are stranded and we are desperate because we have lost all our clothes
and we have no food," said Jazire.

He said some of the workers were beaten with chains and knobkerries by the
veterans.

"Some of them accused us of supporting the MDC, yet most of us are Zanu PF
members," said Jazire.

Stanley Shereni said the veterans' raid was frightening and most of the
workers were now living with relatives in the compound.

"We really do not know if this is the independence we fought for," said
Shereni.
Selina Mafuta said: "I am left with the dress I was wearing as I watched
helplessly while my house was razed to the ground."

A farm owner in the area said the invasion of Blackmorevale was intended to
flush out all white people in the Chakari area. The matter was reported to
the Chegutu police but no arrests were made.

The farm owner said the displaced workers were now in dire need of food and
shelter. The 4 000 hectare farm has been occupied by invaders since February
last year.

In Masvingo province, Energy Bara reports that about 30 000 head of cattle
worth over $60 million have been driven out of commercial farms by the
invaders.

The cattle were driven off by Zanu PF invaders defying a government order to
vacate the farms.

Mike Clark, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) regional chairman said the
cattle have been pushed to restricted areas as the occupiers prepare to till
the land after the rains.

Clark said the situation on occupied farms had reached boiling point as
co-existence with the farm occupants had failed.

"We are appealing to the government to urgently address the problem of the
animals," said Clark.

"Some cattle have been pushed into cattle kraals and we do not know if they
can be fed. We have a very serious problem and any farmer who tries to care
for the animals is threatened with death. Dialogue with government
authorities has failed."

Clark said farming in the province had stopped as most commercial farmers
had been barred from either planting their crops or breeding their cattle.

He said as a result the national breeding herd on commercial farms had been
cut by about 30 percent.

He said commercial farmers had expected the breeding herd to be 380 000 but
the figure had dropped to 220 000 because of the disturbances on occupied
farms.

On delisted and undesignated farms, Clark said friction between the owners
and occupants increased as the two parties failed to co-exist.

"Problems were better before some farms were delisted and we do not
understand why the government is failing to take action," said Clark.

In Masvingo province, about 60 000 people who invaded undesignated farms
have defied a government order to vacate the farms.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

BBC
Monday, 3 December, 2001, 10:31 GMT
Mugabe's election masterplan
Zimbabwe riot police
Mugabe is determined to stay in power

Robert Mugabe is pulling out all the stops to ensure that he wins the presidential elections due in Zimbabwe before next April.

Electoral laws have been proposed which will effectively deny the vote to hundreds of thousands of young people without jobs, who are invariably opposition supporters.

Foreigners have been told that they will not be allowed to send monitors to the elections and only civil servants - susceptible to government control - will be accredited.


There's no way that Mugabe will lose the election. And even if he does lose the vote, he won't give up power

Harare resident
Several government sympathisers have been named as judges, so that legal challenges to such laws, and possibly the election results, by the opposition will be doomed to failure.

And more new laws are in the pipeline to stop independent journalists from writing stories which do not meet with official approval.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is being vilified as a "terrorist organisation" and officials warn of a US-style "war against terror".

Losing hope

The low-level campaign of intimidation against MDC activists, especially in the exposed rural areas, is continuing - as is the confiscation of land belonging to white farmers who are accused of supporting the opposition.

Self-styled "war veterans" were recently allowed to rampage through the second city of Bulawayo attacking whites and other suspected opposition supporters unmolested by the watching police.

Robert Mugabe
Mugabe calls his opponents 'terrorists'

The 77-year-old Mr Mugabe and his advisors are laying, one-by-one, the foundation stones of a very high wall around State House.

Zimbabweans who want change, buoyed by the MDC's strong showing in the June 2000 parliamentary elections, are losing hope.

"There's no way that Mugabe will lose the election," says one long-suffering Harare resident. "And even if he does lose the vote, he won't give up power."

Luxuries

The Financial Gazette newspaper reports that Mr Mugabe is building underground bunkers at State House in case the elections descend into civil war.

And the MDC has not yet come up with any answers.

Man wearing MDC t-shirt under his shirt
MDC supporters must hide their allegiance

Their 56 members of parliament are unable to block the controversial legislation, however much they huff and puff.

Meanwhile, the economy continues to suffocate in the absence of foreign aid and investment.

Workers are being laid off by the day and with inflation officially running at 98%, bread and even the staple food, maize-meal, are becoming luxuries.

Gloomy future

A multi-screen, state-of-the-art cinema complex on the outskirts of Harare has had to close down because it can no longer get the foreign currency to import films from Hollywood.

Some lucky people, mainly with good connections, are benefiting from the distribution of farmland, so that even if they do not have a job, they can at least grow their own maize.

MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai
Tsvangirai will face Mugabe in next year's elections

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was taken to court for warning that if Mr Mugabe does not step down, he would be removed from power by force. The charges were dropped but this could well be an accurate prediction for Zimbabwe's future.

With Mr Mugabe at the helm, there is no prospect of a reversal of Zimbabwe's economic fortunes.

The biggest challenge is to earn some foreign currency in order to pay for essentials such as oil and electricity, not to mention computers, vehicles and food imports.

'Frightening'

International investors and donors are the fastest way of getting hard currency into the country but both groups will continue to steer well clear of Harare if Mr Mugabe rigs his way to victory.

"Frightening," is how one Zimbabwean describes the prospect of another six years of Mr Mugabe's rule.

Earlier this month, a group of civic organisations attempted to stage a "mass protest" at the new electoral laws but it fizzled out when a meagre 50 protestors turned up.

Harare riots in October 2000
Rises in the price of bread have already led to violence

Riot police flooded Harare city centre and potential demonstrators knew that they were risking lungfuls of tear-gas, rubber truncheons and a night in the cells.

But as Zimbabweans become more hungry, they will also become more angry.

If they feel that they have no chance of changing the government through elections, there will come a point when they feel violence is the only answer.

Just as black nationalists, led by Mr Mugabe, felt in the 1970s with regard to Ian Smith's white minority government.

Even if he manages to hold onto power next year, ultimately, Mr Mugabe's carefully-laid brickwork will crumble to dust.

But he seems determined to drag his country down with him.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

MSNBC

Zimbabwe court orders Mugabe to relax voter rule

HARARE, Dec. 3 — The Zimbabwe High Court ordered the government on Monday to
relax a voter registration rule after the opposition challenged it, saying
the regulation was aimed at favouring President Robert Mugabe's re-election
bid.
       High Court Judge Ann Goora held an urgent hearing in her chambers and
issued the order on Monday, court officials said.


       ''The court issued an order with the consent of both parties whose
effect is that the rule on the kind of documents required for
voter-registration should be relaxed,'' opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) lawyer Innocent Chagonda told Reuters.
       The rule stipulated that urban voters produce multiple documents to
prove their residency. The order would relax that to allow witnesses,
landlords' letters of introduction and post-dated envelopes to prove
residency, he said.
       ''We managed to get an urgent hearing on this matter because the
voter registration (which began on November 19) ends on December 9, but we
are looking at challenging all the other new rules,'' Chagonda said.
       The MDC said the stringent proof of residency rule was designed to
disenfranchise millions of voters in urban areas, where Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF party lost heavily to the MDC in last year's general parliamentary
elections.
       The government is also denying voting rights to millions of
Zimbabweans abroad, saying it does not have the capacity to process them.
       But the MDC -- whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to give
Mugabe the stiffest challenge of his long career -- says all the rules are
meant to bolster Mugabe's chances in the presidential elections due by
April.
       The 77-year-old Mugabe maintains the elections will be free and fair,
and says he has never cheated in a poll since he came to power when the
former Rhodesia gained independence in 1980.
       But he says there is a Western-backed plot to topple his government,
and has entrusted the administration of the entire elections to the
government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission.
       His government refuses to allow local independent observers to
monitor the elections and has banned private organisations from conducting
voter education.
       Mugabe's ZANU-PF narrowly won last year's parliamentary elections
despite a violent campaign blamed on the ruling party which left at least 31
people dead.
       The Zimbabwean government says some Western powers, especially
Britain, are working for Mugabe's defeat in revenge for his controversial
drive to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
       Britain and other Western states deny the charge, saying Mugabe wants
to divert attention from a crisis he has created

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News - Feature


They are using a wedge to divide the wageless

12/3/01 11:05:54 AM (GMT +2)


Candid Talk with Masola waDabudabu

THIS one is to show that the people of Matabeleland now matter. Like pawns
in a game of chess, they are now being used for dirty political moves. They
are now being used to clean up the political stalemate. It could only be a
matter of time before the people of that wretched part of the country are
used in a checkmate move. As a prelude to the Bulawayo mayoral elections, I
emotionally wrote about the people of Bulawayo being the King-makers or
King-killers. I had a point.



That point is now being seriously put into operation by those who know that
it will work for them. The starting point has been the open sponsorship of
the new Zapu by the State media. So much prominence is being given to Zapu.
That prominence is much more than the original PF-Zapu was ever showered
with. I can only recall that the most pronounced prominence PF-Zapu was ever
afforded during its days was for the purpose of demonising it. Now, Zapu is
being given the prominence that is supposed to nurture it into a great force
in Matabeleland. It would not have been maliciously suspicious if such media
prominence was equally extended to all political parties.

It would make political sense if such prominence was proven true on the
ground. It would make sense if such overzealous reference to Zapu by the
State media was supported by an overwhelming response from the electorate.
The truth is that a wedge is being put into operation. The wedge shall be
used to divide the mainly wageless people, if at all it succeeds. Zapu! I
have never seen the new Zapu in action. I have never seen its support base
doing what a major player in politics would normally do.

I have never seen Zapu supporters supporting their party the way the State
media claims. I have yet to hear of the usefulness of the new Zapu to
society as a whole. All I have heard is the quest for a federal system by
the troika. The troika consists of the three prominent members of the party.
Besides the three, I have never heard anyone else being quoted by the media,
not even their wives. A plot to divide the people has been put into place.
The State media is playing the most crucial and perhaps the most cruel part
in that division of the people. They are giving undue attention to a
nonentity in the hope that it will become a giant. It is like trying to
create the Titanic from a canoe. There is a lot that needs to be done.

There is a lot that the State media has to conjure up a Zapu the political
giant they wish it could be. The State media has to buy out everybody from
Zanu PF and the MDC to support Zapu. That is a tall order indeed. Imagine
the task at hand in trying to persuade all war vets in Matabeleland to
support Zapu! That is political bigotry the media will be asking the
erstwhile gentlemen and ladies to undertake. Then there was the angry talk
from esteemed gentlemen that Zapu was no longer a force to reckon with.

That angry talk was from highly placed chefs from the original PF-Zapu. The
gentlemen tried hard to dispel the existence of the new Zapu as a divisive
plot. Now the gentlemen have gone silent. They are waiting on the sidelines
for the success of plan "A" which is the assault on the people's unity by
the State media. In their silence, the gentlemen who used to scorn the
formation of Zapu are agreeing that it is better to save their skins through
the division of the people. Now we are made to recognise the imagined
existence of a giant called Zapu. The giant is said to be gaining ground
that was lost by PF-Zapu due to the Unity Accord of 1987.

The Unity Accord does not matter anymore. What matters is the survival of
the status quo. If unity really mattered, the State media would not so much
be giving the divisive coverage to the new Zapu. The State media would be
pouring hot coal on the feet of the Zapu executive as a nuisance to the
well-being of the people. Alas, the State media is helping Zapu to keep
dividing the people on tribal lines.

The very State media that silenced Khayisa Ndiweni is now giving him free
air play as if he was Hondo ye minda. Excuse me for being emotionally
attached to Matabeleland. That is where I hail from. I have seen
Matabeleland lose because of division. I have seen Matabeleland face a war
of words and a war of guns over the very issue of separatism. I have stayed
in Matabeleland and experienced the pain of being unwanted.

I can extend my happiness to Zapu for being wanted by the State media. For
the first time after a very long time, Matabeleland in general and Zapu in
particular have mixed their ingredients well. Now tongues are wagging as the
State media prepare themselves for a gastronomic feast of unlimited
proportions. The feast is to celebrate the imminent division of the people
of Matabeleland.

Once the people of Matabeleland are divided, the battlegrounds will
naturally shift to "home turf". I hope you are not metaphorically deficient
as it might be! I hope you understand figurative speech! I hope you will not
be cowered into a bunker thinking that war is coming. It shall not be a real
war where soldiers fight fierce battles. There might be a few deaths, but
then those deaths will not matter much as they will be explained away with
great oratory and eloquence.

Meanwhile, as Zapu makes surprising inroads in Matabeleland, the people of
Matabeleland will be making inroads to their doom. Once a new king is made,
the people would have to pay economically for not rendering their support to
Caesar. I shall always recall the year 1985. The people of Nkayi were
visited for an election campaign. They were asked to "please vote for me. If
you vote for me, I shall come back to thank you. If you do not, I shall
still come back to ask you where you are now!" In their conservativeness,
the people of Nkayi and the rest of Matabeleland voted for PF-Zapu in that
election.

As fate had it, they remained firmly attached to the meanest end of poverty
and neglect by those who were supposed to provision as rulers. Caesar only
demands what is his. As we go to church, we then give to God what is His!
The people of Matabeleland have for some time been itching for a party that
will receive recognition from the State media. Now the State media has given
them that party.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News - Leader Page

Blow enemy away by persuasive fear of democracy

12/3/01 11:19:34 AM (GMT +2)


By Norman Reynolds

THE deliberate and illegal attack on the MDC building in Bulawayo by a Zanu
PF mob ushered and protected by the police is yet another act of escalating
and vicious State violence against the rights of citizens.

It is certainly used to cow citizens and to provoke the opportunity to
declare a State of Emergency, at least in that city if not the province. The
leader of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, did the right thing. He went onto the
streets and he told MDC followers not to be drawn into the Zanu PF trap.

As President Mugabe raises the stakes, what Tsvangirai called "the end
game", so it will be increasingly difficult to restrain MDC followers from
retaliating against the increasingly naked and arrogant abuse of State
power.

MDC followers and all citizens unhappy about the destruction of their
country need the means to feel empowered to counter the deep sense of being
rendered powerless on the way to being disenfranchised.

Otherwise, their fears and hatred will spill over in damaging ways. All
citizens remain witnesses and many horrific affidavits have been written and
collected. A new government will have to address the illegal and violent
events that have taken place since Mugabe was defeated in the referendum on
the draft constitution last year.

The MDC has said there will have to be a Commission of Inquiry to handle the
past so that the country can concentrate on picking up the pieces and
reconstructing a democratic society and working economy for all. This will
take place after the Presidential election or, if Mugabe avoids it or
"steals" it, whenever the inevitable change of power comes.

The Southern African Development Community, African leadership and the
international community, perhaps led by Britain with funds in service to the
United Nations, must now announce that it will support morally and in kind,
including with international jurists, such a Commission of Inquiry.

South Africa should name its likely team, as should other countries like
Nigeria and past close friends of Zanu PF, like the Scandinavian countries
who know the pain of being let down so thoroughly, with Nelson Mandela as
convener.

There are many names that will reassure Zimbabweans as their government
intensifies its assault upon their rights and increasingly upon their
persons. In the meantime, I suggest that the people of Zimbabwe adopt
something akin to Gandhi's Satyagraha (non- violence movement) and Martin
Luther King Jnr's civil rights movement.

Not easy. It does take great discipline and patience. Citizens can, for
instance, rush to every event of State violence carrying pen and paper,
big-sized paper, to quietly, openly and in mass formations record every
detail of thuggery and of illegal action by the police and army, the secret
service and party thugs.

They should then compile all they have learnt about who, what rank, name,
residence, village, mother and father, office address and vehicle and submit
dated copies for formal acceptance and deposit to any useful authority:
legal offices, chiefs, churches, companies and the international community.

More than that, they, seeing the pattern of wilful destruction clearly and
most now having been rendered unemployed, should quietly and systematically
visit every office and home to meet, to record, to question and to remind
the persons and the families of those who hold public office that the people
are not silent, cowed or stupid, but loyal, informed, energetic and
determined to protect, to preserve and to rebuild the democratic edifice of
Zimbabwe.

Also to inform that things will change and that they will have to answer.
Here the regional and the international communities must not let them down,
but back them by broadcasting support to and building the role of the
Commission of Inquiry.

The people can go on to suggest that there are loyal actions persons who are
caught up in the corruption of their jobs can undertake that undermine the
authority or effectiveness of those above them and render illegal actions
ineffective, even nakedly embarrassing.

People who hold public office can "switch" sides secretly, can issue wrong
or confusing instructions, can pull out the telephone, can inform the
"enemy" as to where and when to be with paper and pen, who should be
visited, where the parents of political thugs live and other acts of
confusion. Citizens need to occupy public space, to sing, to be seen, to
keep creating and using "hot" catchy phrases like "What would happen if they
called a bogus election and no one came?" or, if they had to be counted,
"Spoil all the ballots as the way to demand fair and free elections!"

The people need to draw and to display a thousand kinds of public mockery,
serious information and education in a tidal wave of clandestine activity,
to "Go to war by other means". "Friendly" parties could drop tonnes and
tonnes of paper and pens and "Prestick", protected inside plastic folders
together with loads of information, from the air, even from across the
borders.

Denmark was overrun and occupied by the Nazis during in the Second World
War. When the Germans began to hound and to arrest Danish Jews, the Danes
dressed and did what they could to appear Jewish in order to confound the
Germans.

So Zimbabweans can all join the so-called "war veterans" and Zanu PF to
confuse and to transform those gangs from the inside. They do not have to
vote that way! There are just 100-odd short days to go.

Citizens of Zimbabwe should steal the initiative, occupy the moral high
ground, expose the cracks, build the means to act, be magnanimous ahead of
the Commission of Inquiry, and be democratic heroes.

The enemy is vicious, on its last legs, scared and, at its core, few. Blow
it away by love and record keeping and by instilling the persuasive fear of
democracy.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News - Leader Page

Chapfika report amounts to censure of President

12/3/01 11:18:39 AM (GMT +2)



One of President Mugabe's most ruinous traits is stubbornness.

He simply will not listen to anybody. No matter how sound other people's
advice or point of view might be, for as long as that point of view does not
coincide with his own, he will dismiss it angrily as "nonsense" because he
appears to have long ago convinced himself that he is the fountain of
wisdom.

And on the rare occasions that he appears to see reason, as he did when he
addressed the nation expressing his acceptance of the people's verdict
following his government's humiliating defeat in last year's referendum on
the draft constitution, it will only be the cunning of a boxer who feints
with the right to deliver a killer blow with the left.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are bound to have
memories of this cunning in their patient dealings with Mugabe which could
not be fond ones by any stretch of the imagination. His public announcement
at the burial of Clement Muchachi that the IMF-authored economic structural
adjustment programme was now dead and buried was, in fact, an act of only
putting into words what his attitude towards the programme had been all
along from the day he "accepted" it.

Although his government had pretended to have embraced the programme since
1990, in reality, it was stillborn. One of the main aspects of that IMF
prescription meant, among other things, to bring down inflation, narrow the
Budget deficit and improve the country's balance of payments position.

It meant the government had to cut down on its reckless spending by reducing
the size of the Cabinet and the bloated civil service. Although some
efforts, albeit half-hearted, were made to reduce the civil service, Mugabe
has done precious little to address the widely criticised issue of his
outsized government. The hangers-on in his government are simply too many
for this small country to sustain, and Mugabe has been told this by
economists both within and outside our borders.

Mugabe's preposterously large Cabinet of no less than 23 is the same size as
the British Cabinet which runs an economy which is infinitely bigger and
more thriving and governs a population more than four times our own.

Over and above that, his government is also burdening the taxpayer with
almost as many deputy ministers, who never stand in for their ministers, as
well as eight provincial governors, who are absolutely irrelevant because
they duplicate the work of provincial administrators.

From these figures, it is quite clear even to someone who has never studied
economics, that even at the peak of this country's economic performance -
and right now the economy could not be worse - Zimbabwe can hardly sustain a
government of this size without resorting to printing money and fuelling
inflation as is happening now. And yet Mugabe, who is said to have a degree
in economics, seems abysmally ignorant of that simple fact. It is a great
relief, therefore, that a parliamentary committee, fortuitously chaired by a
Zanu PF MP, has tabled a report which bluntly tells Mugabe that Zimbabwe's
persistent Budget deficits are caused by a bloated government which is too
large in relation to the size of the country's economy.

In his report to Parliament last week, the chairman of the Budget, Finance
and Economic Development Committee, David Chapfika, told his colleagues in
the House: "Persistent Budget deficits suggest that the size of the
government is too large in relation to the performance of the economy."

We earnestly urge the President to take serious note of this statement
which, by all accounts, amounts to public censure. If he will not act on
this report, chances are that even if God Himself came down to command him
to do so, Mugabe would ignore that command.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

MP awaits ruling over public violence case

12/3/01 10:53:15 AM (GMT +2)


From Our Correspondent in Masvingo

JUDGMENT in the case of the Chiredzi South MP, Aaron Baloyi, charged with
public violence involving ethnic clashes in Jeka village in Chiredzi in the
run-up to last year's parliamentary election, was postponed last Friday to 3
December.



Baloyi appeared before Godwin Chizhande, a Masvingo magistrate. The State is
alleging that Baloyi incited a group of about 400 people from Jeka village
under Chief Chilonga in Chiredzi to assault all Karanga-speaking people in
the area, claiming they were settled on foreign land.

The State alleges that after the MP's remarks, scores of Shangani people
armed with sticks, stones and spears, attacked livestock belonging to Watson
Makwara and other Karanga-speaking people.

Baloyi is alleged to have ordered the villagers to destroy all property and
settlements of Karangas.

He allegedly ordered everything belonging to the Karangas razed to the
ground.

The villagers, allegedly acting on his instructions, uprooted newly planted
crops and attacked several people and livestock.

The MP, on $1 000 bail, pleaded not guilty, saying the charges were intended
to tarnish his image ahead of the 2000 parliamentary election.

But he does not deny addressing the villagers on the day in question.

Mirirai Shumba appeared for the State, while Cosam Chuma of Chuma, Gurajena
and Partners legal practitioners, represented Baloyi.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

Mudede fails to clarify voter registration requirement

12/3/01 10:46:52 AM (GMT +2)


By Columbus Mavhunga

TOBAIWA Mudede, the Registrar-General, yesterday failed to cite the section
in the Electoral Act which requires his office to ask for proof of residence
from citizens registering for the presidential election scheduled for early
next year.



In an interview Mudede said: "This has been the requirement here and all
over, but people are now crying foul because they think we intend to cheat.

"We are following the Electoral Act and the Local Authorities Act since the
same voters' roll will be used in the municipal elections."

Contrary to his assertion, this has never been the case since the
introduction of the Executive Presidency in 1987 for which elections for the
six-year presidential term were held in 1990 and 1996.

Mudede told a news conference on Wednesday, his office was within the law to
demand proof of residence from potential voters for the presidential
election.

Asked to clarify the new requirements when the whole country converts into a
single constituency for the presidential election, Mudede said: "We cannot
allow the law of the jungle to prevail. We are very liberal here.
"I have been to Mauritius, to the UN and people always ask me why we allow
laissez-faire to prevail here." But David Coltart, the MDC shadow minister
of justice, said the Electoral Act was clear on what is required for one to
qualify to vote. You only need to be 18 and a Zimbabwean to qualify to
register," said Coltart.

"Asking for a proof of residence is illegal. We will see what we can do
about it."

Many lodgers have been turned away after they failed to produce proof of
residence. In the rural areas prospective voters have to be accompanied by
their headmen. But critics have said most headmen are loyal to Zanu PF.

Last week, the opposition MDC received complaints from over 150 people in
Mberengwa East alone, who said their headmen had refused to register them as
voters. Meanwhile, the meeting which had been scheduled between the Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee and Mudede, over the proposed
amendments to the Electoral Act was postponed to next week due to lack of a
quorum.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News

Security guards use teargas canisters to assault students

12/3/01 10:44:41 AM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

THE secretary-general of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Students
Representative Council, Tapera Kapuya says he was assaulted by university
security officers on Tuesday, sustaining a deep cut on the head.



The same officers then arrested him, he said.

Kapuya was arrested together with 10 other students for paying tribute to
the late Lameck Chemvura, the student thrown out of a moving passenger train
last Saturday by rowdy soldiers.

Kapuya said efforts by students to hold a demonstration against police
brutality were thwarted by UZ security officers who threw teargas canisters
at them.

"They hit me on the leg with a teargas canister and threw more canisters to
where I was and beat me up with batons and a sharp object," he said.

Kapuya, who has nine stitches on the head, was detained at 9.30am on Tuesday
at Avondale police station and taken to Harare Central police station where
he was detained until 1pm yesterday.

The other 10 students were detained at the same police stations, but they
were released at about 12 noon yesterday without being charged.

"We were told that the police would proceed by way of summons and we were
not taken to court," said one student.

The students said they were allowed to see their lawyers and Kapuya was
denied access to medical treatment despite bleeding from the head. All the
detained students failed to sit for their end of semester examinations, due
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

"We will file criminal charges against Mcloud Tarambiwa, the chief security
officer who gave instructions for the security officers to assault us," said
Kapuya.

Meanwhile, Lameck Chemvura, was buried on Wednesday afternoon at Samanga
Village near Hauna Growth Point in the Honde Valley.

Innocent Mupara, the suspended student leader, said the university
authorities refused to release the Great Hall for a memorial service for
Chemvura or to provide transport for the burial ceremony.

"We feel the army needs to be accountable for State brutality and we will
work hand in hand with civic organisations to condemn these acts of
brutality," said Mupara.

This is the second case of a student being killed at the UZ in less than two
years. Batanai Hadzizi was allegedly murdered by UZ security guards on 9
April 2001.

Uleria Mude, a student at the UZ died in the 13 July 2000 stampede at the
National Sports Stadium during a South Africa-Zimbabwe soccer match

Back to the Top
Back to Index

MSNBC

Mandela says not too late for fair Zimbabwe poll

CAPE TOWN, Dec. 3 — Former South African president Nelson Mandela supported
his successor's tougher stance on Zimbabwe on Monday and said it was not too
late to ensure a successful election in the country


       ''Let us not close the possibility of succeeding because there are
increasing pressures now,'' he told Reuters during visits between schools in
the Western Cape, when asked if it was too late to arrange free and fair
elections in Zimbabwe.
       Mandela said he was optimistic that a new Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) initiative -- appointed in September to monitor the
restoration of the rule of law in Zimbabwe -- would prove effective.
       He also praised current President Thabo Mbeki's more forthright
stance on Zimbabwe but said the South African government had been right to
try ''quiet diplomacy'' at first.
       ''He adopted the correct policy at first. He wanted to speak through
diplomatic channels and that is the proper course for a head of state to
follow,'' Mandela said.
       ''It is quite clear now that Mugabe has not listened to him and that
is why Thabo Mbeki is getting tough,'' he added.
       Mandela said Mbeki was ''no longer just a president of South
Africa -- to a very large extent he is president of Africa as well.''

Back to the Top
Back to Index

National Post - Canada

Mugabe loses Mbeki's support on land seizures
Zimbabwe crisis deepens: U.S. appears set to impose travel, economic
sanctions


Cris Chinaka
Reuters
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe faced growing foreign pressure yesterday as
Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, distanced himself from him and the
United States appeared close to imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe.

At home, Mr. Mugabe's opponents threatened to launch a series of mass
protests to force him to accept constitutional reforms, and critics
denounced a media bill they say is meant to curb press freedom in the runup
to presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail newspaper reported that Mr. Mugabe had
invited a regional ministerial committee to audit progress made on his
controversial land reform program.

The Dec. 10 visit by the six- member team from the 14-nation Southern
African Development Community comes amid reports Mr. Mbeki has been pressing
for a special meeting of the SADC task force on the Zimbabwe crisis.

Critics say Mr. Mugabe has largely ignored a Nigerian-brokered agreement his
government signed in September to end often violent invasions of white-owned
farms by his supporters, but his ministers say the government is respecting
the accord.

"The invitation of the committee is said to have been inspired by a growing
recognition that since the Abuja agreement the fast-track resettlement
program has gone on well according to the laws and constitution of
Zimbabwe," The Sunday Mail said.

But others on the continent appear unconvinced. South African government
officials said Mr. Mbeki is making it plain to Mr. Mugabe he should no
longer expect his protection and must work to end a crisis threatening the
economies of his neighbours.

"He [Mr. Mbeki] wants Mugabe to know that he should not expect protection
any more. Up to now we have rallied behind him," one senior official told
South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper.

A senior official in Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said: "We in ZANU-PF believe
these remarks cannot be true because if they are, then that would be quite
sad."

"President Mbeki, more than anyone else, knows too well that this region and
our country in particular was economically and militarily destabilized by
apartheid," the official told The Sunday Mail.

Pressure also seemed to be mounting outside the continent.

Zimbabwe's private Standard newspaper reported yesterday the U.S. House of
Representatives was likely to pass a bill this week imposing travel and
investment sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and his associates for allegedly
sponsoring political violence in the country.

The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill was endorsed by the Africa
sub-committee of the House International Relations Committee last Wednesday,
and the The Standard quoted sources in Washington saying the bill should be
passed by the full house on Dec. 4.

On Saturday, Mr. Mugabe told a rally his land seizures would continue "with
or without sanctions."

Mr. Mugabe, 77, and in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence
from Britain in 1980, is expected to face the stiffest challenge of his
career from Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) in
next year's elections. The MDC nearly defeated Mr. Mugabe in parliamentary
elections last year despite a violent campaign blamed on the ruling ZANU-PF
that left at least 31 people dead.

Yesterday, a coalition of Zimbabwean civic groups campaigning for a new
constitution said they would present Mr. Mugabe with a draft democratic
constitution by Christmas and call for mass protests in the new year to
force him to adopt it.

"We are dealing with a dictatorship determined to hang on to power through
hook and crook, and we have no option but to try all kinds of protests to be
heard," Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly,
told reporters. Others launched attacks on a news media bill the government
plans to launch.

The Standard said the bill, which threatens jail terms for journalists who
violate new regulations, largely bars foreign nationals from working as
correspondents in the country and comes with a strict licensing system,
amounted to "absolute madness."

"Should the bill be passed into law in its present form, then clearly a
major showdown is in the making between the government and the independent
press," the newspaper said.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Mbeki accused of joining plot to topple Mugabe

HARARE, Dec. 3 — Zimbabwe's leading state-owned newspaper accused South
African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday of betraying President Robert Mugabe
and joining a Western plot to overthrow him.


       ''President Mbeki's alleged utterances neatly dovetail into Britain's
grand plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe similar to the one
adopted by America in its fight against Afghanistan,'' the Herald newspaper
said in an editorial.
       South African government officials said at the weekend that Mbeki was
making it plain to Mugabe that he should no longer expect South African
protection and must work to end a crisis threatening the economies of his
neighbours.
       The Herald, which normally reflects government views, asked if Mbeki
was ready to act the biblical betrayer Judas Iscariot.
       The editorial, entitled ''South Africa betrays Zimbabwe,'' said if
media reports suggesting Mbeki was taking a tougher stance against Mugabe
were true, then Harare was right to refuse his offer to mediate ''in the
perceived economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.''
       ''A clear pattern is now emerging of that build-up against Zimbabwe
and South Africa's complicity in the plot to overthrow the ruling ZANU-PF
government from power,'' it said.
       The Herald accused Mbeki of changing his Zimbabwe policy because his
ruling African National Congress (ANC) had fallen under the influence of two
of South Africa's small and largely white opposition parties.
       ''What is even worse and sickening is how President Mbeki is reported
to be in the same bed with the former architects of apartheid, the New
National Party and Tony Leon's white Democratic Party in the fight against
Zimbabwe,'' it added.
       Commenting on the editorial, Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said
South Africa was not under pressure from Britain and would not reply in
detail to a newspaper editorial.
       ''I don't think that the South African government and the President
in particular would be expected to respond to editorials which may not
necessarily reflect the views of the Zimbawean government,'' he told the
South African Broadcasting Corporation.
       Khumalo said South Africa opposed any form of sanctions against
Zimbabwe. He said it was important to deal with the Zimbabwe crisis in the
context of a Southern African Development Community initiative to monitor
the country.

GLOVES OFF
       The Herald said Mbeki had taken off his gloves ''for a bare-knuckle
fight'' and was mobilising members of the 14-nation SADC, notably Botswana,
Mozambique and Malawi, to justify a regional onslaught against Mugabe.
       Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the government would
not comment on the media reports.
       ''President Mbeki has channels of communication to the Zimbabwean
government, and if he has anything to say I think he will use those
channels,'' he said on state television.
       Mugabe plunged the country into its worst ecomomic and political
crisis in 2000 with a government-backed campaign to seize white-owned farms
for re-distribution to landless blacks



Telegraph

Mbeki is urged to get tough with Zimbabwe
By Tim Butcher in Johannesburg
(Filed: 03/12/2001)


PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki of South Africa sought to distance himself from the
worsening situation in Zimbabwe yesterday when his spokesmen suggested that
he had toughened his attitude towards President Robert Mugabe.

A leading national newspaper in South Africa, The Sunday Times, reported a
significant change in policy under a headline "Mbeki Turns Up the Heat On
Bob". Mr Mbeki's advisers said he had "abandoned the kid gloves approach to
Mugabe".

They also said Mr Mbeki had tried to strengthen the regional task force on
Zimbabwe, the principal diplomatic vehicle being used by Zimbabwe's
neighbours. But while the story was given prominence in South Africa's
leading Sunday newspaper, there was little substantive proof of the claim.

"Someone in South Africa is worried about the devaluation in the rand and is
trying to distance the country from Zimbabwe," a diplomat said. "There will
have to be more substance before this is taken seriously."

Diplomats said Mr Mbeki had yet to take any significant policy initiatives
against Mugabe's regime, preferring a softly-softly approach.

Last week Mr Mbeki was challenged about his position on Zimbabwe at a
meeting with members of the international press but refused to give an
answer when asked if he thought Mr Mugabe was still fit to lead Zimbabwe.

While Mr Mbeki's advisers have pointed out to him the disastrous effect Mr
Mugabe is having on investor confidence across the entire region, Mr Mbeki
seemed reluctant to criticise Mugabe personally.

Mr Mbeki often speaks publicly about the residual racism among Western
leaders and he is believed to attribute a large part of the criticism of Mr
Mugabe to that.

But with his advisers there is clear frustration that South Africa has not
drawn a clear enough line between itself and Zimbabwe.

The crisis in Zimbabwe is currently casting a shadow across South Africa and
the entire region as no leader seems willing to put serious diplomatic
pressure on Mr Mugabe.

Opposition leaders in South Africa have called for "smart sanctions" to be
imposed on Mr Mugabe and his cronies. This would involve banning them from
international flights and restricting their ability to use bank accounts in
South Africa and elsewhere.

Asked about this policy initiative, Mr Mbeki said he had not given the
matter "any thought".



The Times

TUESDAY DECEMBER 04 2001

Zimbabwe accuses Mbeki of knifing it in the back

FROM MICHAEL DYNES IN JOHANNESBURG AND JAN RAATH IN HARARE

DIPLOMATIC relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa hit a post-apartheid
low yesterday after Harare accused President Mbeki of conspiring with
Britain to overthrow President Mugabe’s Government.
In an unprecedented editorial in the Herald newspaper, the official
mouthpiece of Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party, Mr Mbeki was denounced for
“betraying” Zimbabwe by saying that the situation north of the Limpopo River
was deteriorating rapidly and would worsen further if presidential elections
due by April were not seen to be free and fair.

The newspaper accused Mr Mbeki of making statements that “neatly dovetail
into Britain’s grand plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe”.

In a series of statements widely regarded as marking a break with Pretoria’s
previously quiet diplomacy, Mr Mbeki had accused Mr Mugabe’s Government of
denying voters their rights and attempting to suppress the media. “In a
situation in which people get disenfranchised, in which people get beaten up
so that they don’t act according to their political convictions, there can’t
be free elections,” Mr Mbeki said. It was seen in South Africa as his most
forthright criticism yet of Mr Mugabe’s Government.

Conceding that international attempts to rein in Mr Mugabe’s illegal seizure
of white-owned land had largely failed, Mr Mbeki said: “The situation is not
improving at all. If you had elections in Zimbabwe which were not seen by
the people as legitimate, then you’d end up with a situation worse than it
is now.”

Mr Mbeki’s tougher stance followed a series of telephone conversations with
Western leaders in which he was urged to step up the pressure on Mr Mugabe.
The declining value of the South African rand, the loss of investor
confidence in southern Africa and the steady stream of Zimbabweans seeking
refuge in South Africa have added to the pressure on Mr Mbeki.

The New National Party, which recently agreed a power-sharing deal with Mr
Mbeki’s ruling African National Congress, called on Mr Mbeki to withdraw all
support from Mr Mugabe to ensure that he was not reelected. “Mugabe has
become a total liability that South Africa can no longer afford,” the party
said.

Nelson Mandela, the former South African President, backed Mr Mbeki’s change
in policy. “It is quite clear now that Mugabe has not listened to (Mr
Mbeki), and that is why (he) is getting tough,” Mr Mandela said.

The Herald’s editorial was accompanied by a lengthy front-page report with a
headline that declared “Mbeki’s Shock U-turn”. Inside the newspaper was an
analysis of the ANC’s new “strange bedfellows” relationship with the NNP and
a verbatim transcript of the statement to the House of Commons last week by
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. “Conspiracy”, read the headline.

None of the rambling commentary was attributed to Zimbabwe Government
officials. However, it is common knowledge that Mr Mugabe’s information
department routinely scripts the Herald’s reportage and comment. Yesterday’s
blast of vitriol against South Africa could only have been done under the
supervision of Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, diplomats said.

“Such betrayal is difficult to stomach,” it said. “What crime has Zimbabwe
committed against its rich and powerful neighbour to deserve a knife in the
back?”

Back to the Top
Back to Index

From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 3 December

Mbeki is urged to get tough with Zimbabwe

Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa sought to distance himself from the worsening situation in Zimbabwe yesterday when his spokesmen suggested that he had toughened his attitude towards President Robert Mugabe. A leading national newspaper in South Africa, The Sunday Times, reported a significant change in policy under a headline "Mbeki Turns Up the Heat On Bob". Mr Mbeki's advisers said he had "abandoned the kid gloves approach to Mugabe". They also said Mr Mbeki had tried to strengthen the regional task force on Zimbabwe, the principal diplomatic vehicle being used by Zimbabwe's neighbours. But while the story was given prominence in South Africa's leading Sunday newspaper, there was little substantive proof of the claim. "Someone in South Africa is worried about the devaluation in the rand and is trying to distance the country from Zimbabwe," a diplomat said. "There will have to be more substance before this is taken seriously." Diplomats said Mr Mbeki had yet to take any significant policy initiatives against Mugabe's regime, preferring a softly-softly approach. Last week Mr Mbeki was challenged about his position on Zimbabwe at a meeting with members of the international press but refused to give an answer when asked if he thought Mr Mugabe was still fit to lead Zimbabwe.

While Mr Mbeki's advisers have pointed out to him the disastrous effect Mr Mugabe is having on investor confidence across the entire region, Mr Mbeki seemed reluctant to criticise Mugabe personally. Mr Mbeki often speaks publicly about the residual racism among Western leaders and he is believed to attribute a large part of the criticism of Mr Mugabe to that. But with his advisers there is clear frustration that South Africa has not drawn a clear enough line between itself and Zimbabwe. The crisis in Zimbabwe is currently casting a shadow across South Africa and the entire region as no leader seems willing to put serious diplomatic pressure on Mr Mugabe. Opposition leaders in South Africa have called for "smart sanctions" to be imposed on Mr Mugabe and his cronies. This would involve banning them from international flights and restricting their ability to use bank accounts in South Africa and elsewhere. Asked about this policy initiative, Mr Mbeki said he had not given the matter "any thought".

From BBC News, 3 December

New challenge to Mugabe

Civil rights activists in Zimbabwe have threatened to launch a campaign of civil disobedience in January unless the government implements political reforms and ensures next year's presidential election is free and fair. The chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, announced the move after a meeting of the NCA, which is a coalition of local churches, unions and human rights groups, on Saturday. He said the government should expect mass protests and work boycotts if it rejected a new constitution drafted by the NCA. President Robert Mugabe has predicted he will win a convincing victory at the election, due before the end of March, while the opposition accuses him of changing electoral legislation in his favour. An estimated 2,000 people attended Saturday's meeting on the proposed new constitution, which stipulates the separation of powers between a non-executive president elected by parliament and an executive prime minister elected by popular vote. The new constitution would also abolish the death penalty for treason, though not for murder. "We think we need change of the constitutional framework before you can go into an election, and we want to make that point in January," Mr Madhuku said.

The BBC's Rageh Omar reports from the South African city of Johannesburg that the NCA meeting shows resistance to Mr Mugabe's rule is not confined to his political opponents, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "This weekend's threat of a widespread national campaign of disobedience by civic organisations has highlighted other focal points of disaffection to the current Zimbabwean government policies," he says. The Zimbabwean authorities last week briefly detained Mr Madhuku and 32 other NCA members when they tried to demonstrate against new election rules they consider undemocratic. The MDC has accused Mr Mugabe of trying to steal victory by changing the electoral laws in his favour. The opposition is outraged by a bar on postal voting for millions of Zimbabweans living abroad voting and rigid new rules demanding multiple proof of residency for urban voters. It has launched a campaign to persuade millions of its supporters living in South Africa to return home and claim their right to vote. The MDC estimates that about 3m Zimbabweans live there and most are opposition supporters. "You must fight for Zimbabwe," MDC Deputy President Gibson Sibanda told a rally in Johannesburg on Sunday. "You must go home and claim your voting rights. We want you to prepare yourselves to go back and vote."

From ZWNEWS: The proposed amendments to the Electoral Act are due to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday by Justice Minister Chinamasa. If you would like a copy of these amendments, please ask. They will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - size 80Kb, or roughly twice the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.

From Business Day (SA), 3 December

Diplomats invited to Zanu congress

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has invited diplomats in Harare to attend his ruling Zanu PF's annual congress to be held in Victoria Falls in two weeks. Zimbabwe has also invited a committee of Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers to visit the country on December 10 to assess progress in its land reform programme, the state-run Sunday Mail reported yesterday. Mugabe's foreign affairs ministry extended its invitation to the diplomats for the congress scheduled for December 14. "The ministry wishes to advise the heads of diplomatic missions who will be able to attend the opening session of the conference to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements," the invitation said. Diplomats interviewed said they would not attend the congress. "Most of us will not be attending because we know that the government will use the congress to get political mileage," said one diplomat. "What they are trying to do is divert the attention of the world away from Zimbabwe's pressing internal problems. They are beginning to feel the pain of international isolation," he said. Diplomats are forced to attend Zanu PF gatherings. In 1999 diplomats were compelled to attend its congress where Mugabe gave them a roasting, warning those who did not support him they would be recalled. Observers said from past experience, the gathering would provide a grandstand platform for the Zimbabwean leader and his party, which is desperate for a fresh mandate to lead the country for another six years. Observers said a slew of rhetoric and wild attacks on adversaries could be a major feature of the congress. At a tree-planting ceremony at the weekend Mugabe scoffed at threats of international sanctions. He accused his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Movement for Democratic Change, of being a puppet of former colonial power Britain.

From The Zimbabwe Standard, 2 December

Soldiers loot beef

Some top officers of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) have been suspended from work for diverting to the black market beef destined for soldiers fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo The Standard has learnt. Military sources said agents from the Zimbabwe Military Intelligence Corps based in Lubumbashi, had recently intercepted an army truck carrying a 10-tonne beef consignment and had arrested the crew. The beef, which had no invoices attached to it and is believed to have cost millions of dollars, was on its way to a lucrative black market in the DRC where payments are made in US dollars. The racket was unearthed following a spate of thefts of army food rations which had prompted the intelligence unit to investigate.

The Standard understands that several army officers implicated in the scam have been suspended pending the results of the investigations. "The soldiers told the intelligence team that they were being sent to deliver the loot to the DRC black market and were given instructions not to include the loot amongst the rest of the consignment being delivered to the soldiers," said the source. "This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are many things happening in the army in the DRC which involve the chefs," the source said. Army food rations to the DRC, where Zimbabwe has deployed an 11 000 strong force, are transported via rail, air and road. The Standard understands that there is massive looting of rations destined for soldiers in the DRC.

Zimbabwean troops have been fighting in the DRC since 1998 helping to prop up the Joseph Kabila regime which is involved in civil war with the rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Contacted for comment, the defence spokesperson, Colonel Mbosini Gatsheni refused to discuss the matter. "I do not want you asking me about it. You should put your questions in writing to my office. I have not received a report on that matter." Last month, a report by the United Nations team implicated Zimbabwean soldiers and senior Zanu PF officials in the looting of the DRC’s mineral wealth.

From The Zimbabwe Standard, 2 December

"I’m coming home," says Thomas Mapfumo

Chimurenga music king, Dr Thomas Mapfumo, has assured his followers that he will be coming home for Christmas. Mapfumo yesterday told The Standard from his United States base that although the current political climate in Zimbabwe was a hostile one, he was still coming home, dispelling Wednesday’s story by the state-controlled Herald newspaper that he would not be staging his traditional Christmas bira. Said Dr Mapfumo: "Munyika medu munonetsa nenyaya dzepolitics. (Our country has a lot of political problems.) I have heard a lot from my relatives living in Zimbabwe but that won’t stop me from coming home. Handina mhosva yandakapara saka hapana chandinotya. (I have not committed any crime so I have nothing to fear.) People out there who think I am afraid of someone or something, are wrong." Mukanya said plans for the launching in Zimbabwe of his album, Chimurenga Rebel, were at an advanced stage. The album is likely to contain the hard hitting lyrics that have come to be expected of him.

Back to the Top
Back to Index



COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm invasions and Security Report
Monday 3 December 2001 





This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas.  Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens.  Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals. 
NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF
Save Conservancy – snared Rhino successfully released
Horseshoe – Gang of youths terrorising the southern area
Macheke\Virginia – attempted armed ambush
Kadoma/Chakari - 42 houses and beer hall burnt
REGIONAL NEWS
MANICALAND
Rusape - On going demands from the war vets for tobacco seedlings, maize seedlings etc. from  farmers.

MASVINGO
Save Valley Conservancy Area - A rhino was caught in a snare last week.  The snare, which was made up of 4 strand high stand wire, has been successfully removed.  It is hoped that the Rhino will fully recover.  Poaching and snaring continue in this area.
Chiredzi Area - The FA Vice Chairman reports, that on cane farms,  invasions have not been as aggressive as those on other farms.   Accordingly, every attempt has been made to follow regulations .  It is reported  that there is a huge backing from the farm labourers for the new trade union and lots of pressure, as a result.   The only problems that have arisen have been over payments and dismissals.
Mwenezi Area - The usual snaring, poaching, theft, tree clearing and land preparation continues area wide.
Gutu/Chatsworth Area – Daily harassment from illegal occupiers, concerning the movement of cattle, continues
 
MASHONALAND CENTRAL
Glendale - A farmer from the area, whose farm was unlisted and occupied, took the case to the High Court and won. The Chairman of the settlers, residing on the farm, was present when the verdict was read. When the owner attempted  to resume farming operations on Thursday, she was met with a hostile group of invaders who refused to allow any work to continue. She subsequently  phoned the DA who  told her that as she had chosen the legal route he was no longer able to help her. There has been no change in the situation since then.
Centenary - The owner of Mtorazini Farm has had the main entrance to his home barricaded but  has been given permission to use the back gate.
Horseshoe - The southern half of this district has been disrupted for two days by gangs of youths marching from farm to farm violently forcing farm labourers to attend rallies. One farmer was forced to give a cow for slaughter to the youths to be consumed at a rally, whilst various vehicles (tractors and lorries) were commandeered to transport these people from the farms to the rallies. The youths on the farms were forced to attend a rally and had to remain there overnight. Whilst attending to their tobacco crop a farmer and his son were surrounded by an angry mob on Sunday afternoon and not allowed to return home until the owner agreed to supply roller meal for the youth rally. In a separate incident the owner of Rungudzi Farm was prevented from leaving his home by a mob of 100 - 150 aggressive youths who were waiting at the gates. They attempted to hoist his vehicle and place it on rocks inorder to prevent him leaving, but he managed to ram his vehicle over the rocks and fled to the safety of his home. The mob  followed him into the yard but soon dispersed to attend a previously arranged youth meeting on a nearby property. The farmer was then able to leave the property.
Tsatsi - Pegging teams from the DA's Office continue to move around the district. So far, three farms have been pegged. One of the farmers in the area won his case in the Admin Court and the DA attended.
 
MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
Doma - An armed person went onto Mcherengi Farm and pointed a weapon at someone.  The weapon was deflected onto the ground, and some shots were fired, another shot went into the tyre of a car near a farm employees house.  The car was to be used to transport a motor.  Police reacted after the farm manager fired some shots out of a window at the house.  All concerned are making statements at the Mhangura ZRP.  On the neighbouring farm it has been reported that a senior policeman’s children are burning settlers’ houses.
Karoi – There are reports of stock theft and slaughtering of stock.  The ZRP have been unhelpful with RRB numbers in cases of theft and poaching.  They say they have run out of RRB books.
 
MASHONALAND EAST
Beatrice – The owner of Nengwa heard shots fired by suspected poachers.  On Nebo 42 irrigation pipes have been stolen.  Cattle are being moved on to Brakveld and the owner is prevented from ploughing and planting.
Enterprise/Bromley/Ruwa - The area is quiet, the D.D.F. are ploughing and planting while Agritex is active.
Featherstone - Harvieston still has a work stoppage.  The owner went to see the DA who informed him that he is going to prosecute because the owner planted on state land.  Kuruman is  only allowed to milk cattle, with constant harassment on farming activities each day.  The owner contacted DZL and arrangements were made to contact the local M.P.   There is no sign of the MP, or the delisting letter promised last week.  The settlers refuse to move until they see the letter.  The Lands Committee was supposed to visit, but had  rolled the Defender vehicle that they had been given to use.
Marondera North - Closeburn has commenced maize planting.  On Nyagambe, one weaner heifer was slaughtered on Friday night.  Settlers attempted to move horses out of the stables on Kirndean.   Over the weekend on LEKKERWATER, some  6 acres of seedlings re-planted last week, after they were removed by settlers to plant maize, have again been removed
Marondera South – on Wenimbi Lessee’s workers, previously evicted from their homes by illegal settlers, were evicted from the tobacco barns where they had taken refuge. After numerous meetings with the authorities the workers were allowed to return to the barns but not their houses.  Pondarosa  has a continued work stoppage.
Harare South - Auks Nest still has problems with visits and planting of maize in the pivot land, where the workers have twice been chased out of the seedbeds.  On Daune Mude, driver of the DDF tractor, told the owner he had been sent by D.A. Seke to demarcate the farm for A2 resettlement.  900 tobacco plants were pulled out at Dunluce. On Edinborough six passengers, in a Toyota Hilux,  led by Choga, accused  the owner of pulling out pegs. A tractor disking for the farm workers was stopped, but the situation was finally resolved.  Although asked to escort the visitors around the farm, the owner politely declined
Wedza - The farmer on Mt Arthur was prevented from getting paprika seedlings as the illegal settlers claimed the seedling as their own.  16 beds of paprika seedlings, and six of tobacco. have been taken over.  Further to the report last week re the labour on Bickleigh, the Police arrived on Wednesday and said that they could do nothing about the labour being evicted and the owner must talk to the DA.  and Lands Committee.  At Leapyear @ Uley all the cattle were chased off on to Bolton and the remaining grazing on both farms burnt.
Leeds - received a Section 8 Order some  two weeks ago.  There are 17 paddocks on the farm and the illegal settlers have ploughed a small area in 14 of them.  There are only 15 settlers on the farm, some of whom also have plots on Bolton and Hull.  There are only three families living in houses they have built - the rest have taken over the workers houses.  There are 80 plots on the farm which have been resettled twice and the bulk of which have not been taken up.  There is continued cutting of boundary fence and theft of fencing.  At 12.30 on Wednesday, a red Peugeot was being driven around MSASA.  The driver claimed he was the DA from Marondera and had a map of Scorror.  Asked why he was in Wedza out of his area, he replied that he was looking for land for himself.  On Rapako, six boreholes had MCB's and fan belts stolen.  One of the culprits was caught and when the police arrived he said that he was just trying to get water - the police let him go. More fencing has been stolen.  On Markwe, the illegal settlers herded all the cattle into the barn complex where they remained overnight.  The cattle were released this morning but the settlers insist the cattle must go.  In general, by ploughing and planting small areas all over farms, the illegal settlers are forcing farmers to remove their cattle.
Macheke/Virginia - Koodoo Range RRB 004569, reported a borehole pump  stolen.  They also reported ongoing ploughing and planting on the farm.  On Mignon RRB 004571, CST Channike, five strands of electric fencing was cut, but nothing stolen.  The mains switched off to the house and switched on to the farm village  The electricity had been switched off to the farm village,  as only Illegal settlers were living there.   The owner and his family refused entry to the farm by Illegal settlers, whereupon  the head settler shouted abuse at the family on their arrival at the farm.  The owner spent the night at a neighbour’s farm and the police would not react, saying it was a matter for the Lands Committee to rectify the following morning. The Lands Committee finally visited and resolved the problem for the moment.  Camdale  reported continued ploughing and planting, whilst on Medlar a suspect was apprehended for stealing fencing, and taken to Macheke Police.  On Soft farm a cow was slaughtered.  Three illegal settlers admitted guilt and were taken to the Police.  There was an attempted armed ambush on Hazeldene.  The owner was returning from the dam, when he noticed that  a log had been pulled across the road.  He managed to get away and a horse stick is now patrolling the farm.  Illegal settlers are burning down compound kitchens and have evicted remaining labour out of houses on Nygadzi.  Dispol in Marondera and Police in Macheke were contacted, but both said they would ask the Lands Committee to attend to the problem.  On Malda RRB 004576 the labour was harassed and threatened with eviction and irrigation pipes stolen.  Police failed to react for either report.  Illegal settlers threatened work stoppage on Howgate RB 219/2001 for the next day unless the irrigation pivot is dismantled and the owner stops letting water out of the dam.  The owner had to move his cattle off the farm as they had been pushed into the dip paddock with no food and little water.  A total work stoppage has been effected. Neither police nor lands committee have reacted.    At Athlone, Francis Kucheri threatened the owner that unless he handed over  the keys to a cottage on the farm, all the cattle would be moved into the yard.  Later in the afternoon all the cattle were moved into the farmyard. There have been ongoing problems with Francis Kucheri from the DA Murehwa's Office.  The owners visited him in his office to try and resolve the situation on the farm but the cattle are still not allowed out of the farmyard.  Kucheri attempted to extort $0.5 million from the owner and in return "his troubles would go away.”  Mr Kucheri has taken the lock off the cottage fence gate he would like to occupy on the farm.  The owner managed to negotiate another month’s grazing for the cattle on the farm and did not hand over the key to the cottage.  At Murrayfield LB 222/01 the owner and his wife were locked in the house and yard by the labour over a wage dispute.  Police were informed and attended twice but the situation remains unresolved.  On Mug Farm LB 222/01 it was reported an army officer told the lorry driver and the rest of the labour to vacate their houses.  An intoxicated settler at Craigie Lea Farm LB 223/01 was at the owner's house demanding keys to the cottage on the farm.  It was reported that illegal settlers were threatening a work stoppage on Monday on the flowers at Wheatlands.  There were numerous reports throughout the day of weapons seen around the area.
 
MASHONALAND WEST SOUTH
Norton – on Maine Farm Mr Matondo has now stopped the owner from reaping his irrigated tobacco and planting dryland tobacco.  Police are still reticent to act on this, although they have visited the farm, as a result of the stoppage, but were unable to resolve anything to date.
Selous – on Carskey Farm illegal occupiers handed the owner a letter, stating that he is no  longer allowed to graze cattle on his farm, despite it not being listed, and Minister Chombo personally instructing the DA to remove the illegal occupiers on 3 October 2001.
Chegutu/Suri-Suri – on Bougainvillea, despite an agreement with the DA and the Lands Committee allowing the owner to use 200ha of his 800 ha, he still cannot plant.
Kadoma/Chakari/Battlefields – On Blackmorevale Farm illegal occupiers assaulted some farm workers, four of whom  were hospitalised.  42 houses were bunt down, including the beer hall.  Ten families and nine individuals have lost all they possessed.  Police arrived four hours after being called and no arrests were made,  despite perpetrators being identified.  The next day the same miscreants burnt a further eight houses in the other farm village on the property – the rain saved the remainder being affected.  No arrests have been made.  On Abendrhue farm illegal occupiers/poachers with weapons shot  at farm security guards, but no one was hit.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Guardian

Mugabe fast running out of friends

Until recently Zimbabwe's neighbours were unwilling to publicly criticise
Mugabe, but support for his repressive regime is fast dwindling, writes
Chris McGreal

Tuesday December 4, 2001

Britain, the European Union and the United Sates were long ago assigned to
scrap heap as "neo-colonialists" by Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. The
Commonwealth is divided and unreliable in Mugabe's view.
But, until now, Zimbabwe's ruler for two decades believed he could rely on
the support of his neighbours by portraying his violent strategy to cling on
to power as a campaign against the legacy of colonialism. No more.

South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has come under scathing attack from
Harare's state-owned press for daring to suggest that next year's
presidential election is unlikely to be free or fair, and that a rigged
ballot will only deepen the political crisis.

"Clearly in a situation in which people get disenfranchised, in which people
get beaten up so that they don't take an honest decision or act according to
their political convictions, obviously there can't be free elections," Mbeki
said last week.

The Harare Herald responded on Monday by alleging that he had "finally
joined hands with Zimbabwe's former colonial rulers" to overthrow Robert
Mugabe.

"It was only a question of time before the South African president gave in
to British pressure to protect white and colonial economic interests in
Zimbabwe."

"President Mbeki's alleged utterances neatly dovetail into Britain's grand
plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe," the Herald said. "A clear
pattern is now emerging of that build-up against Zimbabwe and South Africa's
complicity in the plot to overthrow the ruling Zanu-PF government from
power."

"Such betrayal is difficult to stomach," it added.

The content of the Herald is closely vetted by Zimbabwe's information
minister, Jonathan Moyo, and so would not have been published without the
government's blessing.

The attack is a reflection of Mugabe's growing desperation, extremism and
isolation. Until now, Zimbabwe's neighbours have been reluctant to publicly
criticise its leader. But in recent weeks - with a food crisis looming in
Zimbabwe and with southern Africa as whole suffering the financial fallout
of the region's second-largest economy imploding - there is less willingness
to indulge Mugabe.

The presidents of Malawi and Botswana have both criticised their neighbour.
"The reality is that the region cannot afford to have its second-largest
economy sinking because of this situation," said Botswana's president,
Festus Mogae, last month.

"While we support land reform in Zimbabwe completely, we feel the
implementation of the strategy is incorrect."

Mbeki is pressing for a regional meeting to decide how to pressure Mugabe to
pull his nation back from the brink. But the Herald sees the planned meeting
as the first step towards imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe. "This is not
[Mbeki] washing off his hands but rather removing his gloves for a
bare-knuckle fight with Zimbabwe."

There is no evidence that Mugabe can be pressured to abandon his
increasingly repressive strategy to hold on to power. Last week, the
Zimbabwean government said it intended to curb critical press coverage by
licensing all journalists and requiring that only Zimbabwean citizens work
for foreign news organisations.

Just days before it announced new "anti-terrorism" laws, which include the
death penalty, after Mugabe accused the political opposition, white farmers
and the British government of being terrorists or aiding terrorists.

The Herald got its final punch in against Mbeki by noting that his ruling
African National Congress has just formed an alliance with the rump of the
party that imposed apartheid on South Africa, the New National party.

"What is even worse and even a bit sickening is how President Mbeki is
reported to be in the same bed with the former architects of apartheid," the
paper said.


Back to the Top
Back to Index

Zimbabwe's top court has declared the government's plan to seize white-owned farms legal.

The judgment overturns its previous ruling that it is unconstitutional and illegal.

Four of the five Supreme Court justices appointed to hear a new case on the seizures say they are satisfied the government's land nationalisation programme is lawful.

BBC
 
Tuesday, 4 December, 2001, 10:55 GMT
Court backs Mugabe land reforms
Government supporters on a farm
Land invasions have disrupted farming output
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has ruled that President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme complies with the constitution.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents the majority of white farmers, said the decision taken on Monday was unexpected and confirms an interim decision taken by the court last month.

The ruling removes the last remaining legal obstacle preventing the government from processing claims to white-owned farms.

Zimbabwe's land reform programme has been marred by violence since government supporters, calling themselves war veterans, began occupying white farms 18 months ago demanding that they be redistributed to landless blacks.

An estimated 1,700 white-owned farms have been occupied over the past 18 months, and police have largely failed to stem the accompanying violence.

Crisis

Last year the Supreme Court ordered the government to end violence on white-owned farms.

But three new judges have been appointed by President Mugabe since then.

Robert Mugabe
President Mugabe is seeking re-election next year

Last month, the country's Land Acquisition Act was amended so that white farmers could be forced off their land with immediate effect.

Zimbabwe's economy is already in crisis, blamed largely on the land reform programme, which has massively disrupted farming activities.

The World Food Programme is due to begin a huge relief operation this month to feed over 500,000 Zimbabweans who face hunger or starvation.

Sanctions

Zimbabwe's president is also coming under increasing pressure to hold free and fair presidential elections due by March next year.

South African President Thabo Mbeki's patience is reported to have worn thin after growing increasingly frustrated with the worsening political and economic situation in Zimbabwe.

Bread in Harare
Bread is in short supply

But South Africa remains opposed to sanctions.

The United States is expected to impose targeted sanctions on Zimbabwean leaders this week.

And Europe is moving towards similar sanctions by the end of January.

Former South African president, Nelson Mandela, expressed his support for his successor's tougher stance, saying it is not too late to ensure a fair election in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's leading state-owned newspaper, the Herald, has accused Mr Mbeki of betraying President Mugabe and joining a Western plot to overthrow him.





ZIMBABWE: Supreme court endorses land reform

JOHANNESBURG, 4 December (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has ruled that President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme to hand over white-owned farms to the landless is lawful and that the rule of law prevails in the countryside, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said on Tuesday.

The decision on Monday confirmed a interim ruling by the court in October and effectively overturns an order in November 2000 that land reforms were illegal and that occupiers should be evicted, news reports said.

Four of the five judges hearing the case said they were satisfied that the government had put in place a land reform programme that complied with the constitution.

The CFU said the decision was "unexpected". The ruling clears all legal obstacles that had blocked the government from processing claims to white-owned farms.

Last year the Supreme Court - then made up of four senior judges and former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay who eventually retired under pressure from the government - ordered the government to end violence on white-owned farms. In August, Mugabe appointed three additional judges to the court, after suffering a series of losses from the previous bench, which had described the government's land acquisition programme as unlawful and unconstitutional.

Pro-government militants, led by veterans of the 1970s liberation war, began forcibly occupying white farms in February 2000.

People living in the countryside - both black and white - have suffered widespread intimidation and violence during the land campaign. The violence has gone largely unpunished by police, and the war veterans' campaign has received the government's open support.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

From The Times (UK), 4 December

Zimbabwe accuses Mbeki of knifing it in the back

Johannesburg/Harare - Diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa hit a post-apartheid low yesterday after Harare accused President Mbeki of conspiring with Britain to overthrow President Mugabe’s Government. In an unprecedented editorial in the Herald newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF party, Mr Mbeki was denounced for "betraying" Zimbabwe by saying that the situation north of the Limpopo River was deteriorating rapidly and would worsen further if presidential elections due by April were not seen to be free and fair. The newspaper accused Mr Mbeki of making statements that "neatly dovetail into Britain’s grand plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe".

In a series of statements widely regarded as marking a break with Pretoria’s previously quiet diplomacy, Mr Mbeki had accused Mr Mugabe’s Government of denying voters their rights and attempting to suppress the media. "In a situation in which people get disenfranchised, in which people get beaten up so that they don’t act according to their political convictions, there can’t be free elections," Mr Mbeki said. It was seen in South Africa as his most forthright criticism yet of Mr Mugabe’s Government. Conceding that international attempts to rein in Mr Mugabe’ illegal seizure of white-owned land had largely failed, Mr Mbeki said: "The situation is not improving at all. If you had elections in Zimbabwe which were not seen by the people as legitimate, then you’d end up with a situation worse than it is now."

Mr Mbeki’s tougher stance followed a series of telephone conversations with Western leaders in which he was urged to step up the pressure on Mr Mugabe. The declining value of the South African rand, the loss of investor confidence in southern Africa and the steady stream of Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa have added to the pressure on Mr Mbeki. The New National Party, which recently agreed a power-sharing deal with Mr Mbeki’s ruling African National Congress, called on Mr Mbeki to withdraw all support from Mr Mugabe to ensure that he was not re-elected. "Mugabe has become a total liability that South Africa can no longer afford," the party said. Nelson Mandela, the former South African President, backed Mr Mbeki’s change in policy. "It is quite clear now that Mugabe has not listened to (Mr Mbeki), and that is why (he) is getting tough," Mr Mandela said.

The Herald’s editorial was accompanied by a lengthy front-page report with a headline that declared "Mbeki’s Shock U-turn". Inside the newspaper was an analysis of the ANC’s new "strange bedfellows" relationship with the NNP and a verbatim transcript of the statement to the House of Commons last week by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. "Conspiracy", read the headline. None of the rambling commentary was attributed to Zimbabwe Government officials. However, it is common knowledge that Mr Mugabe’s information department routinely scripts the Herald’s reportage and comment. Yesterday’s blast of vitriol against South Africa could only have been done under the supervision of Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, diplomats said. "Such betrayal is difficult to stomach," it said. "What crime has Zimbabwe committed against its rich and powerful neighbour to deserve a knife in the back?"

From ZWNEWS, 4 December

VIP treatment

President Mugabe flew to Spain yesterday. Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union from Belgium, whose six-month term ends in January, and analysts say that this trip may be an attempt to try and repair the damage resulting from Mugabe’s storming out of a recent meeting in Harare with top EU foreign affairs officials and politicians. Reliable reports suggest that Mugabe also managed to fit in a consultation with a top Spanish eye specialist while he was there.

No such luxury for Mugabe’s political opponents. Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, who is the MDC Treasurer, and MP for the Bulawayo Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency, is now entering his third week in detention. He was one of those arrested in the swoop on dozens of MDC officials following the murder of Bulawayo war veteran Cain Nkala. Dulini-Ncube is an insulin-dependent diabetic. He has been refused adequate insulin supplies or medical attention, and has been subjected to a brutal regime of all-night interrogations since his incarceration. As a result, he now has severe problems with the sight in one eye, and failing sight in the other.

The continued detention of Dulini-Ncube, and all the others arrested in connection with Nkala’s death, is now totally without justification. The only evidence which the government was able to bring against any of the accused was the confession of two MDC drivers, who were paraded on state-owned TV implicating MDC officials in Nkala’s murder. The two witnesses last week retracted their confessions in court, saying they were forced to make them after torture by the police. Members of Nkala’s own family have placed the blame for Nkala’s death squarely on the ruling party Zanu PF, and other members of the war veteran's association.

From News24 (SA), 4 December

Setback for Mugabe

Harare - The Zimbabwe High Court ordered the government on Monday to relax a voter registration rule after the opposition challenged it, saying the regulation was aimed at favouring President Robert Mugabe's re-election bid. High Court Judge Ann Goora held an urgent hearing in her chambers and issued the order on Monday, court officials said. "The court issued an order with the consent of both parties whose effect is that the rule on the kind of documents required for voter-registration should be relaxed," opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawyer Innocent Chagonda said. The rule stipulated that urban voters produce multiple documents to prove their residency. The order would relax that to allow witnesses, landlords' letters of introduction and post-dated envelopes to prove residency, he said. "We managed to get an urgent hearing on this matter because the voter registration (which began on November 19) ends on December 9, but we are looking at challenging all the other new rules," Chagonda said. The MDC said the stringent proof of residency rule was designed to disenfranchise millions of voters in urban areas, where Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party lost heavily to the MDC in last year's general parliamentary elections. The government is also denying voting rights to millions of Zimbabweans abroad, saying it does not have the capacity to process them.

But the MDC - whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to give Mugabe the stiffest challenge of his long career - says all the rules are meant to bolster Mugabe's chances in the presidential elections due by April. The 77-year-old Mugabe maintains the elections will be free and fair, and says he has never cheated in a poll since he came to power when the former Rhodesia gained independence in 1980. But he says there is a Western-backed plot to topple his government, and has entrusted the administration of the entire elections to the government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission. His government refuses to allow local independent observers to monitor the elections and has banned private organisations from conducting voter education. Mugabe's Zanu PF narrowly won last year's parliamentary elections despite a violent campaign blamed on the ruling party which left at least 31 people dead. The Zimbabwean government says some Western powers, especially Britain, are working for Mugabe's defeat in revenge for his controversial drive to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Britain and other Western states deny the charge, saying Mugabe wants to divert attention from a crisis he has created.

From Reuters, 2 December

Mugabe faces foreign criticism

S. African president abandons support of Zimbabwe president

Harare - President Robert Mugabe faced growing foreign pressure on Sunday as South African President Thabo Mbeki apparently distanced himself from him, and the United States appeared close to imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe. At home, Mugabe’s opponents threatened to launch a series of mass protests to force him to accept constitutional reforms, and critics denounced a media bill which they say is meant to curb press freedom ahead of presidential elections. However, Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail newspaper reported that Mugabe had invited a regional ministerial committee to audit progress made on his controversial land reform program. The December 10 visit by the six-member team from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community comes amid reports that Mbeki has been pressing for a special meeting of the SADC task force on the Zimbabwe crisis.

Critics say Mugabe has largely ignored a Nigerian-brokered agreement that his government signed in September to end often violent invasions of white-owned farms by his supporters, but his ministers say the government is respecting the accord. "The invitation of the committee is said to have been inspired by a growing recognition that since the Abuja agreement the fast-track resettlement program has gone on well according to the laws and constitution of Zimbabwe," the Sunday Mail said. But others on the continent appear unconvinced. South African government officials said Mbeki is making it plain to Mugabe he should no longer expect his protection and must work to end a crisis threatening the economies of his neighbors. "He (Mbeki) wants Mugabe to know that he should not expect protection any more. Up to now we have rallied behind him," one senior official told South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper. A senior official in Mugabe’s Zanu PF party said: "We in Zanu PF believe these remarks cannot be true because if they are, then that would be quite sad. President Mbeki, more than anyone else, knows too well that this region and our country in particular was economically and militarily destabilized by apartheid," the official told the Sunday Mail.

Zimbabwe’s private Standard newspaper reported on Sunday that the U.S. House of Representatives was likely to pass a bill this week imposing travel and investment sanctions against Mugabe and his associates for allegedly sponsoring political violence in the country. The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill was endorsed by the Africa sub-committee of the House International Relations Committee last Wednesday, and the Standard quoted sources in Washington saying the bill should be passed by the full house on December 4. On Saturday, Mugabe told a rally his land seizures would continue "with or without sanctions." Mugabe, 77, has been in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980 and is expected to face the stiffest challenge of his career from Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement of Democratic Change in next year’s elections. The MDC nearly defeated Mugabe in general parliamentary elections last year despite a violent campaign blamed on the ruling Zanu PF which left at least 31 people dead.

On Sunday, a coalition of Zimbabwean civic groups campaigning for a new constitution said they would present Mugabe a draft democratic constitution by Christmas and call for mass protests in the new year to force him to adopt it. "We are dealing with a dictatorship determined to hang onto power through hook and crook, and we have no option but to try all kinds of protests to be heard," Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, told reporters. Others launched attacks on a news media bill the government plans to launch. Zimbabwe’s Standard newspaper said the bill, which threatens jail terms for journalists who violate new regulations, largely bars foreign nationals from working as correspondents in the country and comes with a strict licensing system, amounted to "absolute madness." "Should the bill be passed into law in its present form, then clearly a major showdown is in the making between the government and the independent press," the newspaper said.

Comment from Business Day (SA), 4 December

Checkmate Day approaches for former 'People's Hero'

If only President Robert Mugabe had left office before the 1990 presidential election, as was rumoured widely in official circles at about that time, he would today be a big African hero probably in the same league as luminaries such as Nelson Mandela. Notwithstanding his brutal suppression of dissident activity in Matabeleland in the early 1980s and his expedient flirtations with socialism, Mugabe had then by and large managed to steer Zimbabwe on a path to relative prosperity. With the country having just come out of a bitter bush war, and under pressure from blacks to deliver the democracy dividend overnight, Mugabe surprised his detractors and rose to the many political and socioeconomic challenges he had inherited from Ian Smith's white minority government.

On the one hand, he showed great statesmanship by espousing reconciliation where many whites expected him to seek retribution and on the other, saw to it that his reconstruction and development programme raised the quality of life of ordinary Zimbabweans. And as popular as Madiba is in SA, it is fair comment to say that in the early to mid-1980s Bob was arguably more popular among his people to the point of being hero-worshipped as a demi-god. His strong pan-African sentiments, his liberation credentials and his uncompromising stand against the then tough-as-nails apartheid SA which had harassed and humiliated prominent regional leaders such as the late Samora Machel of Mozambique also made him one of the most eminent African leaders of that time.

Unfortunately for Zimbabwe's aging and ailing leader, when his time to leave office comes - which does not appear to be too distant a prospect given the ever deteriorating situation in the country - Zimbabweans and historians alike will only be left with the memories of a bitter old man who allowed his big ego and pride to get the better of him and ruined a once-promising country. Unable to pick his successor inside his ruling Zanu PF party, it was the same ego that led to Mugabe changing his mind about retirement and deciding to contest the 1990 presidential election against a former secretary general of his party, Edgar Tekere. Although he won that ballot, his political standing was now destined to go only one way down.

A naive and overenthusiastic embrace of stringent economic and structural adjustment programmes prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank caused the early damage to the foundations of his rule. The public groans from the resultant steep increases in the prices of basic commodities subsequently precipitated into calls for his retirement and ouster. And unable to come to grips with the dramatic fall in his political fortunes, Mugabe's desperate attempts to reinvent himself as the "people's hero" - a tag he wore for a decade with much pride - have become increasingly bizarre and oppressive. With the Zimbabwean economy in freefall; law and order in the country breaking down alarmingly; and with presidential elections due early next year, Mugabe faces the real prospect of being defeated at the polls by one of his former followers, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change. But as checkmate day approaches for the 77-year-old leader, his administration is predictably going to ridiculous ends to stem the tide. For instance, the state television broadcaster has now borrowed from CNN and imprinted the slogan "Fighting terrorism" in red at the bottom of the main evening news bulletin. Of course, the terrorists are the opposition and the media.

In addition, Mugabe has announced plans for a range of oppressive measures meant to keep the opposition at bay. These include making the carrying of identity cards mandatory under laws enacted during Smith's reign; introducing media legislation designed to give the government blanket controls over news reporting in the country; and disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans through an act that outlaws dual citizenship. And as if this were not enough, Mugabe plans to bar Zimbabweans not resident in the country in the last 12 months from voting in the 2002 presidential poll. This move is clearly designed to deny the opposition up to a million votes from mostly illegal immigrants eking out a living in SA and who are decidedly anti-Mugabe and Zanu PF. While it is premature to say that Mugabe is now down and out, what is clear is that whether he wins next year's ballot or not, the end-game of his long rule has begun.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News - Leader Page

Open government thrives on a free, critical Press


12/4/01 8:11:28 AM (GMT +2)



THROUGHOUT the modern political history of the world, only governments with
something to hide have acted to muzzle the independent Press.

Most such governments have eventually been overthrown by the people.

The Zimbabwean government must obviously have a lot it wishes to hide -
corrupt activities, for instance - otherwise it would not have crafted the
obnoxious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill.

A Parliament which respects the right of the people to consume any and all
information about their country, their government and how it is governing
them would throw this dirty piece of legislation out of the window even
before it is tabled.

Any law that tends to restrict the people's right to know what is being
done, ostensibly on their behalf, by politicians, government functionaries
and diverse bureaucrats stinks to high heaven of a government with very
dirty secrets it wishes to keep hidden from the electorate.

This Bill, which the secretive authors were reluctant to debate with the
stakeholders - the journalists - seems to have one primary purpose: to
prevent damaging or compromising information about government functions from
being released to the people.

The present government has the reputation for being one of the most arrogant
and corrupt in Africa.

Even their allies in the Southern Africa Development Community now seem to
be ashamed of belonging to the same organisation as a government whose
respect for the rule of law is practically non-existent and whose campaign
against a free and independent Press has resulted in President Mugabe being
voted one of the world's most implacable enemies of the freedom of the
Press.

The Bill plans to ban foreign journalists from working here, "license" local
journalists and to prescribe heavy penalties for journalists who publish
stories likely to cause alarm and despondency - in the warped view of the
glorified censors.

Such fascist regulations can only be designed to muzzle the independent
Press, until the only news the people can consume is that which is churned
out by a bootlicking government media.

That media, far from monitoring what the government is doing on their
behalf, will tend to join in the conspiracy to lie to the people.

Then there is corruption in high places: Mugabe has as much as admitted that
some of his colleagues in the government are corrupt.

Some of them were exposed by the persistent investigations of the
independent Press.

They probed and probed, raising serious questions about the probity of many
leaders in the government itself or in the many loss-making corporations a
government obsessed with "jobs for the boys and girls" has set up since
Independence.

The privacy of the individual must be respected by both the government and
the independent media.

The present laws of libel and defamation provide sufficient legal framework
for the aggrieved individuals to seek redress.

To introduce another law in the guise of an attempt to clean up the media
industry must be seen as another waste of public funds. Moreover, this is
the height of over-legislation which we hope level-headed MPs will protest
against by throwing out the Bill, if it is presented to them.

Since the results of the 2000 constitutional referendum, the government and
Zanu PF have targeted the independent Press for virtual elimination.

There were aspects of the constitutional exercise which neither the
government nor Zanu PF wanted the people to know about.

What the independent Press did was to lift the rock under which such
information was being concealed and to expose to the people the maggots
crawling there. In crushing them into smithereens, the people knew the
truth.

For that action, Zanu PF and the government seem determined to punish the
independent Press.

But the truth has a way of returning to haunt those who try to abuse it.

Back to the Top
Back to Index

Daily News - Leader Page

Dictators will jump on the anti-terror bandwagon

12/4/01 8:16:47 AM (GMT +2)


By Rotini Sankore

THE surprisingly quick collapse of the Taliban over the past month has
seriously embarrassed Western political commentators, military analysts,
ex-Russian soldiers defeated by the Mujahideen and the Taliban who were all
united in their warnings of tough battles ahead and about Afghanistan being
"the graveyard of foreign invaders".

Three key factors contributed to the retreat of the Taliban and the
victories of the Northern Alliance. Firstly and most importantly, the end of
the Cold War meant that the United States Air Force had a free hand to
utilise superior air power to its full advantage and drop almost everything
except tactical nuclear weapons on the Taliban.

The second and no less important factor leading to the collapse of the
Taliban, is the fact that most Afghans had suffered enough of Taliban
extremism.

Imprisonment and punishment for listening to non-Taliban music or watching
television, no cinemas, no libraries, no schools or jobs especially for
women, forced growing of long beards for men, dehumanisation of women,
arbitrary executions and sustained human rights violations have all
exhausted the Taliban's political capital.

The third factor, which the Taliban did not at all consider, was that the US
government would bypass the public relations tragedy of engaging the Taliban
directly with American troops. By utilising the Northern Alliance as a first
wave following the massive bombing campaign, the US military was able to
sidestep the most potentially potent weapon of the Taliban - the sight of US
troops on international news attacking and occupying a Moslem country.

This means that unlike during the Soviet invasion when the US supported the
Afghan and Arab fighters with over US$300 million (Z$16,5 billion) a year
over 10 years and Central Intelligence Agency and military training, the
Taliban have nowhere to turn to for support. Even Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
that had previously provided financial and strategic support have now turned
against them leaving them isolated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's co-operation is not without benefits. The
US attack on Afghanistan has done the dirty work for the Russian government
of destroying the training bases of Chechen separatists. Putin also has a
"free hand" to crush Chechen rebels and other internal dissent without
worrying about any serious Western objections. It is not only in Chechnya
that human rights have been sacrificed in order to build and sustain the
"anti-terror coalition".

As regards rights violations, the major difference between the Saudi regime
and the Taliban is Gross Domestic Product and Per Capita Income.

In Pakistan the fact that General Pervez Musharraf heads a military regime
that ousted an elected government has been buried by the "strategic" need to
win over the Pakistani government. Musharraf in turn has opportunistically
become "civilised" and sacrificed his Taliban friends for Western support,
which will bolster his consolidation of power.

It is almost impossible to believe that this is a regime that was only
recently suspended from the Commonwealth.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry officials have linked "Chinese support for the
global campaign against terrorism to US support for China's campaign against
those advocating independence for Tibet and the Muslim province of
Xinjiang".

The new wave of anti-terror legislation across the world threatens to
undermine democracy, especially in Africa where in the past, proxy wars
caused the Cold War rivalry between the former East and West led to full
support and recognition of all sorts of dictatorships for decades. Now it
appears that all any corrupt, undemocratic or insecure government needs to
do to ensure the support of the West is to sign up to the anti-terror war
and introduce "anti-terrorist" legislation which is sure to be used to
suppress or undermine democratic opposition and humans rights.

At best, even if not put to immediate use against civil society, such laws
are likely to be a sword of Damocles dangling over the neck of anyone overly
keen on exercising democratic rights even in the most peaceful and
law-abiding way possible.

For instance, journalists, lawyers, trade unionists and human rights
organisations in Nigeria are alarmed at recent statements by representatives
of the Nigerian police about "the need to revive" the Anti-Terrorist Squad
set up by the late dictator General Sani Abacha.

In all its years of existence, not a single terrorist was arrested or
prosecuted. Instead, it was used to terrorise the media, human rights
community, the pro-democracy movement and other real and imagined enemies.

In Uganda, critics of the government have stated that "the Anti-Terrorism
Bill seeks to lower the standard of proof on which one can be held and
convicted on a terrorism charge".

If passed in the present form, the Minister of Internal Affairs will be
given powers to add any organisation to the terrorist list.

In countries such as Zimbabwe where regardless of any merits for the
argument for land distribution, Robert Mugabe has wielded the entire matter
like a cudgel against all opposition, any accusations of terrorism are sure
to be accompanied by very severe repercussions.

For instance, the Zimbabwean government has recently accused journalists of
being "agents of terrorism" which is no small misdemeanour considering the
local political climate.

This trend will no doubt be spurred on by the introduction of anti-terrorist
legislation in the US, Britain, Italy and other Western countries which more
or less give governments "dictatorial" powers to detain people, foreigners
or not, indefinitely on mere suspicion and without charge or any publicly
stated.

The tragedy of these latest developments, is that by introducing legislation
in their countries which before 11September would have been unthinkable,
Western governments may have robbed themselves of the moral right to speak
up when similar laws are introduced and used to undermine democracy in
Africa and strengthen governments which may in the long run turn out to be
eventual enemies of "civilised values".
Back to the Top
Back to Index

Newsprint Prices Rocket in Zimbabwe

---------------------------------------------------------------
Xinhuanet 2001-12-04 16:35:38

HARARE, December 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Newspapers are facing a major crisis
as newsprint and other raw materials rocket in price far faster than
inflation.

According to the Herald newspaper on Tuesday,newsprint prices are now
more than five times what they were at the beginning of last year and have
risen more than two and half times what they were at the beginning of this
year.

Newsprint is the crucial raw material in materials accounting for well
over half of all expenditure on most newspapers and salaries and wages for
staff.

But other input costs are rising even more rapidly. Film, needed to make
the printing plates, is now five times the January price.

The cost of newsprint went up by 65 percent last year. One tonof
newsprint cost 26,388 Zimbabwean dollars (about 479 U.S. dollars) in January
last year, rising to 43,604 Zimbabwean dollars(about 798 dollars) 11 months
later.

Some newsprint was 49,640 Zimbabwean dollars (about 903 dollars)a ton at
the beginning of this year, and now sells for a whopping 131,354 Zimbabwean
dollars (about 2,388 dollars) this month.

Over the last two years newsprint has thus risen almost five-fold in
price.

A roll of film that used to cost 25,000 Zimbabwean dollars (about 455
dollars) at the beginning of the year has gone up to 115,000 Zimbabwean
dollars (about 2,091 dollars).

Prices of chemicals, ink and other consumables have behaved likewise.
Most newspaper companies are currently operating in a survival mode.

The report said the sky rocketing prices charged by suppliers of raw
material for newspaper production cite expensive foreign currency as the
major reason for hiking prices that poised to threaten newspaper
availability.

Zimbabwe has been facing a critical shortage of foreign currency for
over two years owing to the poor export performance and the non-availability
of donor funding.

Back to the Top
Back to Index