International Herald Tribune
By Brian Latham Bloomberg NewsPublished: December 5,
2007
JOHANNESBURG: The Zimbabwe currency slumped to four
million to the dollar on
the black market Tuesday on a shortage of Zimbabwe
dollar notes.
"The rate went from 1.2 million Zimbabwe dollars to the
U.S. on Friday to 4
million Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. today," a currency
trader, Nixon Gumbo,
said in a telephone interview from the Road Port market
in the capital,
Harare, where many illegal money deals take
place.
Banks in Zimbabwe ran short of local currency last month before
the central
bank was planning to print new notes and reduce denominations by
removing
three zeros. The central bank governor, Gideon Gono, said last week
that the
change of currency was "imminent" and would take place
unannounced.
Zimbabwe is in its ninth successive year of economic
recession following a
land-seizure program implemented by President Robert
Mugabe in 2000. The
southern African nation has the world's
fastest-shrinking peacetime economy
and the highest inflation rate,
estimated at 14,841 percent in October.
"People are sleeping outside
banks so they can be first in the queues in the
morning," Gumbo said. "Many
of them head straight for the Road Port and
change Zimbabwe dollars into
foreign currency. because many places will
accept it, even if it's
illegal."
Without cash, Zimbabweans will have a bleak December, Felix
Gurumatunhu, who
also trades currency on the black market, said in an
interview from Harare.
"It's 4 million to 4.1 million to the U.S. today and
probably 4.5 million by
Friday," he said. "People want to go to South Africa
to buy groceries
because there's no money here and there is nothing to buy,
either."
The U.S. currency has officially traded at 30,000 Zimbabwe
dollars since
Sept. 6, when the Zimbabwe currency was devalued by the
central bank.
The country has suffered shortages of food, fuel and
household appliances
since Mugabe ordered all retailers, manufacturers and
service industries to
cut prices by half in June in a bid to curb
inflation.
Central bank representatives declined Tuesday to comment on
exchange rates
on the black market.
modernghana.com
Kofi Bentil5-12-2007
Feature
Article - Wed, 05 Dec 2007
ACCRA -- African Union leaders meeting their
European Union counterparts in
December are supposed to represent our future
but when it comes to Robert
Mugabe they are stuck in an ideological
time-warp: Mugabe is a
freedom-fighter and Zimbabwe is a victim of Western
depredations, including
threats to boycott the meeting.
Even
democratically-elected Ghanaian President John Kufuor, Chairman of the
African Union, recently observed equivocally: "When the leader of the
opposition gets beaten up, for good or ill, naturally all concerned should
be worried."
At least Mugabe is honest: “Some are crying that they
were beaten. Yes you
will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move,
you move. If you don’t
move, you invite the police to use force,” he said
about trade-union
activists arrested in September last
year.
Paralysed by hero-worship, the Southern African Development
Community summit
in August supported Mugabe’s claims of a UK plot, our Heads
of State gave
Mugabe a podium and a standing ovation in Kenya in May, most
of them backed
Zimbabwe’s cruelly ironic election to the UN Commission on
Sustainable
Development this year and the whole AU boycotted a 2003 summit
with the EU
because Mugabe was excluded.
Their pretext is the sacred
mantra of non-interference and respecting
sovereignty--meaning the
sovereignty of ruling cliques, not of
long-suffering citizens.
Our
leaders have to recognise that Mugabe is not an ideological dictator in
the
mould of their heroes Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Julius Nyerere in
Tanzania,
Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia or Milton Obote in Uganda, nor even like
ideologues
such as Hitler, Stalin or his own hero Kim Il Sung: he is a
straightforward
kleptocrat determined to hold on to power at any cost.
Even the
democratic African leaders, including Kufuor and South Africa’s
Thabo Mbeki,
like to hear Mugabe blaming the West for Zimbabwe’s and all our
ills, as he
did in Nairobi at May’s Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa
(COMESA) summit.
He was applauded for complaining about commodity prices
being fixed by the
West, although free markets do not fix prices in the way
that African
governments fix prices and monopolise commodity
sales.
SADC leaders in Lusaka even backed Mugabe’s claim that Zimbabwe is
a victim
of economic sanctions although the only measures, by the EU and the
USA, are
travel and financial restrictions on about 130 members of the
ruling clique
(in fact, the UK is the second biggest provider of
humanitarian assistance
to Zimbabwe). SADC executive secretary Dr. Tomaz
Salomao said in November:
“for us they are sanctions and our approach has
been to have them lifted."
Many also shared Mugabe’s
economically-ignorant call for self-sufficiency.
But no developed country is
self-sufficient in commodities (nor even most
manufactured products) and we
Africans cannot live on a diet of cocoa beans
and tea: selling it is much
more profitable.
Manufacturing and adding value are great economic aims
but they do not
happen successfully by government decree--right now,
Africans suffer heavy
import tariffs for essential inputs (such as
fertilizer) and medicines,
state control of exports, lack of property
rights, obstacles to private
enterprise and a ubiquitous corrupt
bureaucracy.
Yet our leaders do not accept that the key to our future is
allowing our
people to create wealth: we cannot free ourselves from poverty
without
economic freedoms such as property rights, the rule of law and free
markets.
But the Mugabe version remains attractive because we all like to
believe
that our failures are someone else’s fault.
And Mugabe
remains in power after 27 years, at the age of 83. It seems true
that evil
men live long but that is because every day an evil man lives is
like
eternity to the oppressed.
Neither South Africa’s “quiet diplomacy” nor
Western restrictions on
money-laundering can influence a man who is cocooned
in delusions and
treated with deference by his neighbours.
Our new
crop of elected African leaders, blithely talking of an African
Renaissance,
should be emboldened by their own democratic authority to face
up to people
like Mugabe (and the leaders of Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia).
They should
make Mugabe unwelcome at civilized meetings like the EU-AU
summit in Lisbon
and put legal pressure on him by consensus, as West African
leaders did to
force out Charles Taylor in Liberia.
Our leaders managed to evade any
action at the recent Commonwealth Summit
because Zimbabwe is no longer a
member but the AU-EU summit puts Mugabe
centre-stage: he has confirmed he
will go and Britain’s Prime Minister
Gordon Brown has confirmed his
boycott.
They should heed the call of Ghanaian former UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
who said recently: "Africans must guard against
a pernicious,
self-destructive form of racism that unites citizens to rise
up and expel
tyrannical rulers who are white, but to excuse tyrannical
rulers who are
black"
Before embarrassing themselves again, our
leaders must come to their senses
and join the huge majority of Africans who
reject the barbaric Mugabe: by
embracing economic freedoms to save their own
countries, they would offer
hope to Zimbabweans for the day after
Mugabe.
Kofi Bentil is a lecturer at Ashesi University and a consultant
in business
strategy in Accra, Ghana.
Open Society Institute (OSI)
Date: 31 Dec 2007
I. SUMMARY
The 2008 Presidential campaign has already
begun. This violence is the
strategy of the ruling party. They want to
eliminate opposition now so that
the situation will appear calm in the
period before the election.
-Zimbabwean Human Rights
It is less
than one year before Zimbabwe will hold the presidential and
parliamentary
elections scheduled for March 2008. Since early 2007 the
country has been
subject to an upsurge in political violence that has
seriously undermined
the democratic process and created a presumption that
these elections will
not be free and fair. State-any individuals or groups
who are perceived to
be critical of President Robert Mugabe, his government
or his policies,
manifests a strategy to demobilize Zimbabweans from
mounting or supporting
an organized opposition campaign. The international
community and Southern
African Democratic Community (SADC) have attempted to
play a role in
encouraging a democratic process by introducing South Africa’s
between the
ruling and opposition parties. However, the international
community remains
ineffective in its efforts to stop states-sponsored
violence in
Zimbabwe.
On March 11, 2007 a coalition of church and civic organizations
known as the
Save Zimbabwe Campaign, organized a township near the capital
Harare. Police
used violence and arrests to prevent the peaceful prayer
rally. They shot to
death an unarmed activist, Gift Tandare, and
subsequently arrested several
leaders of the major opposition party—the
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) as well as rank and file attendees.
While the brutal beatings and
interference with medical care of the
prominent MDC leaders following March
11 received considerable media
attention, the persisting torture and
political violence,(1) particularly
that perpetrated activists, against have
not been documented by
international health and human rights experts. This
sponsored violence that
occurred in the wake of the highly publicized events
of March 11,
2007.
Researchers from the Advocate for Survivors of Torture traveled to
South
Africa and Zimbabwe during the last week of April and first two weeks
of May
2007 nongovernmental organizations to evaluate reports of torture and
political violence. This report is based on the detailed testimony and
medical examination of 24 individuals who were subjected to torture or
political violence during March and April 2007. Additionally, interviews
were conducted with more than 30 health professionals, human rights
advocates and violence directed representatives of non-governmental
organizations in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
This investigation, the
health professionals with expertise in the
evaluation documentation and
treatment of torture victims since the March
2007 violence, provides
evidence that the Zimbabwean government is
systematically utilizing torture
and violence as a means of deterring
political president, Thabo Mbeki, as a
mediator opposition. This
state-low-level political organizers sponsored
violence in Zimbabwe in
addition to the prominent members of the political
opposition. The medical
evaluations of recent victims of torture and
political violence document
physical and psychological evidence of violent
human rights abuses and the
devastating health consequences of rally in
Highfield, a such political
violence. Victims were detained under inhuman
conditions and denied
appropriate access to medical and legal assistance.
Members of civil
society, including doctors and lawyers assisting victims of
political
violence, described being subjected to rank and file
attendees.harassment by
government authorities.
Note:
(1) For
this report, individuals subjected to torture if the experience(s)
they
reported were considered by the examining physicians to meet criteria
for
torture as defined in the Torture. (See Methods Section Individuals were
classified political violence if the experience(s) they reported was
considered, by the examining physicians, to be a violent act as a result of
their political activities or beliefs, but which was not considered,
necessarily, to constitute torture.
Financial Times
By Alec
Russell
Published: December 5 2007 02:35 | Last updated: December 5 2007
02:35
The approach to buy one of the larger South African manufacturing
companies
still operating in Zimbabwe was conducted with a punctilious
regard for
form. First there was an introductory meeting, then terms were
laid out in
an official letter.
But the offer price from a consortium
linked to officials in President
Robert Mugabe’s government was a fraction
of the company’s worth and, the
chief executive recalled, he was clearly not
meant to turn it down.
“They made an appointment and asked: ‘Are you
aware of the bill [the
Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill, which calls for
black Zimbabweans to
have a 51 per cent stake in foreign-owned firms]? Do
you know what it means?
We don’t want to put any pressure on you but have
you considered who your
future partners will be?’”
The “indigenisation”
bill was passed by parliament in September in the face
of outrage from
business people, who warned it would force foreign-owned
businesses to
close.
As Zimbabwe’s economic implosion accelerates, with the official
rate of
inflation at 15,000 per cent, more companies are coming under
pressure to
sell, even though Mr Mugabe has not yet signed the bill into
law.
Officials say the bill aims to redress past injustices, but the
opposition
sees it as a brazen attempt by officials to exploit political
uncertainty by
seizing assets.
“It’s a desperate and cynical
smash-and-grab,” said Paul Themba Nyathi, a
leading figure in the bitterly
divided opposition Movement for Democratic
Change. “Officials sense the
government cannot last for ever and so want to
have a foot in business for
when the situation improves.”
The chief executive said the move against
him had been clearly timed for
when his morale had already been hit by the
government’s price-cutting
campaign.
In a crude attempt to drive down
inflation five months ago the government
ordered a 50 per cent cut on basic
commodities.
The manufacturing company was one of many businesses that
had to sell their
stock at about a quarter of the market price.
“I
took the bulk of my stock across the border to Botswana but even if I
wanted
to produce flat out, the supply chain has just about broken,” the
chief
executive said. “We are now running at about a quarter of our old
levels.
“We enjoy credit from our parent company but we wouldn’t if
we no longer
owned a controlling stake. And what is the point for them of
owning 51 per
cent of a company that is heading into oblivion?”
Most
business people see the offensive as a refinement of the move against
commercial farmers seven years ago, when hundreds of mainly white farmers
were driven off the land in a crude and belated attempt at land
redistribution. Then, as now, elections were looming, and, analysts say, Mr
Mugabe needed a populist move to shore up his support.
“They’ve
looked at the farms and realise that if you take 100 per cent there
is
nothing left,” said the chief executive, in a reference to the many
commercial farms now lying untended.
The bigger foreign-owned
businesses are refusing to give way. Stanbic and
Standard Chartered are
believed to have made clear to the government that
they would withdraw
rather than hand over a 51 per cent stake.
“The authorities are hoping
people will concede without a fight,” said the
chief executive of another
manufacturing company that has been invited to
sell a controlling stake.
“It’s a rattling of sabres.”
His company also suffered from the price
controls. He had to close his
factory temporarily and dismiss most of his 70
workers. Now they sell only
about 7 per cent of their old output from the
warehouse floor and do most of
their business informally.
Business
people pin their hopes on the law never being signed but concede Mr
Mugabe
usually follows through with his threats.
At a meeting of Bulawayo’s
chamber of commerce, Paul Mangwana, the minister
of indigenisation, recently
scoffed at warnings. “When the world runs out of
chrome [of which Zimbabwe
has large assets], the world will come to us on
its knees,” he said.
The Telegraph
By
Sebastien Berger
Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 05/12/2007
In
the far corner of Kumbuzi cemetery, a mile from the entrance, is
the
evidence of Robert Mugabe's misrule.
Simple metal plaques on
tightly-packed graves are painted white with
the names and dates of the
dead, with birthday after birthday in the 1970s.
Escort Tauzeni was
29 when he died. On one side is Vimbai Mazana, 30.
On the other
lies Kennedy Bono, 36. Behind him is Monica Mhlanga, who
expired six weeks
short of her 30th birthday. Next to her is Ophardy
Dingiswayo,
32.
The ages at Harare's biggest cemetery, south of the city, might
appear
shockingly young, but in fact they are a brutal illustration of a
Zimbabwean
statistic and entirely average.
A World Health
Organisation report last year put life expectancy in
Zimbabwe at 37 for men
and 34 for women, the lowest in the world. The
African average was 47 for
men, 10 years longer, and 49 for women - a full
decade and a half
more.
"These days there's more and more funerals," said a cemetery
worker.
"There's more than 20 a day. That's the limit, we don't have enough
grave
diggers."
Aid organisations say the death toll is largely
the result of
HIV-Aids, but point out that the effects of the epidemic are
exacerbated by
the non-availability of drugs for adults in Zimbabwe's
wrecked health
service, and the shattered economy.
Cemetery
number 6, in Magwegwe, on the outskirts of Bulawayo, has been
open for less
than two years but already holds thousands of bodies.
"There's
always a burial going on during the day," said an aid worker.
"People will
be standing on the other graves. Right now I'm surprised
there's only two
funerals."
"HIV and poverty is not a very nice combination," he
said. South
Africa, he pointed out, has a similar HIV epidemic "but people
can afford to
buy food".
In a culture where funerals are an
important rite of passage, those
who are given one - maybe supplemented
later by a granite headstone - are
the lucky ones, according to Stella
Allberry, health spokesman for the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
Families too poor to pay for the ceremony are abandoning
their sick,
she said.
"When they can't afford to bury them they
take them to hospital, drop
them off under another name, and say 'bye bye, I
love you, bye bye' so they
die as paupers and the government buries
them.
"People are dying but we are very very polite. You will see a
whole
casualty room of people sitting quietly, they are tolerant and they
are
good, the gentlest dog that's been kicked and kicked and
kicked.
"One day he's going to turn around and bite - or maybe he's
just going
to die of his wounds."
Zimbabwe Election
Watch
Issue 12: 04 December
2007
Executive Summary
Reportedly riled when South African President Thabo Mbeki raised allegations of continued violence against opposition supporters during their meeting in Harare late last month, President Mugabe dismissed them as the "usual accusations" made by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
However, the MDC has provided Mr Mbeki with a substantial dossier of cases of violence against its members. Other aspects of major concern highlighted by the opposition and civil society include the crushing of rallies, meetings and protest marches by riot police, and the politicisation of traditional leaders and food distribution.
According to human rights documentation in the possession of Dr Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary for State, this year is the worst to date for human rights abuses. On record are about 6 000 instances of abuse, more than 90 cases of politically motivated kidnappings and abductions, and 3 463 detailed cases of torture.
As President Mbeki flew out of Harare, 22 activists from the National Constitutional Assembly were severely tortured by state security agents and ruling party enforcers at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare.
Although the army has traditionally supported Mr Mugabe, a retired army colonel, Bernard Matongo says the regime is in denial about the violence and the only way the opposition should go for elections is if the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sends monitors six months in advance.
Harare political scientist Eldred Masungure says the new electoral laws that have been published provide a better electoral framework, but free and fair elections will only take place if President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party honour them.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says there is an urgent need create a conducive electoral environment for all parties and to deal with issues surrounding the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is packed with Zanu PF sympathisers.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a civic election monitoring group, notes that legislation alone cannot prevent malpractices. Their recent report cites numerous discrepancies in the registration process, as well as allegations of bribery and corrupt practices.
In a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC says a recent audit shows that the voters' roll is unusable and is full of "dead and ghost voters". The party also says it cannot accept the current flawed delimitation exercise.
Despite requests to shelve the exercise until the conclusion of the current talks, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission insists it will press ahead with demarcation of constituencies.
A national survey conducted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute finds that most Zimbabweans eligible to vote have not received any worthwhile voter education.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project has documented 267 cases in September in which food and other forms of aid, such as the provision of seed, were carried out along political lines.
No
changes on the ground as Zanu PF manipulates talks
Source Date:
23-11-2007
As Zimbabweans
debate the progress of talks between Zanu PF and the MDC in South Africa, an
analyst working for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said Zanu PF is playing
games with the opposition.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, the group's Programmes
Manager, said …. Robert Mugabe has managed to use Constitutional Amendment 18 to
solve his own succession dilemma. The act allows him to handpick a
successor.
He said there was an urgent need to deal with the
administrative body that will run next year’s election, including the creation
of a conducive electoral environment for all parties….
To make matters
worse the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which is packed with Zanu PF
sympathisers, has gone on to appoint soldiers, Central Intelligence Organisation
members and other party supporters to the Delimitation Commission.
The
commission is meant to redraw electoral boundaries and has in the past been used
to manipulate voting patterns in favour of Zanu PF.
A lot of issues to
do with the composition of the ZEC, the voters' roll, ballot papers and polling
stations still remain unclear….
He reiterated that as long as state
institutions were not demilitarized, structures like the Border Gezi militia
disbanded and a free media created, participation in the election was ill
advised.
Violence in the country continues unabated, opposition rallies
and meetings are disrupted, as are protest marches, which are brutally crushed
by riot police.
Source: SW Radio Africa
(ZW)
Link to source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news231107/talks231107.htm
SADC standards breached
As
Mbeki flies out, CIO tortures 22 NCA activists
Source Date:
23-11-2007
As South
African President Thabo Mbeki flew out of Harare, 22 activists from the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were severely tortured by state security agents
and ruling party enforcers, at Zanu PF headquarters….
The 22 NCA
activists had taken part in a demonstration (alongside an estimated 400 others)
near Mbeki's motorcade earlier in Harare….
Police arrested … and later
released them after they had paid fines at Harare Central Police station.
According to one of the victims it was then that a minibus, suspected to be
owned by the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), pulled over and
they were forced into it. They were then taken to Zanu PF's Jongwe
headquarters.
Fifteen suspected secret service agents and Zanu PF
militiamen then submitted
them to eight hours of torture. This included
being forced to stand on their heads for an hour, being beaten under the feet
with metal bars and large wooden planks, cleaning out toilets with bare hands,
and being made to roll naked in a mixture of ash and broken glass….
Identified victims: Mr Melusi, an activist from the National Constitutional Assembly
Source: SW Radio Africa
(ZW)
Link to source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news231107/postvisit_torture231107.htm
SADC standards breached
Election monitoring group says Zimbabwe Electoral Reform Bill
flawed
Source Date: 03-12-2007
Electoral
system reform legislation making its way through the Zimbabwean parliament would
effect some "significant" changes but falls short in many respects, according to
the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a civic election monitoring
group.
The organisation, which mobilized thousands of monitors in the
2005 general election, has issued a new report which concludes that the
“effectiveness of any electoral reforms depend on how electoral laws are applied
and enforced in practice.”
The ZESN report notes that the legislation
introduces provisions to make certain forms of intimidation of participants in
elections criminal offences, and also stipulates that an intimidating practice
will at the same time constitute an electoral malpractice.
But for this
new regimen to be effective, it says, an “independent" electoral commission
needs to be given powers to direct the police chief to ensure that proper
investigations are conducted. It adds that “legislation alone cannot prevent
malpractices.”
The organisation said the legislation should ensure there
is an impartial, efficient and active electoral commission and that there is
rigorous observation and monitoring of all stages of the electoral process. It
added that before final delimitation of constituencies such an independent
commission should take into account public comments.
ZESN noted that the
proposed electoral law amendment bill does not address misuse of state funds for
electoral purposes, which it described as a serious defect because it would
allow the ruling party to “exploit an unfair advantage."…
Source: VOANews (USA)
Link to
source: http://voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2007-12-03-voa49.cfm
SADC standards breached
MDC
accuses ZEC of bias
Source Date: 29-11-2007
The Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC yesterday wrote to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) alleging that it (ZEC) was being used by the government to rig
next year’s harmonised elections on behalf of Zanu PF through the manipulation
of the voters’ roll and delimitation of ward and constituency boundaries, among
others.
In the letter signed by the party’s secretary for elections, Ian
Makone, the MDC said it had pointed out to ZEC in previous correspondences that
the recently concluded mobile voter registration exercise was "opaque, biased in
favour of perceived ruling party strongholds, poorly publicised and
executed".
The MDC said it would not accept the exercise.
"Given
the problems surrounding the exercise and a pittance of new voters who got
registered, the MDC would like to disassociate itself from such an exercise
which was carried out in disregard of Zimbabweans’ democratic right to register
as voters," Makone wrote.
He said an audit recently carried out by the
MDC shows that not only is the voters’ roll unacceptably flawed, but it is also
unusable.
"It is full of dead and ghost voters," Makone wrote. "To this
should be added a significant number of people who were displaced by Operation
Murambatsvina from urban centres, who are predominantly MDC."
He said
this had disenfranchised a "whole segment of our society and your commission has
a responsibility to ensure that these people are re-enfranchised, wherever they
may now be residing.”
Makone also alleged that as a result of a
poorly-executed voter registration exercise, the delimitation programme would
also be ipso facto flawed.
"The MDC cannot be expected to accept a
delimitation exercise that is based on inaccurate statistics of registered
voters," he complained.
The party said it does not recognise the current
delimitation, arguing that this process must await the outcome of the
SADC-initiated talks between the opposition and Zanu PF….
Source: Zimbabwe Independent, The
(ZW)
Link to source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711300804.html
SADC standards breached
Electoral body ignores MDC call on election boundaries
Source
Date: 26-11-2007
The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is will press ahead with demarcation of
constituencies for next year's elections despite pleas by the opposition to
shelve the exercise until the conclusion of talks with the ruling Zanu PF
party.
ZEC public relations director Shupikai Mashereni said the
commission had the "legal mandate" to prepare for the polls including drawing up
constituency boundaries, adding it would only stop doing so if ordered by the
government.
"We work according to the law and as things stand, we have
the legal mandate to draw the (constituency) boundaries," Mashereni told
ZimOnline….
"We will only stop when we are told to or if the law
changes," the ZEC official said, adding that it was only reasonable that the
commission starts its work now or it would fail to meet deadlines….
Source: Zim Online (ZW)
Link to
source: http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2372
SADC standards breached
Top
army officer to head ZEC in Manicaland
Source Date:
29-11-2007
A senior
officer in the Zimbabwe National Army, Colonel Moffat Masabeya, has been
appointed as the provincial elections officer for Manicaland.
Described
as a die-hard Zanu-PF man, Colonel Masabeya lost in the 2005 primaries to
represent the ruling party in the Chimanimani constituency, currently held by
State Enterprises and Anti-corruption minister Samuel Undenge….
Facing
perhaps their biggest electoral challenge from the opposition MDC, Mugabe and
his ruling party have become increasingly reliant on the military for political
survival.
Mugabe continues to appoint serving and retired members of the
armed forces to the ZEC, despite a provision in Constitutional Amendment number
18, barring the military, police and prison officers from any involvement in
elections, beyond providing security.
Almost all elections in the country
have been tainted by charges of electoral fraud and complaints over the role of
the military in the running of the polls.
Source: SW Radio Africa
(ZW)
Link to source: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov30a_2007.html
SADC standards breached
Financial irregularities unearthed at Zim elections
body
Source Date: 03-12-2007
The
Comptroller and Auditor General, Mildred Chiri, has unearthed financial
irregularities and mismanagement at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC),
casting a dark shadow on the commission’s ability to manage large sums of cash
it received for next year’s polls.
The commission, that runs elections,
was last week allocated Z$209 trillion to cover costs for next year’s joint
presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. The commission
received $27 billion for the 2005 parliamentary polls.
However, an audit
report by Chiri’s office dated May 3, 2006 … revealed disbursements of cash to
teams running the 2005 poll were done haphazardly with little or no
accountability.
The report says there was no proper financial control of
funds and that in some instances people who conducted voter education were paid
twice, while in some cases large sums of money were transferred between ZEC
teams in different constituencies without proper procedures being
followed.
The report did not say how much money exactly could not be
accounted for, but noted that due to lack of financial control systems it was
difficult to do reconciliations for cash advanced to electoral
teams….
Under new constitutional provisions enacted last August, the ZEC
oversees voter registration, delimitation of constituencies and the general
conduct of elections.
Source: Zim Online
(ZW)
Link to source: http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2406
SADC standards breached
Corruption and economic crisis mar voter registration
Source
Date: 21-11-2007
Rampant
corruption and the economic crisis hampered the much-vaunted mobile voters'
registration exercise, an independent electoral body has said.
The latest
report by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) points to numerous
discrepancies in the registration process, heightening doubts over the
transparency of next year's crucial elections.
According to findings of a
ZESN report that came out Wednesday, chances of a free and fair election under
prevailing conditions in the country are slim.
Chief among the
disparities identified by ZESN are allegations that registration officials were
demanding bribes from the rural poor before recording them on the voters’ roll.
The report attributes the corrupt practices of the officials to the low
allowances the registrars receive.
The report also notes that the
country's general economic crisis, characterised by power outages and fuel
shortages, also affected the mobile voter registration process. In addition
findings of the 'Mop-up Mobile Voter Registration Report' state that posters
advertising the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were barely seen in public
areas.
ZESN head Noel Kututwa said most people did not participate in the
process as lack of publicity and poor selection of the registration centres
brought adverse effects.
He said: "Very few people learnt about this
process. We observed that the majority of the people were unaware that there was
voter registration going on but were aware that national ID cards were being
issued….”
Source: SW Radio Africa
(ZW)
Link to source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news211107/corruption211107.htm
SADC standards breached
Voter
education lags far behind
Source Date: 02-12-2007
Although
elections scheduled for early next year are only a few months away, most
Zimbabweans eligible to vote have not received any worthwhile voter education,
according to a survey by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI).
The
national survey on Zimbabwe Electoral Processes and Reforms, conducted in all
the provinces and released recently, says 68% of the potential voters in
Zimbabwe have not received any voter/civic education….
On voter/civic
education by party affiliation, the survey revealed that supporters of the
Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were the worst
affected, with 75% of the sampled supporters saying they had not received any
voter education.
Sixty-four percent of the Arthur Mutambara faction said
they had not received any voter education.
For Zanu PF, 60% of the
members were in dire need of voter education.
Another finding of the
survey was that 32% of potential voters had still not registered at the time of
the inquiry….
Source: Zimbabwe Standard, The
(ZW)
Link to source: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/dec2a_2007.html
SADC standards breached
Coercion and intimidation? Just the usual election
preparations
Source Date: 28-11-2007
With three
months still to go before the country's presidential and parliamentary
elections, it seems coercion, intimidation and evictions have begun in all
provinces.
This week The Zimbabwean talked to activists for the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, Chitungwiza and Masvingo
province.
They told how gangs of Zanu PF hitmen had ordered them to leave
the area or be killed.
Munjodzi Mnashe, in Zengeza Two of Chitungwiza,
said: "These youths accused us of working for a puppet party which is pursuing
the interests of the West. I thought of going to the police for help, but when I
realised who was behind these evictions, I knew I would be wasting my
time."
In Masvingo, 15 men and their families moved to an MDC safe house
after Zanu PF officials evicted them….
Source: Zimbabwean, The
(ZW)
Link to source: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov29_2007.html
SADC standards breached
Villagers punished for supporting MDC
Source Date:
28-11-2007
An entire ward
in rural Bindura has been denied farming inputs and equipment as punishment for
supporting the opposition MDC.
Angry villagers from Ward 18, which
comprises 14 villages in Mashonaland, told The Zimbabwean last week that their
ward was the only one in the area denied ox-drawn ploughs and other equipment
sourced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under the government's recent farm
mechanisation scheme.
The ward, located within a Zanu PF stronghold under
Elliot Manyika, voted overwhelmingly for the opposition during last year's rural
council elections. Since then, it has not benefited from any scheme organised by
the Government.
"The whole thing is so unfair. Everyone should be allowed
to choose a political party of his or her choice. Even criminal is the use of
inputs acquired through tax payers' funds for partisan purposes. This is vote
buying," said MDC Bindura Rural Acting Chairperson Alfred Chitonho.
Source: Zimbabwean, The
(ZW)
Link to source: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov29_2007.html
SADC standards breached
Former
military men continue to take over gvt departments
Source Date:
20-11-2007
A high number
of senior Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) officers continue to take over control
of several government companies and departments in a move that has been
described by some as a "military coup in the public sector"….
Over the
years President Mugabe has been putting faith in the military commanders to make
sure they help run the crisis-ridden country, an apparent show of no confidence
in civilians around him.
Yesterday former Police Senior Assistant
Commissioner Albert Mandizha was appointed general manager of the strategic
Grain Marketing Board (GMB), taking over from Colonel Samuel Muvuti, who had
been acting for the past four years….
The GMB has in the past been
accused of not giving food aid to suspected opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) supporters….
Source: zimbabwejournalists.com
(ZW)
Link to source: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov21_2007.html
SADC standards breached
Bias
widespread in food aid distribution, Zimbabwe civic group charges
Source
Date: 25-11-2007
Millions of
Zimbabweans are depending on distributions of food aid to survive due to a poor
harvest last year and the economic crisis besetting the country, but a new
report by a nongovernmental organisation says food is being handed out on
political lines to reward backers of the ruling party and exclude supporters of
the opposition.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project said it documented 267 cases
in September in which the distribution of food and other forms of aid, such as
the provision of seed, was carried out on political lines.
Such
discrimination, which in some cases included harassment and violence, occurred
nationally, according to the organisation. But the pattern of discrimination was
strongest in Masvingo and Midlands provinces, it said.
It cited
"malicious damage to property, physical attack on community members and in a
serious case a village head was allegedly shot in a dispute over food aid. For
women, some food distributors were demanding sex in exchange for food
aid."
In 70% of cases, those denied food or other aid were opposition
members, said the civil society group, while 8% of the victims were members of
the ruling party, and 3% were penalized for an affiliation with some
nongovernmental organisation.
The Peace Project report said instances of
discrimination on grounds of political party affiliation or participation in NGO
activities "abound in the food distribution process."
The report said
such abuses were most commonly associated with distributions by the Grain
Marketing Board, the Zimbabwean state cereals monopoly….
Source: VOANews (USA)
Link to
source: http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2007-11-25-voa13.cfm
SADC standards breached
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Financial Times
By
William MacNamara in Johannesburg
Published: December 5 2007 02:44 | Last
updated: December 5 2007 02:44
For Impala Platinum, the world’s second
largest producer, leaving Zimbabwe
is not an option.
As demand sends
the price soaring, the principal sources of the metal remain
concentrated in
two small regions of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Impala, through its
subsidiary Zimbabwe Platinum, controls significantly
more platinum assets in
the country than any other international miner and
is one of the largest
foreign enterprises still operating in the country.
Its Zimbabwean
concessions encompass about 90m ounces of platinum reserves,
although it
extracted only 89,000 ounces last year.
The most difficult thing was not
being able to exploit Zimbabwe’s potential,
said David Brown, chief
executive, at the company’s Johannesburg
headquarters. Even maintaining a
limited operation requires ever more artful
manoeuvres.
Cash-rich
Impala is spending $340m (€230m, £170m) in Zimbabwe to expand its
production
capacity, but the risks grow by the day. In late November the
Harare
government drafted a bill that would hand the state 25 per cent of
all
foreign-owned mining interests in the country.
“We are hoping that it is
more about electioneering than intent,” said Mr
Brown. “But we cannot
discount that it has an element of intent in it.”
The mining bill is part
of wider “indigenisation” legislation aiming for 51
per cent Zimbabwean
ownership. “We are firmly supportive of indigenisation
principles,” said Mr
Brown. “The number is the problem: 51 per cent is not
practical. It means
asking investors to fork out 100 per cent of the risk
for 49 per cent of the
return.”
Impala has shored up its standing with government by swapping 36
per cent of
its mineral exploration rights for indigenisation credits.
The Telegraph
By
Sebastien Berger in Harare
Last Updated: 2:19am GMT
05/12/2007
President Robert Mugabe denounced British
"interference" in his
country yesterday as analysts said that Gordon Brown
was handing the
Zimbabwean leader a propaganda coup by boycotting this
weekend's EU-Africa
summit.
Crowing over his invitation to the
Lisbon summit in his annual state
of the nation address, Mr Mugabe told the
Harare parliament that "the
sinister campaign by Britain to isolate us
continues to disintegrate".
He thanked "our brothers and sisters
for their solidarity with us in
the face of sustained manipulation and
arm-twisting manoeuvres cunningly
spearheaded by Britain".
He
added: "Let the message ring clearly to our detractors that as a
sovereign
nation we will not brook any interference in our domestic
affairs."
Mr Brown is refusing to attend the gathering of
European and African
heads of government in protest at Mr Mugabe's abuse of
power, which has seen
him rig elections, destroy the economy and leave four
million Zimbabweans
needing food aid.
Britain will instead be
represented by Baroness Amos, a former
international development secretary.
But the Prime Minister's boycott is
believed by many in Zimbabwe to suit Mr
Mugabe's agenda. He consistently
claims that his country's turmoil is no
more than a dispute between London
and Harare.
He also retains
the respect of many of his countrymen as an
independence hero.
Mr Mugabe's government has waged a brilliantly effective propaganda
campaign, believed by millions of people across Africa, blaming supposed
Western sanctions against Zimbabwe for the destruction of the economy, even
though the only measures the EU has imposed are a visa ban and asset freeze
on named officials of the regime.
"I think Gordon Brown is
making a mistake," said Professor Eldred
Masunungure, the professor of
political science at the University of
Zimbabwe. "He should go there not to
confront Mugabe but to participate in a
bigger agenda. He could contribute
more meaningfully to the resolution of
the Zimbabwean crisis by being there
and extracting as many concessions as
possible."
The professor
believes that Mr Mugabe is willing to retire, but only
on his own terms and
"with his tail up".
"That's one reason why he is so keen on
attending the Lisbon summit,"
he said. "For him and his lieutenants that's a
major victory.
"The West, principally the US and UK, mostly they
have insisted on him
leaving with his tail between his legs and it was a
major tactical error.
That's never going to work given the psychological
make-up of Robert
Mugabe."
Ibbo Mandaza, the executive chairman
of the Sapes Trust, a
Harare-based thinktank, and a well-connected member of
the ruling Zanu-PF
party, said Mr Mugabe's presence in Lisbon, and Mr
Brown's absence, would
only bolster his "exaggerated
self-importance".
"Initially the threat shook the edifice but now
it has projected
Mugabe's image, especially as the British didn't have the
wherewithal to
follow through," he said.
A Western diplomat in
Harare, who did not want to be identified,
added: "First of all the
EU-Africa summit is not about Zimbabwe. It is about
the EU and
Africa.
"The government-controlled press is certainly going to use
this summit
as much as possible to promote Zimbabwe or perhaps suggest a
victory for
Zimbabwe. Mugabe will probably try to take advantage of
that."
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
04 December
2007
Senior Zimbabwean opposition figure Roy Bennett, who
spent eight months in
prison in 2004-2005 for shoving a minister in
parliament during a heated
debate in May 2004 and later sought political
asylum in South Africa, said
Tuesday he would consider standing for election
to his old Chimanimani seat
if his safety is guaranteed.
Bennett was
released from prison in June 2005 after serving eight months of
the one-year
prison sentence imposed by parliament's ruling ZANU-PF majority
for shoving
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a debate on land
reform. He sought
asylum in South Africa after the government alleged in
early 2006 in that he
had conspired with others to assassinate President
Robert Mugabe on a visit
to Mutare.
Bennett, now treasurer-general of the Movement for Democratic
Change
grouping led by Morgan Tsvangirai, said he was approached in South
Africa by
a representative of Chimanimani community leaders who urged him to
consider
seeking the seat.
Bennett told reporter Patience Rusere that
his decision depends on whether
or not the opposition, now in South
African-mediated talks with the ruling
party, can hammer out a deal that
will ensure free and fair elections and
the safety of MDC
candidates.
But Bennett expressed doubts, saying that as matters stand in
Zimbabwe he
believes the government would conjure up charges against him as
soon as he
returned.
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
5 December 2007
Posted to the web 5 December
2007
Martin Kadzere
Harare
Accomodation rates for most hotels
in the country have shot up since last
Thursday, putting domestic tourism
under threat.
Herald Business has established that the new rates are well
above those
approved by the National Incomes and Pricing Commission last
week, chairman
Mr Godwills Masimirembwa confirmed.
NIPC pegged
four and five-star city hotel rates at $85 million and $97,5
million (double
standard rooms) for the cheapest overnight accommodation.
These exclude 15
percent Valued Added Tax and 2,5 percent Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority levy.
Approved rates for three-star hotels range between $70
million and $85
million.
For two-star hotels, the rates are between $65 million and $70
million.
However, it has emerged that hotels are charging prices well above
those
stipulated by NIPC. In Harare, hotels are charging not less that $100
million for overnight accommodation. At popular five-star hotels, Rainbow
Towers and Meikles Hotel, the cheapest double standard rooms are going for
$140 million for overnight bedding. Meikles was charging $28 million while
Rainbow Towers rooms were priced at $80 million per night before the latest
price increases.
Overnight accommodation at Holiday Inn, a three-star
hotel in Harare's
Avenues, is priced at $128,5 million, up from last week's
rates of $40
million. Bed and breakfast at Crowne Plaza Monomotapa, a
four-star hotel in
the CBD, is pegged at $181,8 million, from $100 million
last week.
Those booking into the Holiday Inn Bulawayo and Mutare will
fork out $100
million a room. In the resort town of Victoria Falls,
accommodation at
Zimsun's five-star Elephant Hills Hotel now costs $181,8
million. A similar
room at Kingdom Hotel now costs and $114,4 million per
night. Holidaymakers
have to part with $209,2 million for overnight bedding
and breakfast at
Troutbeck, a four-star Hotel in the scenic Nyanga mountains
and $155,8
million for the same package at the three-star Caribbea Bay Hotel
in Kariba.
Ironically, the old rates were also above those approved by
the NIPC as at
November 12. The NIPC's approved rates were as follows: $25
million-$30
million (five-star); $20 million and $25 million (four star),
$15 million
and $20 million (three-star), $12 million to $15 million
(two-star). Hotel
officials interviewed by this newspaper said holidaymakers
who had paid in
advance would be required to top up. Those who decided to
cancel would be
refunded 50 percent of what they had paid.
Mr
Masimirembwa admitted that most hotels were not toeing the line. "We have
received a lot of complaints and we have already communicated that to (Mrs)
Chipo Mtasa (the president of Zimbabwe Council of Tourism.) "We will look at
the source of the problem and we are hoping to get a solution before the end
of this week," said Mr Masimirembwa. When contacted for comment, Mrs Mtasa
denied paying lip service to NIPC guidelines. "We are charging prices
approved by the NIPC, but our rates are higher because of the VAT and ZTA
levies," said Mrs Mtasa. "We always encourage our members to abide the NIPC
stipulated rates."
ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke described
the behaviour by hotel
operators as "criminal". "We cannot sit back and
watch," said Mr Kaseke.
"This is totally unacceptable and we need to
intervene. "What they are doing
is simply killing the domestic industry
which has been driving tourism."
According to a research and development
report by ZTA for 2006, the domestic
market recorded 86 percent growth
during the year. The report said a total
of 162 847 locals visited various
tourist destinations in the country
followed by South Africa with 25 494
visitors.Mr Kaseke said although ZTA
supported calls for the tourism
industry to be exempted from price controls,
he felt it might be necessary
"to review our position if things are going
this way".
"If they are
pushing for that (removal of price controls) to behave as they
are doing,
then there is need for even more stringent controls," he said.
"Tourism is
instrumental in reviving the economy and it should no longer be
treated as a
luxury."