Zim Online
Wednesday 06 December
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF
party could extend President Robert
Mugabe's term for life at an annual
conference next week, party secretary
for administration Didymus Mutasa told
ZimOnline on Tuesday.
In a bizarre twist to the vicious struggle
for power within ZANU PF as
Mugabe's term draws to an end in 2008, Mutasa -
who is de facto party
secretary general - said there was "a realistic
chance" that the conference
could appoint Mugabe party president for life
and its permanent candidate in
state presidential elections for as long as
he was alive.
ZANU PF, which has enough parliamentary majority to
amend Zimbabwe's
Constitution, is pushing to alter the country's fundamental
governance
document to postpone a presidential election due in 2008 to 2010
so it could
be held together with elections for Parliament. Such a plan
would allow
Mugabe to rule for another two years after the expiry of his
term.
"When people talk about harmonising the elections and holding
them
jointly in 2010, they think we are using this to give the President a
ticket
to hold office till 2010. No. It could as well be that we might
actually
want him there for much longer than that," said Mutasa, in a
telephone
interview with ZimOnline on the key issues to be discussed at ZANU
PF's
conference beginning next Friday.
The conference is
expected to, among other issues facing the party and
the country, discuss
the possible postponement of the presidential poll. For
example, the party's
executive committee in Midlands province and its youth
executive in
Manicaland province last month resolved to ask the conference
to endorse
moving the presidential poll to 2010.
Mutasa said Mugabe, 82, had
done "so many wonderful things" for
Zimbabwe but was still not showing any
signs of tiredness despite his
advanced age and it was possible delegates to
the conference could elect to
appoint him for life.
He said:
"There is a realistic chance that someone among the delegates
or one of the
provinces could come up with a proposal that ZANU PF should
make him
President for life and that he remains the party's presidential
candidate
until Amen.
"He has done so many wonderful things for this country
and its
majority population and he is not showing any signs of tiredness. So
if it
is raised, as I am sure it would be, why not (make him life
president)?"
This is the first time that anyone in ZANU PF has
publicly suggested
Mugabe be made president for life.
As ZANU
PF secretary for administration, Mutasa is a key player in
organising the
party conference and is in the know of what proposals
provinces shall table
at the key conference. He however declined to say
whether when he said
Mugabe could be made life president he was speaking
from his knowledge of
proposals provinces would table at the party
conference.
Mutasa
- who is one of Mugabe's closest associates and who in an
interview with the
BBC last year described the veteran President as "our
king" who could only
be replaced upon his death - is well known for making
outrageous statements
that in most cases have however come true or have been
backed by Mugabe
himself.
For example in April this year, Mutasa told ZimOnline that
the
government would order soldiers to shoot people taking part in
opposition-led anti-government protests - a threat repeated by Mugabe four
months later in August. Labour activists who later attempted to stage
anti-government protests last September were not shot at but were severely
beaten up and tortured by the police.
ZANU PF insiders however
say plans to make Mugabe president for life
would find few backers in the
party.
They said the two camps that are struggling for control of
ZANU PF and
Zimbabwe - one backing former parliamentary speaker Emmerson
Mnangagwa and
another Vice-President Joice Mujuru to take over in the event
of Mugabe's
departure - could even be forced to unite in order to block
moves to make
the veteran leader rule for life.
Mugabe has
never categorically stated that he will step down in 2008
but indicated in
May 2004 with British television that he would not seek
re-election at the
expiry of his current term.
The veteran President has never
publicly commented on moves by his
party to extend his term to 2010. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 06 December
2006
HARARE - The government has capped school fees
for all private schools
and dangled a prison term for institutions refusing
to fall in line, a move
analysts said would knock a sector that had anchored
one of Africa's best
education systems.
Education Minister
Aeneas Chigwedere has pegged fees for private
schools, in an unprecedented
move which highlights President Robert Mugabe's
government's desperate bid
to control everything from prices of commodities
to school
fees.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis that is
mainly
reflected in sky-high inflation of 1 070.2 percent, surging
unemployment,
grinding poverty and acute shortages of foreign currency, fuel
and food.
The seven-year recession has fanned political tensions in
the southern
African state - a former model economy in Africa - which has
become a basket
case relying for food on neighbours it used to
feed.
"What they are doing is trying to legitimise mediocrity, the
government has no business setting fees for private schools because the next
thing is they will take them over and run them down like government
schools," John Makumbe, a political analyst and staunch critic of Mugabe
said.
"The quality of education is essentially going to
deteriorate. Private
schools had remained the cream of Zimbabwe's
education," he added.
Chigwedere said come January, none of the 61
private schools in
Zimbabwe would increase fees beyond $509 858, a figure
lower than what most
of the schools charged pupils for the last term of
2006.
Officials of schools which breach the new fees structure
could be
jailed for up to six months, fined or the government could just
forfeit the
overcharged fees, according to Chigwedere.
Analysts
said the move was meant to curry favour among a restive
population, which
has watched helplessly as the country's economy slides.
But the
move has set the government on a collision course with the
Association of
Trust Schools, a grouping of private schools, which will
likely again take
Chigwedere to court to resolve the dispute.
"This is illegal, a
directive cannot supersede the law, which is very
clear," the head of a top
private school in Harare told ZimOnline.
"But this is politics and
if we don't resolve this issue we might just
as well see many of these
schools closing down. There is no way they can
operate on that sort of
budget. It is unsustainable," he added.
Zimbabwe's education system
is modelled along that of former colonial
power Britain and is rated among
the best in Africa but critics say state
interference in the running of
private schools, coupled with its failure to
adequately fund government-run
schools threatened that legacy.
Private schools have the best
academic and sporting facilities, with
most of the students excelling in
both academia and sports.
Government schools, a victim of state
under-funding and mission
schools enrol the highest number of students and
have recorded high pass
rates irrespective of dwindling resources, but
analysts question whether
this is sustainable.
Officials at
some private schools accused the government of populism
saying its decision
was being driven by selfish politicians, who were now
failing to cope with
the high fees.
"Members of the trust schools will be guided in
determining their fees
by the law," said Jameson Timba, the association's
chairman.
An official at another Harare private school said: "This
is
grandstanding of the highest order. We know some politicians have been
lobbying the government on this because they are failing to pay fees
themselves."
Some schools had already sent circulars to parents
announcing new fees
of more than $2 million for the first term of
2007.
Private schools used to be a preserve of minority whites but
this has
changed as the majority fled Mugabe's policies, especially the land
reforms
that displaced nearly all white commercial farmers. The majority of
students
at the schools are now black.
Private schools are the
only remaining institutions offering quality
education in
Zimbabwe.
"We are shooting ourselves in the foot. These schools are
sensitive to
the reality on the ground. The government is trying to keep a
lid on the
economic reality but that will fail," said John Robertson, a
Harare based
private economic consultant. - ZimOnline
OhMyNews
Zimbabwe's Water Woes
Nelson G.
Katsande (NELKA)
Published 2006-12-06 07:01
(KST)
Most parts of Zimbabwe have been severely affected by
the acute
shortage of water and electricity. Many blame Mugabe's government
for their
woes and have called for the beleaguered leader to
resign.
Kadoma town in Mashonaland West Province, home to President
Mugabe has
been without water supplies for 3 weeks. Industrial and
commercial
activities have been ground to a halt.
Angry
residence who spoke to OhmyNews expressed their anger and loss
of confidence
in the incumbent government. They said they had not had a bath
in 2 weeks
and young children were collapsing due to dehydration as drinking
water was
unavailable.
Residents of Ngezi suburb were said to be walking 10
miles on foot to
fetch drinking water from a neighboring Vumba farm. In this
small mining
town having a bath has become a luxury as residents struggle to
access
drinking water.
Some schools have sent pupils home in
fear of a cholera outbreak. The
Kadoma City Council is reported to have
distributed leaflets advising
residents to share a bath. This follows the
breakdown of the council's
waterworks pumping station.
The
waterworks reservoirs which supply the town with water have broken
down and
the council is unable to repair the pumps owing to financial
constraints.
Water treatment chemicals are also in short supply and
residents have been
consuming untreated water for the past 2 months.
The residents have
called the government to intervene but say the
government is reluctant to
assist the council with cash.
Kadoma was once a thriving
agricultural and mining town. But following
Mugabe's controversial land
reforms, white commercial farmers were evicted
from their farms which were
subsequently occupied by Mugabe's supporters and
war veterans. Today the
town resembles a ghost town.
The Mining sector has collapsed and so
has the agricultural sector.
Illegal gold panning activities are
escalating.
In Kwekwe, 25 miles from Kadoma, the town had been
experiencing
erratic power supplies. This has adversely affected the running
of the
provincial hospital.
VOA
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
05 December
2006
Divisions within the ruling party are widening ahead of
ZANU-PF's annual
national conference next week, political sources said
Tuesday.
Amid the ZANU-PF party's 10 provinces, Harare and Midlands are
proposing
different agendas concerning the potentially divisive issue of
whether to
hold presidential and parliamentary elections at the same time in
2008 or
2010. As matters stand, the presidential election is set for 2008,
general
elections for 2010.
ZANU-PF Midlands Chairman Jaison Machaya
said the issue must be discussed
and that the elections must be harmonized.
But spokesman William Nhara of
the Harare party organization said discussion
of harmonizing elections is
premature because President Robert Mugabe's term
does not run out until
March 2008.
Senior analyst Sydney Masamvu of
the International Crisis Group, based in
Pretoria, South Africa, commented
that develoments in ZANU-PF are important
because they are likely to shape
the country's future for the next several
years.
Meanwhile, ZANU-PF
Midlands heavyweight Emmerson Mnangagwa, minister of
rural housing, has
threatened to file suit against ZANU-PF National Chairman
John Nkomo, also
house speaker, over statements he made in a Bulawayo
courtroom
recently.
Mnangagwa lawyer Jonathan Samkange said Nkomo testified during
a defamation
case brought against Nkomo by former information minister
Jonathan Moyo that
Mnangagwa plotted to topple President Mugabe in late
2004.
If the Bulawayo court finds Nkomo guilty of defaming Moyo, Samkange
said,
his client intends to lodge his own damage claim. Nkomo said last week
that
Mnangagwa paid individuals for support in the alleged coup plot. Nkomo
has
announced his intention to run for president, and Mnangagwa is also seen
harboring presidential ambitions.
Analyst Ernest Mudzengi, also
coordinator of the National Constitutional
Assembly, an opposition civic
group, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that a
Mnangagwa suit would be the latest twist in an
ongoing succession
battle.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
05 December
2006
A six-member International Monetary Fund mission
currently in Harare to
consult and assess the state of the Zimbabwean
economy continued its work on
Tuesday, sources said, focusing among other
issues on management of the
falling local dollar.
The Zimbabwe dollar
is officially pegged at Z$250 to the U.S. dollar, but on
the black market
trades 10 times weaker at Z$2,500 to the greenback. Talks
also focused on
Harare's substantial external debt, hard currency reserves
and fiscal
management.
Such Article IV visits are carried out to monitor the
compliance of member
nations with commitments they have made to economic
policies that the IMF
has recommended to foster growth while holding down
inflation -
hyperinflation in Zimbabwe's case.
The IMF team will
report to the Fund's executive board, which will look at
Zimbabwe's member
status at a February meeting and could move toward
expelling
Harare.
Zimbabwe has debt arrears of some US$127 million to the IMF and
economists
say that it has not adopted the recommendations of the IMF on how
to pull
the economy out of a six-year recession or lower inflation from over
1,000%.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has expressed optimism that the
IMF will
not move to expell Harare, which would require a wider vote by
members.
Economist John Robertson of Harare told reporter Blessing Zulu
of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Harare's economic meltdown is
worsening.
Chief Economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and Economic
Development
Reseach Institute said Harare's recent prosecution of business
executives
over price control violations is counter-productive and will not
help its
cause with the IMF, which has been calling on the government for
years to
abandon price controls.
Reuters
Tue 5 Dec
2006 16:44:31 GMT
HARARE, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe unions vowed fresh
protests on Tuesday
against President Robert Mugabe's government over a
deepening economic
crisis, saying last week's budget did not help workers
struggling to make
ends meet.
More than a dozen members of the
umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union
(ZCTU) were arrested and beaten by
police in September as they tried to
march against poor wages, high taxes
and lack of access to anti-retroviral
drugs to fight HIV/AIDS.
The
ZCTU said the 2007 national budget presented by Finance Minister Hebert
Murerwa last Thursday had not addressed the demands of workers, who have
borne the brunt of a deep economic recession.
"Realising that the
issues raised by ZCTU as workers ... have not been acted
upon, the general
council ... reaffirmed its commitment to go to the streets
... " ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo told journalists.
He said union demands
included a higher minimum wage, lower taxes and free
access to
anti-retrovirals for those in need of the life prolonging drugs.
He
hinted that the labour body may stage protests as soon as January, when
the
budget takes effect, but said it was consulting its members about the
proposed action.
"The minister has the opportunity to accept what we
have proposed, up to
January, when the (budget) implementation phase
begins," Matombo said.
In his budget statement, Murerwa hiked the
non-taxable income for workers to
Z$100,000 ($400), but the ZCTU said this
was still too low.
Analysts have said the budget offered little to halt
an eight-year recession
marked by record inflation of 1,070.2 percent, the
highest in the world,
rocketing unemployment, shortages of foreign currency,
fuel and food.
Mugabe's government has vowed to crush unapproved
demonstrations and accused
the ZCTU of fronting opposition
interests.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980,
denies mismanaging
the economy and accuses powerful Western nations of
sabotage as punishment
for his seizure of land previously held by whites for
redistribution to
blacks.
Yahoo News
Tue Dec
5, 9:30 AM ET
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe now has the world's highest
percentage of
children orphaned by AIDS, with almost one in every four
children having
lost at least one parent to the disease, the United Nations
Children's Fund
said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe is among the countries
worst hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which
kills more than 3,000 people every
week and accounts for 70 percent of
hospital admissions.
But the
crisis-hit southern African nation has also become one of the
continent's
few AIDS bright spots after its HIV prevalence rate declined to
18.1 percent
this year from 25 percent five years ago.
Despite this, UNICEF said the
number of children orphaned by AIDS continued
to rise.
"Almost one in
four children in Zimbabwe, 1.6 million, are now orphaned,
having lost at
least one parent, and this number is growing," UNICEF
Zimbabwe
representative Festo Kavishe said in a statement sent to Reuters on
Tuesday.
"HIV and AIDS have dramatically increased children's
vulnerability in recent
years to the point where Zimbabwe now has the
highest percentage of children
who are orphans in the world," Kavishe
added.
Last week President Robert Mugabe said Zimbabwe's declining
HIV/AIDS
prevalence rate showed it was showing the way for Africa in the
fight
against the scourge.
Health experts attribute the drop to more
condom use and the success of
programs encouraging people to have fewer
sexual partners.
UNICEF said it had received $6 million from Sweden,
which would be used to
increase school enrolment of orphans and vulnerable
children, boost school
nutrition programs and reduce the number of children
living outside
families.
Zimbabwe continued to lead in the care of
the orphans and vulnerable
children despite a severe economic crisis, with
90 percent of the country's
orphans having been absorbed by the extended
family, UNICEF said.
VOA
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
05 December 2006
President
Robert Mugabe has committed Zimbabwe to achieving universal access
to
anti-retrovirals to treat HIV/AIDS by 2010. As Peta Thornycroft reports
for
VOA from Harare, Mr. Mugabe has also said that Zimbabwe is the only
southern
African country where the HIV/AIDS infection rate is going down,
which he
says is an indication of his government's commitment to fighting
the
disease.
Though President Mugabe now regularly refers to HIV/AIDS - for
many years he
refused even to mention the disease and his government would
not allow
HIV/AIDS educational films to be made.
But in January 1987,
a Zimbabwe news magazine, Parade, announced the arrival
of HIV/AIDS in
Zimbabwe with a cover story headlined AIDS, It's Here. The
story prompted a
hostile reaction from the Mugabe government, which decided
that AIDS was a
"white man's plot." The editor of Parade at that time,
Andrew Moyse, was
regularly harassed by state officials, but the magazine
was the only way
people could find out anything about AIDS and it persisted
in publishing
stories, despite the government pressure.
But then some Cabinet ministers
started dying from the disease and gradually
the government began talking
about it. But to this day few officials in
government are prepared to admit
they or their families are affected by the
disease.
Zimbabwe's
private sector and the international donor community drove the
fight against
HIV/AIDS, and they still do by providing financial resources
and skilled
personnel.
Western donors are supporting families who care for the 1.6
million children
who have been orphaned by the disease. Doctor Sesto
Kavishe, UNICEF's
representative in Zimbabwe, said Tuesday the number of
children missing one
or both parents is growing alarmingly. The Swedes
Tuesday announced an
emergency injection of $5 million to support them. The
United States has
given $27 million to Zimbabwe for HIV/AIDS treatment this
year. The European
Union provides assistance to a local company to produce
anti-retrovirals,
and international donors supplement feeble state salaries
for key medical
personnel to keep them working in the field.
Health
Minister David Parirenyatwa is viewed by many in the HIV/AIDS
community as
one of the few progressive members of the ruling ZANU-PF, and
they say he
has removed many obstacles in Zimbabwe's fight against the
disease.
And with the death rate soaring from AIDS, Mr. Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF
government are being forced to admit the catastrophe that
HIV/AIDS is for
Zimbabwe.
Yet, even though the country faces no
internal or external threat, it still
spends far more on upgrading military
hardware than on HIV/AIDS. Only 46,000
people are able to get
anti-retroviral drugs, most of which are supplied by
the donor
community.
President Mugabe says more than 400,000 people are urgently in
need of
treatment, and donors say the real figure is probably even higher.
Zimbabwe's death rate from HIV is roughly estimated at 3,000 a week, but
there really are no accurate statistics, as AIDS is not recorded on death
certificates.
IOL
December 05
2006 at 03:38PM
Harare - Zimbabwe could jail private school
officials who defy an
official directive setting maximum fees as the country
seeks to combat
spiralling inflation, the education minister said on
Tuesday.
Zimbabwe police two years ago arrested some private school
heads for
charging "exorbitant" fees, arguing that the move was meant to
discriminate
against majority blacks.
Education Minister Aeneas
Chigwedere announced a new fees structure
for private schools, capping the
highest at ZIM$509 858 (about R15 000) for
a term, which runs for three
months. The Zimbabwe dollar is officially
pegged at $250 but is 10 times
weaker on a thriving black market.
"The Education
Act makes the course of action very clear (in case of
defiance). We can fine
the school, we can imprison the authorities for
periods not exceeding six
months," Chigwedere said in remarks broadcast on
state
television.
Zimbabwe's education system is rated among the top
three in Africa but
analysts have warned that state interference in how
private schools are run
and failure to adequately fund government schools
threaten that legacy.
Private schools - formerly a preserve of
minority whites - are now
open to all and analysts say although they account
for a small number of
students' enrolment, they offer top quality education
compared with
under-funded state schools.
The new fees
announced on Tuesday are already lower than what most
private schools were
charging for the three-month term which ended on
Tuesday.
The
schools, some of which have proposed to hike fees to
ZIM$2,1-million in
January, say the escalation in the prices of commodities
and services have
left them with no choice as they seek to maintain high
education
standards.
In contrast to private schools, state schools receive
government
subsidies and charge smaller fees.
Zimbabwe is in
the grips of an economic crisis that has seen inflation
zooming to 1 070
percent, the highest in the world, unemployment reaching 80
percent and
resulted in shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.
By
Violet Gonda
5 December 2006
Pressure is mounting on
regional leaders to act on Zimbabwe. The
latest comes from a group of
African civic leaders who have called for
renewed pressure on Zimbabwe by
African states and civil society.
Representatives from seven African
countries went on a fact-finding mission
to Zimbabwe last week and expressed
serious concern at the ongoing crackdown
on freedoms of expression,
association and assembly.
Brought together by CIVICUS, the world
alliance for citizen
participation, an international organisation with
members in over 100
countries, dedicated to strengthening civil society
around the world.
The group said in a statement; "We are concerned,
shocked and alarmed
at the impact of repressive laws and at the severe human
rights abuses by
the state machinery that have resulted in deepening
poverty, torture and
rape, especially amongst women and
children."
The statement went on to say; "Despite the frequent
human rights
abuses by the Government of Zimbabwe on its people, there has
been
insignificant intervention from governments and civil society in the
region
and beyond."
Group member Dr Don Mattera, a South
African writer and community
activist said, "Africans have a responsibility
to speak out against the
suffering of our brothers and
sisters."
Another member of the team, Luckson Chipare, who is a
former regional
director of the Media Institute of South Africa told
Newsreel that there is
a strong need for dialogue because of the high level
of intolerance of
opposing views, even among the civil society. He said; "We
found that people
are generally intolerant of opposing views to their own,
and this is
something that was of major concern to us. That people are
really not
engaging each other or talking to each other. even among the
civic society
and we found it disturbing."
They met government
officials, churches, trade unions, students, local
NGOs and the Combined
Harare Residents Association (CHRA) during their brief
tour of
Zimbabwe.
They also visited families affected by Operation
Murambatsvina, the
clean up exercise that displaced thousands of people from
their homes,
although they were denied access into Hopely Farm just outside
Harare where
scores of victims of Murambatsvina are languishing without
proper shelter,
food or access to clean water.
The Mugabe
regime was urged to heed the recommendations of the 2005 UN
Fact-Finding
Mission to Zimbabwe regarding Operation Murambatsvina, to
ensure that
housing promised to those whose homes were destroyed was made
available.
Other members of the team were Don Deya, the
executive director of the
East African Law Society based in Tanzania;
Jeremias Langa, news director of
SOICO the only independent broadcaster in
Mozambique; Hannah Forster
executive director of the African Centre for
Democracy and Human Rights
Studies in the Gambia; Fatoumata Toure of the
Global Pan African Movement
based in Kampala and John Kapito a commissioner
at the Malawian Human Rights
Commission.
A brief summary of the
visit's observations is expected to be
published on 10 December, with the
full report to follow in January 2007.
Meanwhile CHRA chairperson
Mike Davies said these initiatives help to
build solidarity between people
in different regions. He said; "We have been
locked into a nationalist
paradigm that treats Zimbabweans as somehow
different to people in South
Africa and this is a major hindrance to
building a genuine Pan African
solidarity that helps us to address our
problems and break out of these
little boxes that our rulers seek to keep us
in."
CHRA says it
has been actively reaching out to make links with
residents in South Africa
and the region to overcome the lack of
communication and to educate them on
the similarities of the struggles.
Davies was himself speaking from
Durban South Africa where the Social
Movement Indaba (SMI) conference is
taking place. This grouping of various
movements in South Africa is meeting
to create a common platform to
challenge the policies of their
government.
Many have said that South Africa - as Zimbabwe's
neighbour and biggest
trading partner should be doing more to put pressure
on the Zimbabwean
government to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. Several
Zimbabwean groups that
belong to the Zimbabwe Social Forum, like CHRA, The
Uhuru Network and the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition are at the SMI conference
to present the
Zimbabwe crisis for consideration.
Davies said
the problems of the shack dweller in Soweto are pretty
much identical to the
daily struggles of somebody trying to survive in Mbare
or
elsewhere.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By Torby Chimhashu
Last
updated: 12/05/2006 10:36:26
TWO executives from Zimbabwe's largest bread and
confectionary baker were
freed by a High Court judge on bail Monday, five
days after they were jailed
for breaking price controls.
Lobels chief
executive officer Burombo Mudumo and operations manager Lemmy
Chikomo were
sentenced to four months in jail by a magistrate who said their
actions were
"totally unforgivable".
Justice Charles Hungwe set bail at $20 000 for
each of the two men.
The judge said he granted their bail application
because their chances of
success in appealing against both sentence and
conviction were high.
The jailing of the two men had already sent tongues
wagging in the business
community which is at odds with the government's
policy on price controls on
basic commodities.
Exiled Zimbabwean
businessman Mutumwa Mawere hit out at the government in
his column for this
website, saying the arrests were an attempt to
"sidetrack" the attention of
the voters to see business leaders as the real
cause of their
suffering.
Mawere said: "Can you imagine that business executives can be
arrested for
violating price controls in an environment widely acknowledged
as hyper
inflationary?
"Under this construction, the approach adopted
by our government is to seek
to sidetrack the attentiobn of the voters by
focusing on the alleged illegal
and criminal behaviour of the business
comunity while ignoring the drought
of political leadership that may be the
root cause of a failed state."
He added: "Most of the targeted
businesspersons are invariably black and in
so doing, the inventory of black
role models in business diminishes each
day."
A delegation from the
International Monetary Fund is in Zimbabwe, and the
arrest and jailing of
the Lobels bosses is likely to come up in talks with
central bank officials
and Finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa.
zimbabwejournalists.com
5th Dec 2006 01:56 GMT
By a Correspondent
BULAWAYO - WOZA
reports that its 40 members who yesterday had reported
back to the Bulawayo
Central Police Station were released at midday with the
police saying they
will proceed by way of summons if they need to take the
women to
court.
The arresting officers refused to come forward to give their
statements. As a result the activists cannot be taken to court without this
required evidence.
Of the 40 members, four are men, one of whom
is a
Presbyterian Pastor who was caught in the crossfire as the
activists
were arrested last week.
"It has also emerged that
several of those who spent two nights in
custody had not actually been
arrested at Mhlanhlandlela but had raced to
Central Police Station to hand
themselves in in solidarity," said WOZA in a
statement.
"It
appears that the Zimbabwe Republic Police are in a quandary about
how to
deal with peaceful protestors. True to their 'strategy', overheard
being
discussed at WOZA's last court victory, they beat up WOZA/ MOZA
protesters.
Although the same officer overheard discussing this 'strategy'
was again
overheard saying that they obviously did not beat them viciously
enough."
Continued the statement: "WOZA recognises that those
that fear the
truth will always resort to violence, the only language they
know, in order
to try and stop the message. But WOZA will continue
undeterred - the power
of love can overcome the love of power!"
The Herald
(Harare)
December 4, 2006
Posted to the web December 4,
2006
Harare
AIR Zimbabwe's plans to introduce the electronic
ticketing system are at an
advanced stage, a senior official with the
airline said.
Electronic ticketing is a way of documenting a sale both
for the passenger
and for the airline but rather than using paper, the
system uses a database
to track the sale and use of tickets.
The
airline's acting chief executive, Captain Oscar Madombwe, said the move
was
in line with international standards in the aviation industry.
"We will
soon introduce the electronic ticketing as we join the rest of the
global
aviation industry in the paperless ticketing revolution.
"Our deadline
for completing the implementation is December 31 next year,"
he
said.
However, Captain Madombwe said, there were areas to be looked into
before
the implementation of the facilities such as installing a 24-hour
information technology system.
"To achieve this we recently acquired
a powerful 500kV backup generator in
case we experience power failure since
the e-ticketing system uses computers
and these must be up and running all
the time," he said.
The International Air Transport Association announced
that hard copy tickets
would no longer be in use by the year
2008.
IATA is the global trade body in air transport responsible for
inter-airline
co-operation in the promotion of safe, reliable, secure and
economical air
services for the benefit of the world's
consumers.
Although electronic ticketing was first introduced 10 years
ago, it was only
recently that the global aviation community agreed that it
was about time
for airlines to abandon paper ticketing.
As a result,
electronic ticketing now accounts for 38 percent of tickets
sold worldwide
and IATA wants the 295 airlines under its wing to achieve 100
percent
paperless ticketing.
The implementation of the electronic ticketing by
AirZim is part of its
massive upgrading of services and facilities to
promote the tourism sector
in the country.
Last week, the airline
announced its plans to introduce new regional and
international flights to
link Zimbabwe's major tourist destinations.
From ZimbabweJournalists (UK), 5 December
By a
Correspondent
London - There were noisy protests at Chatham House
yesterday where visiting
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza was addressing
African diplomats on
various issues that include his country's fight against
poverty, good
governance in Africa and related issues. Free Zim Youth
activists held
placards denouncing President Robert Mugabe and querying the
Southern
African Development Community's (SADC) support for the Zimbabwe
government
regardless of what the youths termed gross human rights
violations in the
country. SADC has in the past few months been indicating
the region was
being adversly affected by the on-going economic and
political crisis in
Zimbabwe. A team from the regional bloc is set to visit
Zimbabwe to discuss
various issues affecting the country. Guebuza, who is on
his first state
visit to the UK as the President of Mozambiaque, faced tough
questions from
the militant youths who have in the past few months made life
difficult for
South Africa's foreign minister, Nkosazana Zuma, amongst other
senior
southern African diplomats. The youths interupted Zuma's lecture on
the
United Nations in London recently while her country's representative
here
was also ambushed while speaking at Oxford University over their
country's
quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe's crisis.
The youths wanted
to know from the Mozambican President why SADC in
particular was not pushing
for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, taking
into consideration that the
crisis was spilling over to neighbouring
countries. They also want SADC to
respect people's human rights. Guebuza
repeatedly failed to respond to the
questions to the youths' satisfaction.
He said Mozambique was ready to play
its part in helping solve Zimbabwe's
crisis. Said Alois Mbawara, one of the
youth's leaders, said: "SADC has
previously recognised that the crisis in
Zimbabwe is a stumbling block to
regional economic prosperity. But
Mozambique has failed to uphold the SADC
principles of good governance with
regard to Zimbabwe ," said Mr Mbawara.
"SADC has promised to appoint a
troika team to visit Zimbabwe , but has so
far not done so. We want to know
who is going, when they are going and what
is their remit. Zimbabweans are
dying while SADC dithers. The youths later
ambushed Zimbabwe's Ambassador to
the UK, Gabriel Machinga, as he left
Chatham House. They chanted and held
placards denouncing him and his leader,
President Mugabe, whom they said was
wanted for murder.
"Mozambique and other SADC countries have a duty
to do something concrete to
stop the killing in Zimbabwe . We expect support
from our African
neighbours, not neglect, indifference and evasion," said
Mbawara. "During
Ian Smith's era of white minority rule, Mozambique played
an important and
valued role assisting the Zimbabwe freedom struggle. Now,
once again, the
people of Zimbabwe need our Mozambican brothers and sisters
to help us free
ourselves from Mugabe's tyranny. We want a new Zimbabwe
where there is
democracy, social justice and human rights for all
Zimbabweans - not a
lawless state where Mugabe's Zanu PF cronies get rich
and abuse their power
at the expense of the people." Guebuza will meet
government ministers,
businessmen and members of the Mozambican community
resident in Britain
while in the UK. The Mozambican head of State, who is
here as a guest of the
British government, will also meet with the Queen,
Prime Minister Tony
Blair, Minister for Africa Lord Triesman, and Minister
for International
Development Hilary Benn. During the visit the British
government is expected
to announce it will continue to support the
Mozambican government's budget
for a further five years, and that it will
support the education sector for
a further ten years. This commitment to
supporting the Mozambican
government's poverty reduction programme follows
the visit in April this
year to Mozambique by the British Chancellor of the
Exchequer Gordon Brown.
Reuters
Tue Dec 5, 2006 7:56 AM
GMT
By Mia Shanley
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's capital Harare
ranks as the world's most
expensive city for expatriates largely due to
soaring inflation, displacing
Oslo and Tokyo from the top slots, a human
resources firm said on Tuesday.
Resource-rich African countries climbed
up the world rankings due to a
commodities boom, a survey by ECA
International showed, with Angola's Luanda
and the Congo Democratic
Republic's Kinshasa in second and fifth place
respectively, while
Scandinavian cities Oslo and Copenhagen remained among
the top
seven.
"Zimbabwe had massive inflation of 1,700 percent," Lee Quane,
general
manager of ECA International, told Reuters.
"Although the
currency has depreciated, there was a huge increase in the
cost of living
for Harare," he said. Harare was the 57th most expensive city
for
expatriates in the 2005 survey.
Seoul, which was the most expensive city
in Asia, ranked as the eighth-most
expensive worldwide, up from tenth place
in the previous year. Cities in
Japan fell in the global rankings mainly
because of a sharply weaker yen,
with Tokyo dropping to tenth place this
year from third place in 2005.
The survey also showed that expatriates in
Hong Kong, the fifth most
expensive city in Asia, enjoyed the lowest living
costs since 1990. That may
help Hong Kong -- which has grappled with poor
air quality -- attract more
overseas talent, it said.
"Taiwan, Tokyo
and Hong Kong have all fallen due to currency movements, even
though the
price of goods and services has actually increased," said Quane.
Consumer
prices in Japan are expected to keep rising, but only slowly,
following more
than seven years of deflation.
However, costs in both Seoul and Singapore
were higher due to stronger
currencies. The won has gained more than 9
percent since the end of 2005
against the U.S. dollar while the Singapore
dollar has risen nearly 8
percent.
Quane said Seoul, ranked as Asia's
most expensive city for expatriates for
the second year in a row, had been
impacted by a stronger currency and
higher costs of goods and
services.
The gap between first-tier and second-tier Chinese cities is
likely to
narrow over the next few years, Quane said, as international
companies move
further inland in search of new markets.
Quane added
that exchange rates, rather than inflationary factors, were
among the main
factors behind the movements in ECA's latest survey.
"High oil prices
haven't really had a huge inflationary effect," he said.
The ECA
International cost of living survey takes into account 125 economic
factors
such as the cost of luxury goods, restaurant meals and grocery costs
for
items commonly purchased by expatriates in over 250 locations
worldwide.
It aims to capture day-to-day expenses for expatriates and
does not include
certain living costs such as accommodation, utilities and
school fees which
are often included as part of an expatriate's
package.
The world's 10 most expensive cities for
expatriates:
City Country (position in 2005 survey)
1 Harare
Zimbabwe (57)
2 Luanda Angola (2)
3 Oslo Norway (1)
4
Moscow Russia (8) 5 Kinshasa Congo Democratic Republic (15)
6
Stavanger Norway (5)
7 Copenhagen Denmark (7)
8 Seoul South Korea
(10)
9 Libreville Gabon (12)
10 Tokyo Japan (3)
The 10 most
expensive cities for expatriates in Asia:
1 Seoul South Korea
2
Tokyo Japan
3 Yokohama Japan
4 Kobe Japan
5 Hong Kong
Hong Kong
6 Taipei Taiwan
7 Port Moresby Papua New Guinea
8
Beijing China
9 Shanghai China
10 Singapore Singapore
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
December 5, 2006
Posted to the web December 5,
2006
Johannesburg
Outgoing United Nations special envoy for
humanitarian needs in southern
Africa, James T Morris, will embark on his
eighth and final trip to the
region on Thursday to urge governments and
donors to take decisive action to
tackle long-term development
issues.
Morris, who will also retire from his position as the executive
director of
the World Food Programme (WFP) early next year, will visit
Malawi,
Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe during his nine-day
tour, and
is scheduled to meet with various donors and government
representatives.
Mike Huggins, a WFP spokesman based in Johannesburg who
will accompany the
envoy, told IRIN that "the over-arching problem [in the
region] is HIV/AIDS
and chronic food insecurity, which is compounding
poverty."
Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Morris to
the
humanitarian post in July 2002 and since then, according to his UN
biography, Morris has raised "awareness of the 'triple threat' of food
insecurity, weakened capacity for governance, and the HIV pandemic by
creating the platform for humanitarian coordination in the
region".
Huggins said the issues Morris would raise on his visit included
the
provision of clean water, sanitation, healthcare, crop diversification
and
agricultural reform.
In October this year, WFP warned that a $60
million funding shortfall was
forcing food aid cuts to as many as 4.3
million people across southern
Africa who remain chronically vulnerable
despite this year's reportedly good
harvests across the region.
[
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations
]
By
Tichaona Sibanda
5 December 2006
The reputation of
officials running cricket in Zimbabwe was left in
tatters on Monday when a
Harare magistrate convicted the board for breaching
the country's strict
foreign currency laws.
Zimbabwe Cricket pleaded guilty to making
unauthorised payments to a
foreign television company without the knowledge
of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe. Between November 2004 and September 2005,
ZC paid British based
television production company Octagon CSI US$1.3
million for advertising and
marketing services.
The lawyer
representing Zimbabwe Cricket, Wilson Manase, admitted in
court Monday that
the cricket body's hands were dirty hence their decision
to plead guilty.
Cricket analyst Elvis Sembezeya said under normal
circumstances heads should
roll at Zimbabwe Cricket because of the
conviction.
'The big
question everyone should be asking now is what did that
investment bring
back to Zimbabwe Cricket. This is what we have been saying
all along that
money was being spent in unclear circumstances at ZC. After
such a huge
investment you would have expected better results but that has
been the
opposite,' Sembezeya said.
The board was also accused of paying
US$42 930 in college fees for two
cricket players and board manager Wilfred
Mukondiwa's daughter who were
studying overseas.
Recently
Zimbabwe Cricket chief Peter Chingoka was accused of
corruption involving
millions of dollars. A group of former administrators
and players accused
him of presiding over the disappearance of US$7.3
million of income from
television rights.
The group said the money's disappearance
allegedly involved ZC chief
executive Osias Bvute, who was arrested with
Chingoka a year ago before
being released. They were arrested on suspicion
of illegal foreign currency
dealings.
It's now believed
stakeholders of the game are now demanding that the
ZC board should be
investigated to unravel more underhand financial dealings
following Monday's
conviction.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald (Harare)
December
5, 2006
Posted to the web December 5, 2006
Harare
SIMON
MAPLANGA, the former diplomat accused of possessing four blank
passports
suspected to have been stolen from the Registrar-General's Office,
was last
week back in court on fresh charges of armed robbery.
Maplanga (46), who
was represented by Harare lawyer Mr Pepukai Mabundu of
Maganga and Company,
was not asked to plead to the charges when he appeared
before Harare
magistrate Miss Chipo Matibiri.
He was remanded in custody to December
12.
Miss Matibiri, however, referred Maplanga to the High Court for his
bail
application.
Prosecutor Ms Loveness Mpofu alleged that on August
6 this year, Maplanga,
who resides at Delport Farm in Ruwa, allegedly
stormed a Southerton service
station and robbed the owner of $480
000.
It is the State's case that Maplanga, who was in the company of
accomplices
who are still at large, arrived at the service station in a
cream
Mercedes-Benz, registration number 767-977G armed with iron bars and a
pistol.
They allegedly threatened to kill the workers and their
employer whom they
found counting the day's takings before ordering them to
lie down.
It is further alleged that the gang grabbed the money that was
being counted
and drove off but alert workers took down the registration
number of the car
and reported the robbery to the police.
Police
later arrested Maplanga in the city while driving the car.
Maplanga is
due to appear in court in a case in which he is accused of
possessing four
blank passports that are believed to have been stolen and
two forged
ones.
He is on bail on the case.
From The Herald, 5 December
Herald Reporter
Two police officers were arrested
last Friday on allegations of stealing
meat and sausages at the Police
Commissioner's Sundowner held at Morris
Depot in Harare. The foodstuffs were
meant for braai for invited guests.
Police sources said the two - both
assistant inspectors - had been tasked
with distributing the meat and
sausages to braai stands. They reportedly
loaded their loot into a police
ambulance, which was parked a few metres
from the braai stands. A senior
police officer who was at the function
confirmed the incident. He said the
two officers later drove the ambulance
out of the venue but their luck ran
out at the last hurdle when they were
arrested by alert police recruits at
the main gate at Morris Depot after a
search of the ambulance. A report was
made to senior police officers and the
two were taken into custody. They are
expected to appear in court soon
facing theft charges. In September, three
policemen at Morris Depot's
regimental mess allegedly stole 37 crates of
beer, left over from a party
for newly promoted inspectors. The three -
Langton Munaku (29) the
officer-in-charge of the mess, and his juniors,
Constables Kenneth Nyakuwa
(34) and Rangarirai Macheka (40) - allegedly
hired a truck to ferry their
loot to a bottle store in Highfield for sale,
but the liquor was intercepted
after a tip-off.