http://www.iol.co.za
December 07 2008 at 09:07AM
By Peta
Thornycroft, Basildon Peta, Stanley Gama and Eleanor Momberg
The
Zimbabwe dollar halved in value every five to 10 minutes on Friday
as the
country crumbled to depths disastrous even by Zimbabwean standards.
With the nation ravaged by a hunger crisis and in the grips of a
cholera
epidemic, the United States and the United Kingdom called for the
removal of
President Robert Mugabe and his regime, while South Africa geared
up to send
more medical supplies and food to the starving Zimbabwean people.
The meltdown of the economy was graphically illustrated by
hyper-inflation -
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe handed out the new
Z$10-million and
Z$100-million notes to street traders on Friday, and is to
release a
Z$200-million note on Monday. At the time of going to press,
Z$100-million
was worth about $14.
The US said at the weekend
that Mugabe's departure from office was
long overdue and the food crisis and
cholera epidemic meant it was now vital
for the international community to
act, Reuters reported.
"It's well past time for Robert Mugabe to
leave," Condoleezza Rice,
the US secretary of state, said in
Copenhagen.
Rice said the stalled power-sharing talks, a "sham
election" earlier
in 2008, economic meltdown and the humanitarian toll from
the cholera
epidemic required swift action.
"If this is not
evidence to the international community that it's time
to stand up for what
is right, I don't know what will be," Rice told a news
conference.
"Frankly the nations of the region have to lead
it."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday added his voice
to the
condemnation of Mugabe, saying the world should tell the 84-year-old
ruler
"enough is enough". He urged co-ordinated international action to help
Zimbabwe overcome food shortages and the cholera epidemic.
Zimbabwe has declared an emergency and appealed for international help
to
battle a cholera outbreak that has killed 575 people with 12 700 reported
cases of the disease, according to the United Nations.
Zimbabwe
does not have the funds to pay doctors and nurses or buy
medicine, and aid
agency Oxfam said at least 300 000 people weakened by lack
of food were in
danger from the epidemic.
"Millions of people were already facing
starvation. With unemployment
over 80 percent and food unavailable across
the country, they now have to
contend with cholera and other diseases as the
water and sanitation systems
break down," Peter Mutoredzanwa, the country
director for Oxfam in Zimbabwe,
said.
South Africa will
announce an aid package for Zimbabwe this week, with
the provision that all
aid should be distributed in a non-partisan way.
Hopes of rescuing Zimbabwe
from the humanitarian crisis are complicated by
the deadlock between Mugabe
and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), about how to implement a
power-sharing agreement.
In the midst of the crises, Zimbabweans are still being terrorised by
Mugabe's regime.
Fifteen MDC activists were abducted six weeks
ago from their homes in
Banket, about 70km north of Harare. They are still
missing, despite a Harare
high court order for the police to produce
them.
Jestina Mukoko, a human rights activist, was also abducted
from her
home, in Norton, about 40km from Harare, before dawn on Wednesday.
But on
Friday, Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights lawyer, was unable to find a
judge
to hear an urgent application to instruct the police to produce
Mukoko.
Mtetwa was the lawyer who represented the family of
activist Tonderai
Ndira, who was abducted from his home in the Mabvuku
township southeast of
Harare in May.
His body was found a week
later and an autopsy showed that he had been
killed minutes after he was
dragged out of his house and shoved into an
unmarked vehicle.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesperson, appealed on Saturday to regional
and
other African leaders to act.
"We call upon the Southern African
Development Community chairperson,
President Kgalema Motlanthe, and the
African Union chairperson, President
Jakaya Kikwete, to urgently intervene
and make sure that the 16 disappeared
are released," said Chamisa in a
statement.
The MDC is itself facing criticism from its own members
over the
absence of its leaders during the crisis.
MDC sources
said that "while the country is dying", Morgan Tsvangirai,
the MDC leader,
was believed to be in Botswana, Thokozani Khuipe, the deputy
leader, was in
South Africa, Tendai Biti, the secretary-general, was in
Australia and
Lovemore Moyo, the national chairman, was in the US.
It is not
clear if the leaders are in exile.
"But the tyrant Mugabe is at
home and conducting a predictable
programme," one MDC source
said.
With service delivery having virtually collapsed, the cholera
epidemic
is worsening and is threatening thousands more people.
The Sunday Independent toured the townships of Harare and the city
centre on
Saturday and discovered that the government has done nothing to
rectify the
problems that have helped cholera to escalate at an alarming
rate in the
country.
Doctors, most of whom are on strike because of poor
salaries and
untenable working conditions, paint a grim picture, unless more
international aid - which is beginning to flow into the country to assist in
the fight against cholera - is made available soon.
Meanwhile,
the South African government is to ask non-governmental
organisations,
churches and international donors already operating in
Zimbabwe to
distribute food and other aid to desperate people.
This will
prevent food being used as a political weapon by either of
the parties
involved in the power-sharing talks and to ensure that those
most in need of
nutrition receive it.
This condition will be set when a South
African government delegation
visits Zimbabwe on Monday on a fact-finding
mission.
This article was originally published on page
1 of Sunday Independent
on December 07, 2008
Mail and Guardian
Date: 06 Dec 2008
The signs are all around. In the spectre of cholera hauntincg the
sewage-strewn streets of Harare's townships. In the fading bodies of the
hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans surviving on wild fruits because their
fields are barren. In the glass littering streets after embittered soldiers
smashed their way into shops that no longer accept Zimbabwe's near-worthless
currency as the inflation rate surged through the billions and
trillions.
But perhaps nothing is as disturbing a symbol of the collapse
of governance
in Zimbabwe as the ghostly corridors of the country's biggest
hospital as
patients are turned away from its doors to
die.
Parirenyatwa Hospital lies at the centre of a complex of hospitals
in the
heart of Harare, with 5 000 beds. It is named after the first black
Zimbabwean to qualify as a doctor, Tichafa Parirenyatwa, and was once one of
Africa's best with a large maternity hospital, a section specialising in eye
surgery and extensive paediatric wards.
Treatment was free.
Zimbabwe's doctors and nurses were well trained and
renowned for their
dedication.
Today the Parirenyatwa's wards have an air of hurried
abandonment.
Get-well-soon cards are still pinned above the beds. Patients'
notes hang
below. The paediatric wards are decorated with mobiles of dancing
animals
and biblical drawings. But the absence of children creates a
disquieting
sense of abnormality.
Water from a burst pipe drops
through a ceiling in a darkened corridor and
forms a small lake in the
general surgery ward. There is no one to repair it
or, apparently, even
report it.
The outpatient section's doors are locked. The operating
theatres are
darkened. The nurses' stations around them are abandoned. "A
month ago this
was overflowing with patients being wheeled in and out of the
theatres. Now
it is dead," said one of the few doctors still on duty, who
did not want to
be identified for fear of retribution for criticising the
authorities.
"The staff just stopped coming to work because it was
impossible to work and
their pay simply isn't worth anything. Nurses earned
less than the bus fare
to get here. We've been subsidising the government
for so long now. The
nurses feel abused, misused.
"But I'm surprised
that the situation is now where nobody cares. There are
lots of people dying
for lack of staff. People are hungry. Their sense of
public service has
gone. There is a loss of humanity."
The staff at the Parirenyatwa muddled
along for years as the government's
incompetence and greed bled the health
service of funds and hard currency
was pocketed by the ruling elite, while
hospitals struggled with growing
shortages of medicine, nurses worked to
maintain hygiene standards when the
water was off for days, and surgeons
operated in the midst of power cuts.
The doctors led the walkout, saying
that it was impossible to work in such
conditions. The nurses quickly
followed, driven to the end of their
endurance as their pay was consumed by
hyperinflation while Zimbabwe's
leaders got rich on the back of the
misery.
The maternity hospital stopped doing caesarean sections and
life-saving
surgery. Harare General Hospital is completely shut.
Parirenyatwa's casualty
department is still open but mostly it turns
patients away as it cannot
offer any major operations or
treatment.
"We've been witnessing mothers just coming to die," said the
doctor.
"Complicated cases are brought to Pari. These patients have been
coming and
the doors have been closed. So they sit outside and cry. We know
they are
going to die."
'We wonder what happened to all the
kids'
Much of the paediatric ward is abandoned until, down the far end of
one
corridor, there is the sound of cartoons on a television. Two young boys
beam from their beds.
"This hospital has an orthopaedic surgeon who
said he will never abandon his
patients. He had these two children
admitted," said the doctor. "We wonder
what happened to all the kids we used
to see. Many came from Epworth and
Hatfield [townships] suffering from
malnutrition and related diseases. We
suspect these kids are dying at home.
Their mothers know nothing happens at
Pari now."
Another doctor said
the decline in healthcare could be seen in the
statistics. The numbers of
women dying in childbirth has doubled and the
number of newborns surviving
has halved in recent years. "Cerebral palsy
births increased threefold in
three years. That's a very good indicator of
the quality of maternity care,"
said the doctor.
Even before the hospitals closed, patients often had to
buy their own
anaesthetic and medicine if they wanted an operation. But
pharmacies charged
what it cost to import them from abroad, far beyond the
reach of most
families.
Some doctors have been carrying out illicit
operations at the Parirenyatwa
out of duty or because the patients can pay.
But often they are risky
without the full complement of staff and in
difficult conditions.
The government has blamed the hospital crisis, like
the rest of the
country's problems, on international sanctions, although the
measures
imposed by Western countries are targeted against Zimbabwe's
leaders.
Few Zimbabweans are taken in. They see the Parirenyatwa's
closure as further
evidence of a collapsing state and the fact that
President Robert Mugabe no
longer so much governs as
obstructs.
Tichafa Parirenyatwa's son, David, is now Zimbabwe's health
minister. Where
his father was honoured he is now scorned as in service of a
regime accused
of killing its people through neglect and
cynicism.
This week, doctors working at the hospital named after his
father marched to
the building to present the minister with a
petition.
"We are forced to work without basic health institutional needs
like drugs,
adequate water and sanitation, safe clothing gear, medical
equipment and
basic support services," the letter said.
David
Parirenyatwa, who was meeting foreign donors, responded by unleashing
the
police on the protesters. Some doctors were badly beaten.
The doctors
also wanted to know when health workers' pay would be restored
to its former
value. Salaries change by the month because the Zimbabwe
dollar loses value
by the minute.
A nurse's basic monthly pay at the end of November was
Z$120-million. At the
time it was worth about £40 if changed the same day
with the black market
currency dealers on the street. By Friday afternoon
the same amount was
worth just £6, enough to buy 10kg of
maize.
Complicated business
Money is a complicated business in
Zimbabwe, even if most people do not have
much. Cash has been in desperately
short supply because the government
cannot print fast enough to keep up with
hyperinflation. Officially
inflation stands at 231-million percent, but that
was in July. Since then
the central bank has regarded economic statistics as
a state secret.
John Robertson, one of Zimbabwe's most respected
economists, has accurately
estimated the rate of inflation in the past. He
says it shot through the
billions, trillions and quadrillions between August
and October until it
reached 1,6-sextillion percent last month. A sextillion
has 21 noughts.
Robertson says the number is almost meaningless.
"Inflation at the present
rate is academic. Nobody says they'll increase
salaries on this figure. It's
impossible to work with it."
As the
government grappled with the cash shortage caused by hyperinflation,
it
severely limited the amount Zimbabweans could withdraw from their bank
accounts.
After soldiers rioted in central Harare on Monday, looting
stores charging
in United States dollars and snatching money from the
illegal currency
traders in an informal market known as the Copacabana, the
central bank
raised the withdrawal limit to Z$100-million -- the equivalent
of £5 a
week -- from Thursday, though the real value was falling rapidly by
the day.
But, far from alleviating the crisis, the extra cash in the system
drove the
Zimbabwe dollar to new depths. It fell from Z$3-million to the
pound on
Wednesday evening to Z$22-million on Friday.
Prices went the
other way, tripling on Thursday alone. Robertson says it is
further evidence
of a government unable to govern. "They issue these new
notes thinking it
will solve the problem and it just makes it worse," he
said. "You'd think
that these numbers would cripple us, that we might as
well stay in bed. But
people find other ways and the way is to sell in US
dollars."
'I come
to work out of duty'
Mugabe's most dramatic recent concession to reality
was the recognition of
the US dollar and South African rand as the real
national currencies of
Zimbabwe these days.
The government spent
months trying to suppress trading in foreign currency
but underground
supermarkets sprang up in garages and warehouses stocked
with imports from
South Africa.
Restaurants and shops took foreign money under the counter.
With rapid
devaluation and the shortage of Zimbabwe dollar notes, the
middle-class
began to pay their domestic workers and gardeners in hard
currency.
Eventually, the government faced the reality that there was
only anything in
the shops at all beyond a few vegetables and eggs because
of trading in
foreign currency -- in part driven by the three million
Zimbabweans who have
fled the country, mostly for South Africa, sending
money home. It legalised
the use of US dollars and rand in September but the
effect of that has been
to make it impossible to buy almost anything without
foreign currency.
So Parirenyatwa's nurses and doctors are forced to swap
part of their
salaries -- when they can get money out of the bank -- because
it is the
only way to buy most foods, including the staple,
maize.
That is not all they have to cope with.
One of
Parirenyatwa's nurses who still goes to work lives in Epworth, a poor
township to the east without most basic services. It has been hit by the
cholera that has claimed about 600 lives across Zimbabwe and infected more
than 12 000 people, according to official figures, although doctors say the
death toll is probably much higher.
"I come to work out of duty. My
country paid for me to become a nurse,
trained me for nothing, and so even
if times are difficult and I make no
money, I have a duty to my country. But
I cannot say I'm really helping
anyone. All the wards are closed. It makes
me cry because I see the people
in Epworth who need help. Now there is
cholera but there has been sickness
for a long time because there is no
food," she said.
Although the cholera outbreak has added to the burden it
is a symptom, not a
cause, of the collapse of the medical system. Instead,
the cholera is
further evidence of the collapse of government.
Health
workers have been warning about the risk of cholera for more than a
year.
Parts of Harare and its outlying townships have been without water for
long
periods over the past two years. People took to digging shallow wells
but
they became contaminated by the sewage running openly in the streets
because
burst pipes were not repaired and blockages were not cleared.
Children
grew sick from the filth. Some died for lack of treatment. When
cholera
struck, it hit a hungry population reduced to one meal a day at
best. "We've
gone from some of the best healthcare in Africa to people dying
because they
are living in their own sewage," said the doctor at
Parirenyatwa. "And the
people who run this country act as if it has nothing
to do with them or what
they've done to this country."
http://www.thepost.ie
Sunday, December
07, 2008 By Bill Corcoran in Cape Town
The cholera outbreak in
Zimbabwe, that has claimed nearly 600 lives
and spread to neighbouring
countries, is increasing pressure on President
Robert Mugabe to share power
with the opposition or step down.
The country's power-sharing deal
has been deadlocked in recent months
because of Mugabe's insistence on his
Zanu-PF party retaining control of key
ministries, including the security
forces. This effectively relegated the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
to junior partner in a new government.
However, the rapid spread of
cholera is leaving Mugabe increasingly
isolated amongst his Southern African
peers. According to the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, almost 600 deaths and more than
12,500 infection cases had been
recorded by yesterday in Zimbabwe. The
outbreak is blamed on a lack of water
purification drugs, plus the collapse
of the country's sewage system and
health service, all symptoms of the
failed economy.
Until
last week, Mugabe's regime had repeatedly denied that the
epidemic was a
national crisis or that help was needed to contain the
problem But the
state-run Herald newspaper reported last Wednesday that the
government had
changed its position, declaring the outbreak ''and the
malfunctioning of
central hospitals, as national emergencies'' for which it
needed
international aid.
''Our central hospitals are literally not
functioning," health
minister David Parirenyatwa told a meeting of aid
groups, the newspaper
reported.
In recent weeks new infections
of the water-borne bacteria have also
been reported in neighbouring
Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, with
many dying from the disease in
those countries.
Because of the failed healthcare system
Zimbabweans, have been pouring
across borders to seek treatment, with
reports that hundreds of people are
crossing into South Africa daily at the
Beitbridge border post in Limpopo
province.
The public health
implications of the disease, which can be passed
from human to human as well
as through contaminated water, appear to have
jolted regional leaders into
action.
While international and regional aid has been pledged to
help ordinary
Zimbabweans, South Africa has at last ditched its quiet
diplomacy and taken
a tougher position towards the ruling regime. Only weeks
ago, it appeared to
support Mugabe at a regional summit aimed at resolving
the country's
power-sharing impasse. Following the Johannesburg talks,
regional leaders
backed Mugabe's regime when the Southern African
Development Community
rubber stamped a compromise deal that left the regime
in control of most of
the security forces.
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai later refused to accept the proposed
solution.
More
recently South Africa indicated it would withhold $28 million
worth of
agricultural aid until a representative government was formed,
saying
Zimbabweans were becoming ''victims of their leader's lack of
political
will''.
Botswana has called on neighbouring countries to close
their borders
with Zimbabwe , while Kenya's president Raila Odingo told the
BBC world
service on Wednesday: ''It's time for African governments to take
decisive
action to push him [Mugabe] out of power."
US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last Friday the cholera
outbreak
was a sure sign it was ''well past time'' for Mugabe to leave
office.
''If this is not evidence to the international
community to stand up
for what is right, I don't know what would be. And
frankly, the nations of
the region have to do it," she said.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Half a million will go
without emergency handouts this month, and more will
be hungry in January.
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown says it's time to tell Mugabe
'enough is
enough'
By a special correspondent in Zimbabwe
Sunday, 7 December
2008
Half a million people in Zimbabwe will go without food
handouts this month,
the UN agency responsible for feeding more than
two-fifths of the country's
population warned yesterday, as shortages of
funds force further cuts in
rations.
"We are still four months away
from the [maize] harvest. We haven't seen the
worst yet," Richard Lee, a
spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP)
in Johannesburg, told The
Independent on Sunday. "The situation has worsened
more quickly than
expected. We have reduced rations in December, and will
have to do so again
in January."
The food crisis has contributed to the rapid spread of the
cholera epidemic
now ravaging the country. So far nearly 600 people have
died and more than
12,000 have been infected, according to the authorities,
but the real
figures are believed to be much higher as the disease takes its
toll among
people weakened by hunger.
The WFP expects 5.1 million
Zimbabweans - well over half the nine million
people remaining in the
country - to need food aid by January. The target
for this month was 4.2
million, but rations for only 3.7 million are
available. "Rather than
excluding entire households from the distribution,
we have decided to set a
maximum of six rations per household," Mr Lee said.
"Families with more than
that number of mouths to feed will have to share."
In November the monthly
ration per person was cut from 12kg of maize meal to
10kg, and from 1.8kg of
beans to 1kg.
Drought this year drastically increased Zimbabwe's food
deficit. The rains
have been good so far this season, but the country's
economic collapse means
the area planted with grain is well below what is
needed to feed the
population. The WFP says it needs an extra $100m (£68m)
to cover the
shortfall up to March 2009.
With millions of Zimbabweans
starving and cholera raging, Gordon Brown
called on the international
community yesterday to tell President Robert
Mugabe that "enough is enough",
saying: "The whole world is angry because
they see avoidable deaths - of
children, mothers, and families... This is a
humanitarian catastrophe. This
is a breakdown in civil society. It is a
blood-stained regime that is
letting down its own people."
As cholera spills across Zimbabwe's borders
into neighbouring countries, Mr
Brown said the crisis was an "international
rather than a national
emergency" that demanded a co-ordinated response.
Since there was no
administration willing or able to protect the people, Mr
Brown said a
"command and control structure" should be put in place in the
capital,
Harare, to manage aid efforts.
Mr Mugabe is not expected to
heed Mr Brown's call - if anything, he is
likely to use it as proof of his
claim that Britain is seeking to recolonise
Zimbabwe. The population is
constantly told that its problems are due to
sanctions imposed by Britain
and the US, though in fact these are targeted
only at the leadership. But
the Mr Brown's strongest statement yet on
Zimbabwe echoes growing anger in
Africa at the death toll caused by the
cholera epidemic and the political
and economic breakdown from which it
stems.
Desmond Tutu, the Nobel
peace laureate, said last week that Mr Mugabe was
"destroying a wonderful
country" and should be deposed by force if he
refused to step down. Kenya's
Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, said earlier:
"It's time for African
governments to take decisive action to push him out
of power."
Mr
Brown did not explicitly call yesterday for Mr Mugabe to step down, but
on
Friday the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said his departure
from
office was long overdue: "The fact is there was a sham election; there
has
been a sham process of power-sharing talks and now we are seeing not
only
political and economic total devastation... but a humanitarian toll of
the
cholera epidemic."
http://www.mg.co.za
GIFT PHIRI | KWEKWE, ZIMBABWE - Dec 07 2008 06:00
An
elderly victim of the latest wave of land invasions in Zimbabwe is still
recovering in hospital two weeks after his wife was bludgeoned to death and
he was left for dead, allegedly by war veterans.
Farmer Neville
Austen (77) says he cannot recall exactly what happened in
the attack. This
week Austen, his face black and blue, with a deep gash
above his left eye,
was a pitiful sight as he lay in a ward at the Avenues
Private Clinic in
Harare.
John Worsley-Worswick, of the Justice for Agriculture group, said
he was
shocked by the "extreme violence" used against the couple.
The
renewed attacks on farms came just weeks before a SADC tribunal ruling,
which found that the government had illegally seized land belonging to 78
farm owners, as well as the signing of a power-sharing agreement between
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Those close
to the Mugabe government have been in a rush to secure
additional assets
since the signing of the deal, which many feared would
herald the end of
farm seizures.
On Saturday a group of war veterans vowed to continue
takeovers of
white-owned farms, defying the SADC tribunal ruling and an
appeal by the
opposition for them to leave the farms.
Last week the
tribunal ruled that the 78 applicants have "clear legal title
[to their
farms] and were denied access to the judiciary locally". It found
that the
land seizures were illegal because the government had discriminated
against
the applicants.
It ruled that the land must be returned to three of the
78 farmers who have
already been evicted and that no action may be taken
against the remaining
applicants.
Didymus Mutasa, Zimbabwe's Land
Reform Minister, has rubbished the ruling.
"They [the tribunal] are
day-dreaming, because we are not going to reverse
the land reform exercise,"
Mutasa told the media in Harare.
"There is nothing special about the 75
farmers and we will take more farms.
It's not discrimination against
farmers, but correcting land imbalances."
The MDC criticised Zanu-PF's
reaction: "It is important to note that Zanu-PF
has shown consistency in its
brazen disregard of the rule of the law," MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
"But it would be going overboard for any
credible government to describe a
ruling by a regional court as
'daydreaming'."
The murder of Mary
Austen has driven dozens of other white farming families
to seek safety in
Harare, a representative of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union
said.
According to a union official, the attackers are now said to be
prowling the
Midlands area, kicking out the 400 remaining white
farmers.
Police have said any action against the armed invaders could end
in
violence.
Meanwhile, a war veteran leader vowed to continue to
occupy hundreds of
white-owned farms.
"If there are human rights, we
have right to our land," said Jabulani
Sibanda, leader of the National
Liberation War Veterans Association, a group
that has led farm invasions.
"The redistribution of land is a non-negotiable
issue. There are people who
died for this."
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Zimbabwe's President is
under renewed pressure as officers are told to quell
any sign of mutiny by
troops who rioted over pay
Chris McGreal in Harare
The Observer, Sunday
December 7 2008
Officers in the Zimbabwean army have been told by their
superiors that they
will be held responsible for any repeat of the riots in
Harare last week,
when the capital was rocked by soldiers rampaging through
the city in anger
at not being paid.
Furious rank-and-file soldiers
smashed their way into black-market shops
dealing in US dollars and snatched
cash from illegal money-changers on the
street, prompting hopes in some
quarters that this was the first spark of a
military rebellion against
Robert Mugabe.
There is little doubt that the trouble has unnerved the
government and the
army leadership, who saw the potential danger in soldiers
getting together
with thousands of disenchanted civilians queuing at the
banks to withdraw
cash.
As international calls mount for President
Mugabe to be removed by force,
the attitude of the armed forces has become a
crucial factor in maintaining
the 84-year-old leader's grip on power.
Speaking to The Observer, a
Zimbabwean army captain said more than 100
soldiers were arrested after the
riots, which spread beyond Harare, but
added that he detected little support
among ordinary soldiers for outright
rebellion.
'One of my prime duties is to suppress the rank and file,' he
said. 'The
commanders have told us officers that we will be held accountable
for the
behaviour of our men, so we have to watch for signs of trouble and
prevent
it.'
The captain, who asked not to be identified, said that
he personally wants
Mugabe out of office as soon as possible. However, that
would not prevent
him watching the men under his command to ensure they
don't try to make that
happen by provoking a coup.
'Nobody likes
Mugabe now,' he said 'They are not loyal to him. But the
soldiers will still
obey orders. The army still has quite a good grip.'
The captain also
noted that if soldiers wanted to rebel, they would almost
certainly have to
do so without their weapons. 'The solders who revolted did
not have guns.
Weapons are kept under lock and key. They would have to break
into the
armoury to get them, and the ammo is not kept with the guns,' he
said.
Uncertainty would be another factor, he predicted. While
Zimbabwe's
civilians look to the soldiers to lead the way, the soldiers look
to the
civilians.
'There are complaints among the soldiers that the
civilians won't do
anything. If the civilians went out on to the streets,
then the soldiers say
they would stand back and not harm them, and maybe
even join them,' he said.
'Plenty have deserted. They go down to South
Africa. Because of the
desertions the army will recruit almost anybody.
Before, they used to ask
for five O-levels, including maths and English. The
army was highly
educated. Now there have been too many desertions and deaths
from Aids, so
you don't need qualifications.'
One former corporal, in
his late twenties, said that he deserted last year,
fled to South Africa to
find work and returned last month. 'I was finished
with the army when I took
my child to hospital. He is a boy aged three. He
was very sick from dirty
water in the street. They told me they could not
treat him unless I bought
the medicines. I asked how much these medicines
cost. If I worked all year I
could not pay for them,' he said.
'They think we cannot see that those at
the top are still getting rich,
while our children get sicker. My son got
very sick before my brother sent
money to pay for the medicine. That's when
I realised I was better off
there. Before we were soldiers; now we are
beggars.'
A middle-aged NCO said that he remained in the army out of
duty. 'I am one
of the last left in my unit. Most of the others went to
South Africa or
Botswana. The mechanics went first because they know how to
fix cars and can
work anywhere,' he said. 'I am a professional soldier. We
had a good army, a
professional army. One of the best in Africa. I did not
just want to desert.
'But now I think maybe I have been foolish. Maybe
Mugabe is laughing at me.
My family is hungry while I do my duty. I often
ask myself if Mugabe is
doing his duty.'
The captain said that last
week's violence in Harare was purely to do with
wages. 'There are civilians
who believe the government is sending soldiers
to create disorder, so it can
declare a state of emergency. But the cause of
that disturbance was a stupid
one. The soldiers get paid at the barracks,
but that day they only paid the
officers. The soldiers were told to go to
town and access their money at the
bank. When they couldn't get it there,
they went to the Copacabana [a black
market] and robbed them of their US
dollars and local currency, and they
smashed up the shops.
'The soldiers are all disgruntled, very unhappy.
They are suffering, their
families are suffering. But I don't think it will
come to that point where
they rebel. Soldiers who stay in the army are still
worried about their
careers.'
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, December 6, - LONG distance learners in
Zimbabwe have been
left in the cold as the University of South Africa
(UNISA) has decided to
close its examination centres in
Zimbabwe.
In a letter dated October 15 and signed by Kelvin
Beckworth who is
UNISA's deputy director, the university informed students
that they would
have to travel to Polokwane or Pretoria to pen their
examinations.
"I regret to inform you that the Management of the
University of South
Africa recently decided that the current examination
centres in Zimbabwe
will not be continued after the January/February 2009
examinations," read
the letter.
Although the decision will not
affect the January/February 2009
examinations, which will take place as
scheduled, the decision has caused an
out-cry from hard pressed students who
had resorted to long distance
education after the collapse of the education
sector in the country.
Tody Mapingire, a final year student in Bachelor
of Accounting Science
said it was disheartening that a neighbouring country
would impose
"sanctions" on a friend.
Mapingire said: "This is
tantamount to sanctions. The modules are
already expensive and where do
these people think we will find money to
either travel to South Africa or
Zambia just to sit down for an exam. Its
not fair and I plead with UNISA to
reconsider its position."
Students usually have six modules a semester
at a cost of R1100 each.
Exams for all the six modules are written over a
period of about a month.
This means that one has to be in a foreign country
for a month in order to
write the exams.
Another student, Garikai
Hweje said he was going to drop the his
programme, which he had just started
arguing that it was clear South Africa
no longer wanted Zimbabwean
students.
He said: "How do you explain the fact that one will have to
be in
South Africa for a month in these times when we can barely afford a
loaf of
bread. We struggle to raise R6600 that they ask of us every semester
and to
ask for more bey way of us traveling like that is depriving one of
the right
to learn."
An official at a UNISA centre at Speciss
College, Harare who refused
to give his name, confirmed that exams were
shifted from Zimbabwe but could
not give a reason why.
"I am not
allowed to speak on these matters. I do not know why the
centres are being
closed. It might be a financial reason," he said.
The letter has since
asked students to notify the university of their
preferred exam centre:
"Students who will be writing
supplementary/aegotat/special examinations in
May/June 2009, will have to
inform University before 28 Ferbruary 2009 at
which alternative examination
centre they wish to write future examinations
at examination centres in
South Africa, such as Polokwane(Pietersburg), or
Pretoria."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Tens of thousands will starve or die of cholera unless the outside
world
ends the madness of Robert Mugabe.
Sunday, December 7, 2008; Page
B06
ZIMBABWE'S TRAGIC implosion is gaining momentum. On Thursday the
government
announced a national health emergency because of a rapidly
spreading cholera
epidemic, which so far has killed at least 500 people and
infected more than
12,000. The water and sewage system of Harare, the
capital, has broken down;
hospitals have virtually ceased to function. The
United Nations and aid
groups say that hundreds of thousands of people are
at immediate risk. That
comes on top of the 5 million -- more than half of
Zimbabwe's remaining
population -- who will need international food aid by
next month to avoid
starvation, according to the United Nations. Zimbabwe's
economy has seized
up: only one in 10 people now works, most schools are
closed and prices
double every 24 hours. In short, a country that once was a
relatively
prosperous food exporter will soon be the site of a major
humanitarian
catastrophe unless there is international
intervention.
"If this is not evidence to the international community
that it's time to
stand up for what's right," said Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice on
Friday, "I don't know what will be."
"What's
right" is pretty obvious -- the removal from power of 84-year-old
autocrat
Robert Mugabe, the author of this calamity and a leader who rivals
Uganda's
Idi Amin and Congo's Mobutu Sese Seko as a paragon of misrule in
Africa. Ms.
Rice spoke plainly -- "It's well past time for Robert Mugabe to
leave" --
and to their credit, some other African leaders finally are
stepping up.
Kenya's prime minister, Botswana's foreign minister and retired
archbishop
Desmond Tutu of South Africa have all called on African
governments to force
Mr. Mugabe from power.
The stumbling block, as always, remains the South
African government and its
former president, Thabo Mbeki, who is supposed to
be the "mediator" between
Mr. Mugabe and his opposition but instead has
become the strongman's most
die-hard defender. Mr. Mbeki's successor as
president, Kgalema Motlanthe, is
a little better; he has made it clear that
he does not consider Mr. Mugabe's
government legitimate. But South Africa
continues to insist on the
unworkable formula cooked up by Mr. Mbeki months
ago -- a unity government
that would leave Mr. Mugabe in power while giving
opponent Morgan Tsvangirai
the impossible job of rescuing the
economy.
Mr. Motlanthe's government did, at least, resolve to send a
delegation of
government officials to Zimbabwe tomorrow to evaluate the
cholera and food
crisis and determine what aid is needed. That team ought to
provide a
vehicle for South Africa to send a message to Mr. Mugabe that
should have
been dispatched long ago: The first step toward the rescue of
his country is
his own retirement. It took military intervention by
neighbors to end the
insanity of Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko; Zimbabwe
begs for the same
remedy.
http://www.washingtontimes.com
EDITORIAL:
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Jimmy Carter
has often been described as being more impressive as a former
president than
he was as president. That's not hard to prove, of course,
considering his
failed presidency. While since then he has often been a
busybody and
irritating scold, and his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize was as much a
dig at
President Bush as an individual honor, he does some selfless (at
least,
seemingly selfless) things that make the world a better place. So,
tempting
as it is to have a feeling of schadenfreude at his latest uninvited
foray,
an attempted humanitarian assessment mission to Zimbabwe that
ruthless
dictator Robert Mugabe blocked, in this case Mr. Carter is on the
side of
the angels. If the devil tried to get into Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe
blocked
him (which might be an oxymoron), the devil would be on the side of
the
angels, but we digress.
Mr. Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and South African
human-rights advocate Graca Machel (wife of former South
African President
Nelson Mandela, who organized the group) were denied visas
when they tried
to visit desperate Zimbabwe to assess the country's needs --
which are
stupendous. Since leading Zimbabwe to independence from Great
Britain in
1980, Mr. Mugabe has become increasingly irrational and
dictatorial.
Two rounds of presidential elections earlier this year
turned into a sham
when Mr. Mugabe was surprised that, despite coercion at
the polls, Morgan
Tsvangirai almost certainly won. Since then Mr. Mugabe has
been performing a
sort of modified rope-a-dope routine, holding onto power
brutally and
skipping out on a power-sharing deal while critics punch
themselves out.
The annual inflation rate as of July was estimated at 23l
million percent,
giving new meaning to hyperinflation. To say the country is
in chaos
understates the case. People are starving and compete in the
countryside
with baboons, jackals and goats for roots and wild fruits;
health care has
imploded and cholera is on the march as water and sewer
systems collapse;
and refugees by the millions have left the
country.
The United States has done what it can, giving $186 million in
humanitarian
aid to Zimbabwe this year, the most of any donor. Regional
groups such as
the 15-nation Southern African Development Community have
tried to help.
South Africa, which might have more influence than any state
on Mr. Mugabe
(which isn't saying much), has decided to withhold farm aid as
a leverage.
But nothing has worked with Mr. Mugabe, who has in effect told
everyone
where they can stick it.
Alas, at some times and in some
places diplomacy just doesn't work because
one side simply doesn't care, or
their values are so averse to civilized
society that words, hopes, logic and
reason are pointless. Whether that is
the case in, say, Iran or North Korea
or Sudan may be debatable, but there
seems -- to us, at least -- no debate
in Zimbabwe under Mr. Mugabe. Has
anyone in that part of the world thought
of the "f" word - force?
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com
BY BONNIE
WASHUK
12/07/2008
LEWISTON -- When Godfrey Banda moved to
Lewiston from Zimbabwe in 2001, he
wasn't sure he'd stay.
He wasn't used
to the cold.
He missed his big family.
The culture was different;
no one got his jokes.
Today, he's glad he stayed. He's able to help keep
his sister and four
brothers in the southern African country of Zimbabwe
alive.
Banda, 36, works in the Freeport warehouse of L.L. Bean and sends
most of
each paycheck to his family. He couldn't do that, he said, without
his wife,
Lewiston native Donna LeBrun. He met her in 1999 when he was a
college
student and she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe.
"My
spouse deserves most of the credit,"Banda said. "If I was on my own, I
don't
think I could manage the help I'm providing."
For his brothers and
sister, the help is "huge. It's life or death."
The money helps them buy
food, without which they'd be malnourished.
Zimbabwe has suffered from an
AIDS epidemic, malnutrition, a corrupt
government and a major cholera
outbreak. Electricity and safe water are
scarce. Hospitals don't have
medicine. "Right now, things are the worst
they've ever been," Banda said.
"Every time I went back, things were getting
worse. I've never been scared
of home. But the last time I went back, I got
scared."
Banda grew up
among a big, extended family. Many cousins, aunts and uncles
lived within
walking distance. On Christmas and New Year's, they'd get
together at his
grandfather's place.
The last time he went home he visited a line of
graves. "People are not
there anymore."
Banda is the oldest of six
children. His father died in 1999; his mother, in
2005. "I call myself the
father, the mother and the aunt," he said. In his
country, aunts act as
counselors. He is that counselor. With a $5 phone
card, he talks to his
family for an hour once a week.
He tells John, James, Handson, Isaac and
Mirriam how proud he is of them for
being strong, for holding the family
together. He tells them things will get
better.
Banda graduated from
the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn
College in 2005 and has
many friends here, some of whom went with him on one
of his trips home. They
encouraged him to hug his dying mother and tell her
he loved her, something
men don't do in his culture, he said.
He asked his mother if he could hug
her. She said yes. "It was the first and
last time I hugged her as an adult.
It was huge,"he said.
He and his mother were close; they could talk about
anything. She'd be
pleased to know he's now helping his siblings, he
said.