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Journalists working
for Zimbabwe's largest independent newspaper, The Daily
News, learned Tuesday
that they will not be granted accreditation by the
government's Media and
Information Commission. The commission's chairman
says journalists will not
be allowed to work in their profession, while they
continue to be employed by
an unlicensed newspaper.
Media Commission Chairman Tafataona Mahoso told the
government-controlled
Herald newspaper that because The Daily News has been
refused a license to
publish, its journalists cannot be accredited
either.
The Daily News is Zimbabwe's largest independent daily newspaper,
and it is
critical of President Robert Mugabe's administration.
Under
sweeping media laws, the government has made it a criminal offense to
work as
a journalist in Zimbabwe without a license.
Last week, the Supreme Court
upheld the licensing law, and said the media
legislation does not violate
freedom of speech guarantees in the
constitution.
The government
ordered The Daily News to stop publishing in September
because it did not
have a license. After a series of court cases, the
newspaper won the right to
reopen on January 22, although it still does not
have a license.
After
the Supreme Court ruling last Thursday, the newspaper stopped
publishing
while its journalists applied for licenses.
The legal adviser to The
Daily News, Gugulethu Moyo, says lawyers are
preparing a new case for the
High Court, asking it to uphold previous orders
allowing the newspaper to
re-open and to confirm that journalists can start
work again, once they have
applied for licenses.
Reuters
Tuesday February 10, 05:10 PM
Mugabe says
has "won war" against UK
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says his
government has
won a political war against Britain over his controversial
land reforms, and
has turned its focus to economic problems and
combating
corruption.
The southern African country is struggling
with a severe economic
crisis which critics blame on state mismanagement, but
which Mugabe says is
largely due to sabotage by foreign and domestic
opponents bent on ending his
24-year-old rule.
Addressing
journalists after swearing in new ministers appointed in a
cabinet reshuffle
on Monday, Mugabe said he still regarded his team as a
"war cabinet" but its
major focus would shift from political struggle
against former colonial power
Britain and the United States to turning
around the economy.
Mugabe accuses Britain of leading the international community in
isolating
Zimbabwe over his government's seizure of white-owned commercial
farms to
give to landless blacks.
"The war is getting less and less
political, that is vis-a-vis the
British, vis-a-vis the Americans, those I
think we have defeated now,"
Mugabe said on Tuesday.
"It is now
the internal war to fight the evils within our systems, to
fight corruption,
to fight tendencies to amass wealth at the expense of the
nation, to fight
indiscipline, to fight crime."
Mugabe said his government would
work on programmes to boost
production in agriculture, where analysts say
drought and the farm seizures
have seen an over 50 percent fall in
output.
About five million people -- close to half Zimbabwe's
population --
are surviving on food aid in a country that used to be the
breadbasket of
southern Africa.
OLD GUARD RETAINED
Critics say Mugabe has also tightened his political grip, alleging
human
rights abuses and intimidation following his re-election in 2002
presidential
polls that the opposition and Western observers said
were
rigged.
Mugabe dropped a couple of political associates
from his government in
Monday's reshuffle, but retained a group of combative
ministers spearheading
controversial policies which critics say have plunged
one of Africa's
potentially richest countries into crisis.
In a
long-expected reshuffle, Mugabe axed Mines Minister Edward
Chindori-Chininga,
replaced Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa with his deputy
Chris Kuruneri and
demoted Youth Minister Elliot Manyika to minister
without
portfolio.
But the Zimbabwean leader kept his
ministerial team largely intact,
including Agriculture Minister Joseph Made,
Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
said by
recycling the same ministers Mugabe had demonstrated he had run out
of ideas
to tackle the country's economic problems, and that his main aim was
to
build political consensus in his ruling ZANU-PF party.
"In
today's Zimbabwe, cabinet reshuffles, instead of being an occasion
for
renewed optimism are an occasion for distinct despair," the MDC said in
a
statement.
Mugabe, who turns 80 this month and has been in power
since
independence from Britain in 1980, dismisses the MDC as a puppet of
Britain
with no national agenda, which the opposition denies.
M
Mugabe’s
Cabinet Reshuffle Offers Little Hope To
Zimbabweans
In a
functioning democracy, cabinet reshuffles are intended to be a positive move
aimed at injecting renewed energy into a government’s agenda in order to ensure
that government remains on target for meeting the promises it gave to the
electorate in the previous election. Reshuffles are guided by a desire not only
to reinvigorate the government’s agenda but also to send a clear message to the
voting public that the government remains conscious of its fundamental role: to
deliver on behalf of the people and ensure tangible improvements to their daily
lives.
In today’s
For a
government that has long abdicated its role of delivering on behalf of the
people, yesterday’s reshuffle by Mugabe confirms our
fears that this is a regime that has run out of
ideas.
For the
suffering people of
The people of
At a time when
ordinary Zimbabweans are reeling under severe economic hardships, inflicted on
them by an uncaring regime, the number of those who must participate in the
feeding trough has been increased. Governors have been appointed in
The people of
Paul Themba Nyathi
Secretary for
Information and Publicity
The Herald
(Harare)
February 10, 2004
Posted to the web February 10,
2004
Leonard Makombe
Harare
Wankie Colliery Company and coal
merchants failed to come up with solutions
to bring normalcy in the supply
and pricing of coal at a meeting held last
Friday in Harare.
The
stalemate will impact negatively on the curing of tobacco, which has
already
started in most parts of the country. The crop is the country's
major foreign
currency earner.
The market, particularly tobacco farmers, had been
optimistic that the major
problems at hand would be ironed out, but nothing
concrete came out of the
one-hour long meeting.
Both parties accused
each other of capitalising on the current state of
affairs.
Wankie
officials attacked merchants for profiteering by charging about $800
000 per
tonne for coal they obtained for about $200 000 a tonne. The
merchants, in
turn, accused the company of "abnormally" increasing the price
of the
commodity over the past year.
The colliery company was accused of
dramatically increasing the price from
$9 339,60 per tonne in January last
year to the current $202 860 per tonne.
Furthermore, the merchants felt
cheated by the fact that Wankie was selling
coal for US$32 (Z$114 346,24) to
exporters, representing half of what was
being charged to other
merchants.
However, it was noted that despite these concerns, merchants
were charging
exorbitant prices that threatened the viability of most users,
particularly
tobacco farmers.
On its part, Wankie said it would offer
discounts of between 10 percent and
20 percent on purchases, but merchants
felt the overall cost needed to be
slashed.
Wankie marketing manager
Mr Zenedias Kakomo said the discounts would depend
on the volumes of coal
purchased and the method of payment.
"What we want now is a reduction in
the cost of the commodity from the
source and this would also see us reducing
our prices," said one of the
merchants.
Mr Kakomo, however, said the
company could not reduce the price of the
commodity and the discount was the
best they could offer.
Wankie is now expected to come up with a proper
pricing schedule, which
would be considered by the merchants. In the
meantime, coal users will have
to fork out at least $800 000 for the
commodity.
Tobacco growers have already warned of reduced production
figures if the
price is not reviewed.
It has become too expensive for
them to cure their crop using coal.
Meanwhile, Wankie is also expected to
increase coal production to about 80
percent from the current 50 percent
within the next few months.
For the greater part of last year the company
was operating at 50 percent
capacity largely due to serious shortage of spare
parts and other major
components for the coal mining and processing
equipment.
An increase in production at the colliery would see the
shortage of coal
easing in the country.
"As you may be aware we
have started producing different sizes of coal to
meet the local needs as
part of our efforts to make sure that the company
produces the right amount
of coal for local supply," Mr Kakomo said. Wankie
operates the only coal
mining and washing complex in Zimbabwe. It is also
expected that an increase
in coal production would see the prices
stabilising.
More than 60
percent of the coal produced is used for electricity generation
purposes but
the tobacco crop also takes in a significant amount of the
mineral.
Firm Probes Product Theft
The Herald (Harare)
February 10,
2004
Posted to the web February 10, 2004
Harare
NATIONAL Foods
on Friday said product theft at the company was
under
investigation.
In a statement, National Foods managing director
Mr Ian Kind said the
company had stringent internal controls which include
the presence of
independent auditors who were permanently on site to assist
in the
monitoring of internal control structures through ongoing
audits.
He said $5 billion that the company was last week reported to
have lost
through thefts was grossly overstated and that the company's
shrinkage
record over the last year had been considerably less than industry
norms.
"National Foods has well established policies and procedures in
relation to
ethical and environmental related risks," Mr Kind
said.
Early this month, police investigating thefts from the company
discovered
that most food items that are sold at Mbare Musika at black market
prices
were stolen from the company.
This came after they raided a
house in Waterfalls and found tonnes of wheat,
maize and soya beans worth
billions of dollars.
It is also suspected that some senior employees at
the company and security
guards were involved in the racket.
Some
sources at the company said a day hardly passes without food items
worth
millions of dollars being stolen at the company.
EU Business
EU to renew sanctions against Zimbabwe
10
February 2004
The European Union is set to agree this month to roll over
for a third year
sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe, notably extending a list
of officials
banned from the EU, diplomats say.
The sanctions were
first slapped on the regime of President Robert Mugabe in
2002 for rights
abuses and electoral fraud after he retained his grip on
power in a
controversial ballot victory.
The deadline to renew the sanctions is due
February 20. But diplomats say
that a meeting of EU ambassadors next week
will approve the decision, which
will be formally adopted on February 19, at
a meeting of EU interior
ministers.
"The current sanctions will be
maintained ... The situation in our view is
not improving," said an EU
source, adding: "These measures are aimed at
named individuals and not the
people of Zimbabwe."
The original ban imposed travel restrictions on top
government and ruling
party officials, as well as freezing their assets.
Initially in 2002, 19
people were listed. According to EU sources, that list
will include up to 90
names this year.
As well as renewing the
sanctions, EU foreign ministers are also expected to
agree a statement on the
situation in Zimbabwe at a meeting in Brussels on
February 23, officials say.
The EU has also imposed an embargo on supplies
of arms and military equipment
to Harare.
Ireland, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has
dropped heavy
hints in recent weeks about the way the sanctions review was
going.
"There are very serious concerns about the deteriorating situation
in
Zimbabwe," said Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen last month,
while
declining to forecast what the decision would be.
The EU
measures against Zimbabwe were eased slightly last year when the bloc
agreed
to suspend the travel ban for officials travelling to meetings
organized by
the United Nations or by international bodies based in an
EU
country.
But tensions between the EU and Harare were reflected only
last week when
European diplomats were temporarily denied entry to some
polling stations in
Zimbabwe during a parliamentary
by-election.
Zimbabwe's international isolation grew last year when it
was suspended from
the Commonwealth after observers said presidential polls
that returned
Mugabe to power were marred by violence, intimidation and
electoral flaws.
In reviewing the sanctions, the EU has been seeking
progress in five key
areas: an end to all political motivated violence;
commitment to free and
fair elections; protection of the freedom of mass
media; independence of the
judiciary; and an end to illegal occupation of
properties.
"We have not been able to record progress in any of them,"
said an EU
diplomat. "That is why we must maintain the
sanctions."
Meanwhile the EU, the world's biggest provider of development
aid, has
sought to target assistance to the Zimbabwean people in the form of
medical
supplies, food and agricultural aid, EU officials say.
But
budgetary aid to the Mugabe government to carry out reforms
remains
suspended. "We are going to cut off aid channeled through the
government and
focus on restricted aid targetted directly at the population,"
said one
source.
The European Parliament issued a stinging resolution
on Zimbabwe only last
month, saying that Mugabe's regime has "become a
worrying example of
pitiless oppression of an impoverished and famished
population."
ZBC
Government gearing up for internal war- President
11 February
2004
President Robert Mugabe says government is gearing itself for an
internal
war to fight the evils within existing systems.
In an
interview with Newsnet soon after the swearing-in of new ministers
and
governors, Cde Mugabe said the new appointments are aimed at enhancing
and
reinforcing the war set up by cabinet at the end of the 2002
elections.
The president said following the completion of the political
war against the
Americans and British over the land reform programme, the
government is now
focusing on fighting corruption and tendencies to amass
wealth at the
expense of the nation.
He said the new cabinet has also
been tasked to reverse the damage that has
been done by a combination of
drought and sanctions.
Cde Mugabe said there is need to further propel
and effectively support the
agricultural sector to feed and support the
manufacturing sector.
President Mugabe added that the injection of new
blood in government will
help with fresh ideas in the implementation of the
new monetary policy
through the introduction of strategic projects and
programmes to turn around
the fortunes of the country.
He said special
attention in the turnaround effort, will also be paid to key
sectors such as
mining, especially the gold sector, platinum production and
the newly
discovered diamonds from Rio Tinto.
Cde Mugabe also emhpasised the need
to pay attention to the development of
infrastructure such as bridges and
roads saying the country should not
continue to lose lives because of narrow
roads.
He also said government wants to see air Zimbabwe improve adding
that the
IATA fiasco at the airline was uncalled for as the Reserve Bank had
adequate
funds to meet the one comma two million dollars that the local air
carrier
owed other international airlines.
The President said there is
need for government to examine management
systems in the various sectors
carefully to ensure efficiency. He said the
separation of the ministry of
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, from the
ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development was recommended by the Utete
land audit
commission.
The president added that although the move enlarged the
cabinet, the cabinet
will be reduced as soon as the task at hand has been
accomplished.
SABC
MDC official wants facilitator for talks
February 10, 2004, 06:09
PM
A senior Zimbabwean opposition official has called for a facilitator
to help
broker talks with the MDC and Zanu(PF). Roy Bennett has also
described South
Africa's soft approach toward President Robert Mugabe as
shameful.
Bennett is a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) member of
parliament and a
coffee farmer in Zimbabwe's Mutare province. He returned to
Zimbabwe this
evening after one of his farm workers was killed and another
raped. He has
just returned from talks with international human rights
organisations
abroad. However, while he was talking peace, his workers became
the latest
victims of alleged state sponsored violence.
Bennet claims
one farm worker was shot dead, and another injured last
Friday. He says a
young girl was raped and two others molested. Bennett, who
also advises
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, says South Africa's stance
on Zimbabwe is
shameful. "I can tell you categorically there's been no form
of negotiations,
no talks…I don't know what President (Thabo) Mbeki's agenda
is, I hope it's
the people of Zimbabwe."
Meanwhile, Bheki Khumalo, the South African
presidential aide, says
statements by Mbeki that Zanu(PF) is ready to hold
talks with the MDC remain
true and unchanged. Khumalo says Bennett has a
junior position in the MDC
and may be unaware of developments at national
level.
Visiting British parliamentarians say it would be better for
foreign
investors if South Africa clarified its human rights stand. While the
MDC
meets with international organisations like the United Nations to
improve
the situation in Zimbabwe, residents are once again looking to
their
neighbours for just moral support.
Zimbabwe Mirror
Pamire in massive fraud case
Police fail to
confirm state of investigations
Innocent Chofamba Sithole
PROMINENT
businessman and former Zifa interim chairman, Vincent Pamire
stands accused
of defrauding local steel utility, ZISCO Steel of over US$300
000 through a
Ugandan-registered company, of which he was a director, the
Sunday Mirror can
reveal.
Police investigations, with the assistance of Interpol, last year
extended
to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, in a bid to unearth the facts
surrounding
the fraud case, leading to the subsequent arrest of Pamire.
Documentary
evidence in the possession of the Sunday Mirror, which the
Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP)’s investigations in Kampala also secured,
establishes a
palpable basis for the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators
of the fraud,
but so far the case has remained far from the
courtrooms.
The fraud case revolves around a company known as Victoria
Steel, which was
incorporated in Kampala on 30 November 1999 and whose
directors are Sam
Kutesa, a minister in President Yoweri Museveni’s
government, Francis
Mwebesa, and managing director Enos Tumusiime, who is
also alleged to be a
brother-in-law to Museveni. According to acting
registrar-general of
companies in Uganda, Bisereko Kyumuhendo, Pamire “ceased
to be director by a
resolution of 4th June, 2003.” In October 2000, Pamire
and Tumusiime
approached Zisco with the intention of buying 1143.707 metric
tonnes of
100-mm steel billets, which was in stock at the port of Maputo,
Mozambique.
They allegedly used a forged letter of credit (L/C) number
512/1828
equivalent to US$174 987.17, being the total cost and value of the
billets
at the price of US$153 per metric tonne. The billets were shipped on
21
October 2000 aboard a vessel called Global Africa and destined for the
port
of Mombasa in Kenya. A second consignment followed
later.
Earlier, Pamire and Tumusiime, representing Victoria Steel, had
visited
Eldoret Steel Mills Ltd in Kenya and offered a deal to supply them
with stee
l billets from Zisco. Victoria Steel then delivered two
consignments of
steel billets, which were paid for in full.
“Mr.
Vincent Pamire visited Eldoret Steel Mills Ltd after Eldoret had
received the
first consignment of steel billets, and Pamire requested
Eldoret to pay him
cash in United States dollars. Eldoret complied and paid
him, on four
occasions, cash amounting to US$30 200,” Eldoret director, N.S
Lochab said in
a signed statement. Eldoret also paid US$115 010.50 into
Victoria Steel’s
bank account, and US$25 000 in cash to Pamire for the
second consignment of
steel billets.
Pamire then allegedly tried to pay Zisco for the steel
purchase through the
fake L/C, which was faxed to the Jewel Bank in Harare on
17 October, 2000,
from fax number 00-256-41-230310 in Kampala. The forged L/C
was discovered
to have been sourced from Standard Chartered Bank, Speke Road
branch in the
same city. The bank was at the time managed by a Zimbabwean,
who has since
returned and is alleged to have assisted in destroying the fake
L/C. Pamire
is also alleged to have tried to pay Zisco in local currency, but
the
parastatal refused to accept his cheque and reported the matter to
the
police.
Following this development, Zisco then hired an
international tracking
company to trace the whereabouts of Tumusiime in a bid
to establish the
facts surrounding the financial transactions concerning the
steel deal.
“Zisco hired a tracing agent, Africa Links when it failed to
get any
response from Victoria Steel,” the steel company’s spokesman,
Augustine
Timbe told the Sunday Mirror on Friday.
“The findings were
that Mr. Tumusiime had paid Mr. Vincent Pamire funds
destined for Zisco,”
Timbe said, adding that the Letter of Credit purported
to have been opened
for payment of materials for Standard Bank, Uganda had
been
forged.
According to information available to the Sunday Mirror, the
tracking
company managed to track down Tumusiime, who said he had paid all
the money
to Pamire through his bank.
In July 2003, two senior police
officers from the ZRP serious fraud squad,
Superintendant Lawrence Chatikobo
and Detective Assistant Inspector Vincent
Kambanga, travelled with Zisco
marketing director, R. Makuni, to Kampala to
investigate the fraud
case.
On July 3, 2003, the officers, with the help of Ugandan police,
secured a
court order from the Buganda Road magistrate court ordering
Standard
Chartered Bank to avail relevant documents pertaining to the
alleged
fraudulent transactions.
The bank’s head of security and
investigations, F. Chombe, in a signed
statement, said he gave the ZRP
officers information on the transfers of
money from Victoria Steel’s account
to Pamire’s Standard Chartered Bank
Zimbabwe account. Bank documents in the
possession of the Sunday Mirror show
that Victoria Steel made applications to
Standard Chartered Bank in Kampala
to telegraphically transfer money to
Pamire’s Zimbabwe Standard Chartered
Bank account number 080037612J32. On
July 7, 2001, the company made an
application to transfer US$70 000 into
Pamire’s account, followed by another
application on August 3, seeking to
transfer US$23 000 into the same
account. Chombe’s signed statement also
captures two earlier money transfers
into Pamire’s account. On 30 April,
US$60 000 was transferred, followed by
US$70 000 on 24 May 2001.
The
money, totalling US$301 987.17, was established to have reflected in
Pamire’s
account between 2001 and 2002.
Contacted for comment on Friday, police
spokesman assistant commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena said he would check the
facts of the case with the
investigating officers. However, Bvudzijena
yesterday said he had failed to
get the relevant information. Police arrested
Pamire last year, but the case
was not brought before the courts. Timbe said
police last communicated with
Zisco on the case in December 2003. He also
said the CD1 forms in respect of
the Victoria Steel consignment have not yet
been acquitted to the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Pamire could not
be reached for comment as his mobile phone was continually
out of reach. The
businessman, who has had his fair share of controversy, is
understood to be
politically well-connected and is said to enjoy the
protection of three
cabinet ministers on this case (names supplied). His
business partner,
Tumusiime, is said to have been a frequent visitor to
Harare between
2000-2001 where he, with Pamire, held several business
meetings with some
government officials. In a written statement on July 4,
2003, Tumusiime
alleges that on his last visit to Zimbabwe he was abducted
by “state agents
of Zimbabwe” who illegally detained him at the Harare
International Airport
and threatened to take his life.
“I stopped going to Zimbabwe and dealing
with Zisco Steel,” he said, adding
that he had paid the company for all the
transactions through monies
deposited into Pamire’s account.
“Other
than the shipments handled under the Letter of Credit, the payment
transfers
were to Mr. Vincent Pamire’s account, Standard Chartered Bank,
Harare on
various other dates viz 30/4/2001, 24/5/2001, 16/7/2001, and
3/8/2001 among
others. I am informed that there is confusion as to the
purpose of these
payments. Mr. Pamire asked us to transfer this money into
his account and
should therefore explain how it was utilised,” Tumusiime
said in his
statement.
Mail and Guardian
Mbeki's statement on Zim talks
'unacceptable'
Moffet Mofokeng | Johannesburg, South
Africa
10 February 2004 15:54
A Zimbabwean MP dismissed
on Tuesday assertions that talks between the
ruling Zanu-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were
taking
place.
"There is absolutely nothing taking place. I can give you that at
first
hand," said Roy Bennett, a farmer and senior MDC official.
"What
is seriously needed for the issue of Zimbabwe to move forward is
a
facilitator," he said, adding that he would know if talks occurred as he
is
one of the advisers of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Bennett said
such a facilitator could be a respectable person like former
Zambian
president Kenneth Kaunda or anybody of that ilk.
"There is such polarity
between the ruling party and the MDC that unless
there is a facilitator you
are never going to get the two together."
He said it was totally
unacceptable for South African President Thabo Mbeki
to state that talks
between the two political parties in Zimbabwe were
taking place when in fact
they were not.
"We need our neighbouring states to be in solidarity with
the people of
Zimbabwe.
"South Africa must take a leading role for the
SADC [Southern African
Development Community] region to condemn what is
happening in Zimbabwe.
"It is amazing that African states remain silent
and watch the destruction
in Zimbabwe. They know what is happening," he
said.
South Africa and Mozambique are among the SADC countries that
benefit from
the ruin in Zimbabwe, Bennett told reporters in
Johannesburg.
"Whatever President Thabo Mbeki's agenda is in Zimbabwe, I
hope to dear God
it is in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe," he
said.
Bennett owns a farm in the Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe, on
which 350
families live.
He bought the farm in 1993, but has since
been told he risks his life unless
he gives up his political
career.
Mbeki repeatedly said plans to get the two Zimbabwean parties to
start
formal talks were completed and what was left now was for them to
meet.
Mbeki visited Zimbabwe in December last year and held meetings
with
Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe.
He said shortly after the
meeting that the two political parties had agreed
to start formal
negotiations aimed ending almost two years of mayhem in
that
country.
Bennett said Mbeki's quiet engagement with Mugabe has
not borne results.
"The quiet diplomacy of President Thabo Mbeki is
nothing but shameful," he
said. -- Sapa
Zimbabwe Mirror
Chimbetu farm wrangle spills to the
courts
Zvamaida Murwira
A farm ownership wrangle between Sungura
musician, Simon Chimbetu and two
war veterans in Chegutu district has now
spilled to the High Court as the
former liberation fighters are seeking an
interdiction against Chimbetu from
interfering with farming
operations.
The war veterans, Joseph Chiurugwi and Peter Jambwa have
accused Chimbetu of
illegally occupying the farm called Doddington in
Chegutu.
Chimbetu has occupied the farm despite owning another farm,
Dendera in
Chegutu among other farms he owns, they have
alleged.
Chiurugwi and Jambwa have offer letters from the ministry of
lands,
agriculture and rural resettlement, while Chimbetu has a caretaker
letter he
obtained from the provincial administrator.
Chimbetu has
allegedly told the war veterans to go and occupy his Dendera
farm, if they so
wish.
Doddington Farm is attractive for its fertile soil and good tobacco
barns.
Chiurugwi said he has 200 cattle, while Jambwa has 36, at the farm
and the
two have since hired a herdboy to herd the beasts awaiting the
finalisation
of the case.
No farming activities have so far taken
place at the farm since the
squabbles began mid-last year.
Chiurugwi
has complained that he has lost at least 17 goats out of the 19 he
had at the
farm and has accused Chimbetu of being behind the slaughter of
his goats.
“Chimbetu has caused a lot of confusion at the farm because we
have not yet
started farming since he is insisting that the farm belongs to
him, but we
will not budge,” said Chiurugwi who accused Chimbetu of being a
fake war
veteran. “I am wondering why Chimbetu has decided to be so cruel as
to
deprive us of this land when he already has farms here in Chegutu, Norton
and
Shamva.” Jambwa said several bags of his maize, sorghum and fertiliser
have
been trapped at the farm as he is still waiting for the case to
be
finalised.
Jambwa has further accused Chimbetu of moving properties
at the disputed
farm out of the property.
“He is looting property such
as bricks and other valuables and he is
assisted by some fake war veterans
called Chando, Chimbambaira, and his
brothers,” Chiurugwi said. “We have now
instructed our lawyers to take the
issue up with the High Court so that he
can be evicted.” Chiurugwi’s lawyer,
Charles Chinyama confirmed that he was
handling a case between his client
and Chimbetu over the farm but declined to
give more details, saying he had
no instructions from his client to talk to
the press.
“Until I receive instructions from my client, Chiurugwi, to
divulge to you
the details, I cannot tell you much because that would be
against our ethics
as lawyers,” said Chinyama.
Chimbetu could not be
reached for comment on Friday but in earlier
communication with this
reporter, Chimbetu admitted that he had no offer
letter but a caretaker
letter.
He said he was justified in staying put at the farm because he
was the first
to invade it.
“I think Jambwa and Chiurugwi should be
mature enough because we should talk
over this issue as fellow war veterans
and not to make noise as what they
are doing,” said Chimbetu. “The point that
I have no offer letter is neither
here nor there as many black farmers are
farming without that document. What
is so special with that document? I am
the one who first invaded the farm
and chased the white commercial farmer who
was there called Botha who was a
son-in-law of the original owner, called
Doddington.” A war veteran in the
company of Chimbetu who identified himself
as Cde Chando also concurred with
Chimbetu and castigated Chiurugwi for not
coming to together and discuss the
issue as fellow war veterans.
Of
late there has been a spate of black-on-black disagreements and fights
over
farm ownership. In some cases, feuding parties have both or all claimed
that
they were given offer letters to the same farm, while in other cases
certain
individuals were accused of conniving with political heavy weights
to try and
drive out legitimate claimants.
From ZWNEWS, 10 February
Worker killed at Charleswood
Shemi Chimbarara, a farm worker at Charleswood Estate,
the farm owned by
opposition MP Roy Bennet, was murdered on Sunday by
soldiers, the MDC said
in a statement released yesterday. The opposition
party said that at 7:00 pm
on Sunday evening a group of 20 Zanu PF supporters
arrived at the home of
Amos Makaza, a security guard at the farm. Led by
Chamunorwa Muusha, Charles
Chigamba and an ex-police officer notorious in the
area known as Nasho, the
group began stoning Makaza's house, breaking the
window panes. Other workers
on Charleswood came to Makaza's aid and the Zanu
PF supporters left, only to
return later accompanied by soldiers who fired
shots. Makaza's house and car
were then set on fire. The Zanu PF supporters
and soldiers then went to the
workers' houses where Chimbarara was shot and
killed. Another worker, John
Kaitano, was shot in the leg and is recovering
in hospital in Mutare. There
has been escalating violence at Charleswood in
recent weeks, in what is seen
as yet another determined effort by the
provincial authorities to remove
Bennet from his farm and from
Manicaland.
Last Friday, one teenage girl was raped, and two others
were sexually The anti-corruption ministry will be headed by Didymus Mutasa, a close ally
from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
President Mugabe has vowed to act against rising corruption at a time of
economic crisis in the country.
Political analysts say the move may be an attempt to boost the popularity of
his ruling Zanu-PF party, ahead of parliamentary elections next year.
Two senior Zanu-PF officials have recently been arrested on corruption
charges.
The ministry will also be in charge of an anti-monopoly programme.
Governors
Mr Mugabe also appointed Zanu-PF governors to the provinces of Harare and
Bulawayo, both opposition strongholds.
When this was announced last year, the opposition MDC said it was an attempt
to take power away from its local councillors and MPs.
In other changes:
Daily News
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's media commission says it will not allow journalists
employed by the only privately-owned daily newspaper, the Daily News, to work
until their paper has been registered.
Journalists working for the paper had applied for accreditation, but the
media commission has ruled that their paper must be registered before their
applications can be credited.
The closure of the Daily News was criticised by Southern African and
international human rights groups.
molested. The three - Viola Ngwenya (18), Spiwe Chivhuro (15)
and Melody
(22) - were abducted by a group led by Muusha. They were taken to
a war
veteran's house where they were detained for the night. The girls say
that
Viola was raped twice by Muusha, watched by others in his group. The
other
two girls say they were abused by Nasho, and two other men, Kareyi
and
Mabumba. Another MDC MP from the area, Mathias Mlambo of Chipinge North,
was
forced to flee into the hills on Sunday night after being attacked by
youth
militia. Mlambo had been addressing a rally at Bingwa business centre
in his
constituency when a group of militia arrived in trucks belonging to
ARDA,
the DDF and Zesa, and began attacking the crowd.. Mlambo's vehicle was
saved
by his driver, who fled under a hail of stones thrown by the militia in
the
presence of police officers. The police had earlier tried to stop the
rally,
saying it had not been approved, even though permission to hold the
meeting
had been granted in writing. Mlambo returned from his overnight stay
in the
hills the next morning suffering from hyporthermia.
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe has announced he has created a new ministry to deal with corruption.
This is
the first reshuffle since August 2002, following President Mugabe's re-election
in disputed polls.
A Great Deal of Nonsense
ZWNEWS
published:Tue
10-Feb-2004
Read it or book your ticket
By
Michael Hartnack
Book Review
A Great Deal of Nonsense
by John Hollaway
The "great deal of nonsense" in the title is a
quotation from Dr.
Samuel Johnson who, more than 200 years ago, mocked a
romantic vision of
life among African tribes in the wilderness. This Western
romanticism helped
enable a previous generation of African regimes to claim
they were merely
reverting to a pre-colonial idyll – in which more than one
party was
unnecessary – when they imposed corrupt tyrannies.
Robert Mugabe's regime cannot hide behind such inanities as it
vandalises the
Zimbabwean economy and grossly abuses human rights. A strong
civil society
and a comparatively well-educated population saw from the
start the
unvarnished truth and were not afraid to say so. Zimbabwe has,
moreover,
scholars of the calibre of Dr. John Makumbe who discerned the
system of
fiefdoms by which Mugabe's lieutenants maintain his grip on the
country.
Another University of Zimbabwe academic, Professor Brian
Raftopoulos, showed
how unions need not be a mere channel through which a
ruling party, posing as
Marxist, told workers what to think.
In this book, mining
consultant John Hollaway, who has worked in 23
sub-Saharan countries during a
43-year career, strives to pull together a
myriad of strands that account for
Zimbabwe’s calamity. Hollaway, 64, who
has worked with both the transnational
corporations and small-scale African
mining operators, came to Zimbabwe aged
nine. He knows Africa not from the
grassroots but from the tectonic plates up
when he pinpoints causes of
poverty and misgovernance. Why, for example, does
the incidence of HIV
increase, not decrease, with the level of education in a
community? Why is
malaria coming back so strongly? Why are foreign-funded
non-governmental
organisations no substitute for local civil society
institutions? Why are
our institutions failing?
Hollaway argues
that the root problem of Zimbabwe, and indeed of all
sub-Saharan Africa, is
the traditional belief that personal security stemmed
from belonging to an
aggressively expanding extended family. The social
climate was implacably
opposed to the autonomous individual, having
individual rights to freehold
property. Control of property rotated among
the politically powerful, not the
productively innovative and competent.
Anthropologists have even found merit
in this - it ensured that cattle, for
example, were shifted from the
impoverished grazing of weakened social
groups to the superior pastures of
the dominant: so, disregarding human
suffering, the bovine gene pool was
conserved. But you cannot run even the
most rudimentary modern economy that
way.
"Plundering is inevitable until the society in which it
operates
changes. It requires the replacement of illiterate poverty with
educated
prosperity, and the money for this revolution will come from . . the
slow,
old method of creating wealth, whereby land is given a value so that
a
market place in it can spring up," Hollaway writes. "By the end of the
20th
century the population of Zimbabwe was over 13 million and only 71
000
families had been resettled on 3.5 million hectares, most of which was
now
lying fallow. With every day that passed, the politicians' dreams (by
now
perhaps only Robert Mugabe's dream) of solving the land problem by
making
Zimbabwe revert to a nation of communal farmers slipped further into
fantasy
. . Black Zimbabweans in the communal areas were caught in an
agricultural
trap: they were on soils that required fertilisers and
irrigation for
successful farming, but without legal ownership they could not
afford to buy
them." As the country slid deeper into poverty, came Mugabe's
"desperate"
and "insane" attempt to buy political popularity by seizing white
farms,
Holloway adds.
Hollaway’s book demonstrates, among other
things, that Mugabe’s foe is
not whites, though he tries hard to convince
black opinion-makers around the
world that it is. It is civil society. It is
the autonomous individual.
Notably, Mugabe's blandishments are most
rapturously received not by the
poor who want to escape poverty and serfdom,
but by the elite, the
"haut-bourgeoisie" -- the aspiring heads of new or
established extended
families. For those not in that elite, there is a stark
choice: fight or
flight. Stay and fight for civil society, for the emergence
of the
autonomous individual and freehold rights to secure, productive
property. Or
quit Africa for societies where these concepts reign. Hollaway
has written
the fighters a classic. Read it or book your ticket.
A Great Deal of Nonsense is published by Capricorn Books,
Johannesburg,
distributed by Exclusive Books SA price R115. Available
through: capricorn@jeacdev.co.za