VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri and Carole Gombakomba
Washington
09 February 2007
The Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe said Friday that a family of six now needs
some Z$460,000 a month
to buy food and other basic commodities - an 87% rise
over the December
level of Z$246,000 and several times the average salary.
The Consumer
Council said education costs posted the biggest jump at 262%.
Sugar, bread,
roller meal, clothing and transport also posted large gains.
Producers are
still asking the government to let them raise prices on almost
everything,
reflecting the entrenched hyperinflation which was last measured
at an
annual 1,205%.
The council's manager for Matabeleland, Comfort Muchekeza,
told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the surge
in January
was mainly driven by speculation that the central bank would
devalue the
currency.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono surprised
speculators and economists alike
on January 31 when he said he would not
ratify black market prices by
devaluing further. However, leaving the
official rate at Z$250 to the U.S.
dollar has not stopped the parallel
market from depreciating the currency
further to rates over
Z$5,000.
Elsewhere, commuter omnibus operators continued to raise fares
despite
arrests and insistent government warnings that such rate increases
are
illegal. Commuters say they are facing significant weekly or even daily
fare
increases.
Mutare residents said a one-way trip from the city to
Sakubva, Hillside or
Marymount which used to cost Z$1,000 (US$4 at the
official rate, 20 U.S.
cents at the parallel market rate) now costs
Z$1,500. A trip from the
suburbs of Chinhoyi into town has doubled in
recent days to Z$1,000, leading
man residents to walk to work.
In
Harare, bus fares change daily, but a typical one-way trip cost between
Z$1,000 and Z$2,500 depending on the distance and the operator, among other
factors.
Chief Economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and Economic
Development
Research Institute in Harare told reporter Carole Gombakomba of
VOA's Studio
7 for Zimbabwe that further fare increases are probably in
store as
transport operators themselves face rising costs which they must
pass on to
consumers.
Vanguard, Nigeria
Posted to the Web: Saturday, February 10,
2007
HARARE - Zimbabwe is using Western sanctions
imposed on President
Robert Mugabe and his coterie as a convenient excuse to
explain its economic
meltdown, the US ambassador to Harare has
said.
"Neither the US nor any other country has imposed general
sanctions on
the southern African nation," Christopher Dell wrote in the
independent
Financial Gazette on Thursday.
"Instead, what the US
and others did was to target financial and
travel sanctions at the roughly
100 individuals most responsible for
undermining Zimbabwe's prosperity and
democracy."
Mugabe and his ministers routinely blame an economic
meltdown on
targeted sanctions imposed on them by Washington and the
European Union
following the 2002 presidential polls which the opposition
says were rigged.
Zimbabwe's once-model economy is in tatters with
four-digit inflation,
spiralling unemployment and an acute shortage of food
and essential goods.
Analysts say the slide was accelerated by
controversial land reforms
which saw the state seizing land from white
farmers and doling them out to
landless blacks often without skills, causing
output to plummet and creating
food scarcity.
Dell said,
contrary to Zimbabwean media reports, US firms "continue to
do business in
Zimbabwe," adding that "Zimbabwe enjoys a trade surplus with
the
US."
He wrote that the "key" to turning around the economy "is the
political will needed to implement market reforms with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and others, including the US, which they have been
recommending the past few years.
"If the Zimbabwean government is
sincere in its desire to improve
governance by embracing economic and
political reforms, the US as well as
other donors, will be supportive," Dell
said.
"The future of your country is in your hands," he
added.
http://africantears.netfirms.com/thisweek.shtml
Saturday 10th February 2007
Dear Family and
Friends,
Zimbabweans have lost count of how many times we have been told that
the
country's land reform programme is over. At least twice a year for the
past
three years the statement has been regurgitated that it's over, it's
done
and the land is now re-distributed. At every ruling party event for the
last
two years, from birthday party's to annual conferences and from state
funerals to political rallies, the posters have been there for all to see.
Posters that say: "Now the land is ours!" or "The land is in our
hands!"
It is, therefore, cause for enormous confusion to keep hearing
that more
farms are to be seized, more farmers and their employees are to be
evicted
and more food production is to be stopped. Mixed messages and
confusion are
the only constant aspects of Zimbabwe's agriculture seven
years into the
21st century.
A week ago Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa
said that farmers with the latest
batch of 45 day eviction notices had to be
off their properties by the 3rd
of February. The Minister warned that:
"those who resist leaving the farms
will be arrested and face the full wrath
of the law." The deadline came and
went and then the Minister said : "We
have, as a government, agreed to let
them stay put and wind up their
businesses, at least until harvest time."
Do you have to be a farmer to
know that it just doesn't work like this?
Farming isn't a 45 day business or
a 90 day business. It's an ongoing
process where plans are made at least a
year in advance when it comes to row
crops, two years in advance when it
comes to livestock and five or more
years in advance when it comes to
specialist crops like fruit and nut trees.
It seems that these basic
agricultural facts, seven years down the line,
continue to elude the men in
the ministry.
This week we heard that Agriculture Minister Dr Made who
has been at the
forefront of the farm seizures has been shuffled out of his
post and into
something called the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering and
Mechanisation.
Since Dr Made blamed the shortage of fertilizer last winter
on a monkey that
broke an electricity transformer, perhaps now he will be in
a more
appropriate Ministry to prevent a recurrence.
By all accounts
this summer cropping season has been a nightmare for
farmers. With patchy
rains, shortage of fertilizer, the wrong fertilizer,
insufficient fuel for
ploughing and hyper inflation it is nothing short of a
miracle that our
farmers have been able to grow any food this summer. In
just three months
time winter crops should be going in the ground but who in
their right mind
will plant wheat this May. A 45 day eviction notice may be
served at any
time; an arbitrary bloke off the road may arrive and say he
has an "offer
letter" from the government which gives him this farm or a mob
may arrive
and simply chase the farmer off.
In February 2000, when this all began a
loaf of bread was just 20 dollars.
Now that same loaf costs 840 dollars - or
in reality it is actually 840
thousand dollars - before three zeroes were
slashed from the currency.
Tragically there is no mixed message in the price
of a loaf of bread or the
millions who can no longer afford it.
Until
next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Editorial
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Life expectancy in the
African country of Zimbabwe is 39.3 years. Life is
likely to become
shorter.
The reason is the government of Robert G. Mugabe.
In a
frontal assault on property rights and to cleanse the nation of
"colonialism," he decided to throw out white farmers and replace them with
all people (among them political friends) who did not know how to, or care
to, farm.
Last year, Mr. Mugabe also displaced 700,000 people from
their homes and
livelihoods in a crackdown on street vendors, market stall
holders and
allegedly illegal housing, according to the U.N. Office for the
Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs.
The result has been
disastrous: hyperinflation of 1,281 percent (the highest
in the world), a
breakdown of the infrastructure, food shortages and disease
outbreaks. The
"official economy" has contracted 65 percent in recent years.
It's a
stomach-churning portrait of what happens to a people when a tyrant
wantonly
eschews the laws of economics and the principles of human rights,
chief
among them property rights.
With sage insight, a political analyst in the
capital quoted by The New York
Times says that "the big problem about
Zimbabwe is that the one thing you
can't rig is the economy."
One can
only gaze aghast at the world of 2007, where the keys to economic
success
have been known for hundreds of years, but where a savage like Mr.
Mugabe
even exists.
The Herald
(Harare)
February 10, 2007
Posted to the web February 10,
2007
Walter Nyamukondiwa
Harare
CHINHOYI Municipality has
suspended a senior council official to pave way
for investigations into
allegations of abusing an ambulance to run personal
errands at his farm in
Karoi.
Acting director of health Mr William Mayawo is facing allegations
of
diverting an ambulance meant to carry patients in and around Chinhoyi to
hospital on numerous occasions to his farm in Karoi.
He will soon
appear before a disciplinary committee comprising councilors
and top
management to answer to the charges.
Town clerk Mr Obert Muzawazi
confirmed the suspension and said
investigations were still in
progress.
"All I can say at the moment is that we have suspended him (Mr
Mayawo) to
facilitate investigations into allegations of abuse of council
property and
misconduct.
"There is nothing more that I can say
because we don't want to prejudice
investigations," he said.
It is
alleged that Mr Mayawo would allegedly assign an ambulance driver on
duty to
take him to his farm in Karoi about 80km from Chinhoyi.
This is suspected
to have been going on since last year until last week when
he was
caught.
Sources in council alleged that he would use the ambulance to
carry inputs
and other things to his farm.
The matter came to light
when council failed to transfer a patient to Harare
because the ambulance
was not available.
However, there was one ambulance that was parked at
the council depot but
subordinates had been under strict instructions not to
release it.
Upon further investigations and interrogation of workers it
was established
that the ambulance had been filled with fuel and was ready
to go to Karoi.
This led to the unearthing of the alleged abuse of the
council vehicle and
subsequent suspension.
Mr Muzawazi said council
is still assessing the extent of the prejudice it
may have suffered owing to
the alleged abuse of the ambulance.
Council has been operating without a
substantive director of health owing to
a dearth in qualified medical
personnel who are leaving the country in
search of better working conditions
and remuneration.
However, it has managed to fill all other key posts
with substantive
directors in line with its turnaround programme and bid to
attain city
status.
The Herald
(Harare)
February 10, 2007
Posted to the web February 10,
2007
Fidelis Munyoro
Harare
IN a landmark ruling, the High
Court yesterday ordered Harare City Council
to pay $1,6 million in damages
to a top banker after her top-of-the-range
Mercedes Benz was damaged by a
pothole along Enterprise Road last month.
Stanbic Bank managing director
Ms Pindie Nyandoro was driving along
Enterprise Road towards the city centre
when her Benz hit a pothole,
damaging the steering rack and a tie-rod
end.
She sued Harare City Council for negligence that resulted in the
damage to
her E Class Mercedes Benz.
Ms Nyandoro was cited as the
plaintiff in the case while Harare City Council
was the
defendant.
Justice Charles Hungwe, who presided over the case, awarded Ms
Nyandoro the
damages she had sought after council failed to challenge her
suit.
"In the result, there will be judgment for plaintiff against the
defendant
in the sum of $1 566 359,00 together with interest at the
prescribed rate
reckoned from February 15 to the date of payment," ruled the
judge.
In her claim, Ms Nyandoro blamed the council for failing to
discharge its
obligations of maintaining the road in a proper state of "fair
wear and tear
accepted".
Council, she claimed, allowed a big and
dangerous pothole to develop and
failed to take reasonable steps to effect
repair.
She also accused council of failing to warn motorists of the
existence of
the pothole along the road.
On the day the incident
happened, Ms Nyandoro wrote to the town clerk
advising council of the damage
to her car and the nature of her claim.
In response, council indicated
that it was prepared to settle the claim but
needed certain details about
the accident, resulting in the case spilling
into the High Court.
In
court, it was agreed that the issues to be determined were whether Ms
Nyandoro's vehicle sustained any damages as a result of hitting the pothole;
if it did, the nature and extent, and reasonable repair of such damages,
which settled the question of liability.
However, the only issue that
remained for the court to resolve was the
quantum that was decided after a
contested trial on Tuesday.
At the hearing, two expert witnesses from
Zimoco, the local dealership for
Mercedes-Benz, testified.
Zimoco
workshop manager Mr Calstain Sibanda said when the car was brought to
their
workshop, an estimate was prepared on the damage.
He checked the parts
replaced in the process of repairing it. He found that
the damage on them
was consistent with impact on the right front wheel.
"The steering rack
showed signs of compression, as did the right side
tie-rod," he said,
adding: "It is standard practice to replace these rather
than repair as they
are security components on the vehicle."
The court also heard evidence
from Mr Karl Lehnardt, the resident engineer
at Zimoco, who examined the
damaged parts of the vehicle, before putting
them under mechanical
test.
He said when he physically checked the damaged parts, he noted that
the
right side tie-rod was deformed.
Mr Lehnardt also said on the
wheel alignment equipment, he noted that the
left side wheel could not lie
within correctable angle ranges.
"It showed that the steering rack
suffered damage. It is (Benz maker)
Daimler Chrysler regulation that safety
related components once damaged are
to be replaced and not repaired," he
said.
Mr Fortune Madondo from council strongly contested the claim by Ms
Nyandoro
that the impact she had when hitting the pothole damaged her
car.
He argued that if the vehicle was damaged to the extent that these
parts had
to be replaced, then the accident occurred somewhere else and not
along
Enterprise Road.
However, in his ruling, Justice Hungwe said he
could not accept Mr Madondo's
expert evidence as he formulated his own
opinion without the benefit of
physical examination of the spares replaced
during repairs.
"He has had no benefit of ascertaining the visually
cognisable damage to the
vehicle and that which only electronic devices can
pick as in this case of
the steering rack," said the judge.
"In the
event, his evidence becomes sheer postulation premised on the
receipts,
invoices and photographic depiction of what the situation was at
the
time."
He rejected council's arguments, saying it did nothing to rebut Ms
Nyandoro's evidence on the causal link between the impact in the pothole and
the damage to the vehicle.
"It is, therefore, this court's finding
that the plaintiff's vehicle
sustained damage to those parts which were
replaced by Zimoco after the
accident.
"As respondent admittedly
failed in its duty to maintain the road in
question in a proper state of
repair, it cannot escape liability," said
Justice Hungwe.
Mr Innocent
Chagonda of Atherstone and Cook appeared for Ms Nyandoro while
Advocate
Obert Takaendesa acted for council.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
MOUNTING poverty has awakened an estimated 180 000
civil servants from
their slumber, to start bracing for a bruising strike if
the government
fails to award the least paid worker a salary above the
poverty datum line
(PDL).
Today, the PDL stands at $458 000,
according to the Consumer Council
of Zimbabwe (CCZ) but the least paid civil
servant gets about $30 000 a
month, barely enough to buy 30
loaves.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the chairperson of
the Civil
Service Staff Association Apex Council, Tendai Chikowore, said the
civil
servants were very "agitated" by their paltry salaries.
She said the Apex Council, which includes the Zimbabwe Teachers'
Association
(Zimta) and the Public Services Association (PSA), met
government
representatives on Friday and tabled their demands.
The council
wants the least paid civil servant to earn $450 000 a
month, backdated to
last month.
"We agreed to conclude these urgent talks by Friday16
February 2007.
The Apex Council demands that our members earn enhanced
salaries within this
month, backed to January 2007," said Chikowore, the
Zimta national
president.
When asked what civil servants would
do if government failed to meet
their demands, Chikowore said: "It would be
very unfortunate."
Zimta chief executive officer Peter Mabande
chipped in with: "The next
course of action will be determined by our
members but they (the government)
should know workers are agitated. There is
discontent countrywide."
But other Apex Council members at the
press conference confided to The
Standard they had resolved to stage a
crippling industrial action if the
government fails to award them
sustainable salaries.
"We have already agreed to go on strike on
Monday after the 16th,"
said the member.
The Apex Council said
rampant inflation, now topping 1 200% and
escalating cost of services had
turned most civil servants, numbering about
180 000 countrywide, into
paupers.
Two weeks ago, Zimta issued a statement saying the
teachers' poor pay
had resulted in a serious brain drain as they seek
greener pastures abroad.
This, it said, had greatly compromised the quality
of education in the
country.
"Pupils are now bearing the brunt
as they are continually subjected to
new teachers who, in most cases, are
unqualified or under-qualified," said
Zimta.
If the strike by
civil servants materialises, they will join doctors,
nurses and some
teachers who have already downed tools in protests at their
poor salaries
and allowances.
Analysts say the mounting discontent among workers
poses a serious
threat to the government. There have been reports of mass
desertions and
resignations from the army and police over poor pay and
working conditions.
Mabande said the on-going strike by some
teachers, doctors and nurses
would not affect their negotiations with the
government. "We have heard
there are some teachers on a go-slow or strike
but that would not have an
effect on our negotiations," said Mabande, whose
association is said to be
linked to Zanu PF.
Meanwhile,
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
secretary-general Raymond
Majongwe, yesterday claimed the on-going strike by
some teachers had forced
the government to the negotiating table.
"It's because of the
pressure we have exerted on them. They are now
willing to talk, not with us,
but to Zimta because they are one and the
same. Our strike will continue,"
said Majongwe, who was ejected from a
meeting of the National Joint
Negotiating Council (NJNC) on Friday.
The meeting had
representatives from Zimta, PSA and the government.
The radical
PTUZ is demanding a monthly salary of $540 000, transport
and housing
allowances of $100 000 and $150 000 respectively for the least
paid
teacher.
Zim Standard
BY FOSTER
DONGOZI
PRO-SENATE Movement for Democratic Change faction
president, Professor
Arthur Mutambara was yesterday rushed to Chikombedzi
Hospital in Chiredzi
after a road accident.
Mutambara's
condition could not be ascertained as the accident
happened in one of the
country's least-developed areas.
Also involved in the accident were
the opposition party's deputy
secretary-general, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, and national chairperson
for the women's assembly,
Hilda Sibanda.
Gabriel Chaibva, the party's secretary for
information, said it was
too early to speculate on whether there was any
foul play.
Chaibva said: "The accident happened near Chikombedzi
business
centre."
Mutambara and his delegation and two other
unidentified party
officials were on their way to Malipati where they were
scheduled to address
a rally in support of Nehemiah Samuel Zanamwe, their
candidate in the
Chiredzi South by-election next weekend.
Chaibva said: "Information at hand so far indicates the vehicle they
were
travelling in overturned and was extensively damaged, resulting in the
occupants receiving injuries."
Temperatures have soared in
Chiredzi South because the Zanu PF
candidate, Lieutenant Colonel Kallisto
Gwanetsa, is Karanga in a
constituency dominated by the
Shangani.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Zanu PF's Aaron
Baloyi, a
Shangani.
The two MDC factions' candidates are both
Shangani.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
AN investigating officer arrived at The Standard offices
on Thursday,
over a week after Bill Saidi, the Deputy Editor of The Standard
made a
police report about an envelope he received containing a
bullet.
The officer who identified himself as Senior Detective
Renco of CID
Law and Order questioned personnel at The Standard's front
office where the
bullet was delivered. He then recorded a statement from
Saidi and wanted to
talk to News Editor Walter Marwizi, who was out of the
office at the time.
At the time of going to the press yesterday, it
remained unclear what
progress had been made in the case.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Information and Publicity, George Charamba
has
embarked on a campaign to deny the incident took place before the police
have concluded investigations.
Nathaniel Manheru, a columnist
in The Herald has joined the campaign.
Yesterday he wrote
chillingly: "Saidi still has the pleasure of
holding the bullet between his
two fingers and not between his ears, as they
do it in Turkey and some other
countries."
Saidi, who received an envelope containing a bullet and
a handwritten
threatening letter, has said he would not be deterred from
doing his job.
The envelope also contained a note: "What's this?
Watch your step."
A cartoon carried by The Standard, depicting
baboons laughing at a
soldier's payslip, and an editorial from The Zimbabwe
Independent, a sister
paper to The Standard were also enclosed.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the Media Institute of Southern
Africa
and the Committee to Protect Journalists are among media organisation
that
have condemned the incident.
They noted that similar warnings were
given to the banned Daily News
and The Daily News on Sunday shortly before
its printing press was bombed by
still to be identified assailants.
Zim Standard
BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA
HUMAN Rights lawyers have said the recent ruling
by High Court Judge
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu on the citizenship of publisher
Trevor Ncube
presents an opportunity for thousands of Zimbabweans, who have
been deprived
of their citizenship to challenge the Registrar-General's
office.
The lawyers told The Standard last week that thousands of
Zimbabweans
are struggling to get basic identification documents such as
birth
certificates after the Citizenship Act was amended in
2003.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights acting director, Irene
Petras,said
as an organisation they were handling hundreds of cases where
people were
struggling to get identity documents.
"The RG's
office has been very notorious for refusing to interpret the
law correctly.
Ever since the Citizenship Act was amended in 2003, thousands
of people have
been struggling to get identity cards, with the RG's office
demanding that
they should renounce their access to citizenship of a foreign
nation,"
Petras said.
She said the organisation was compiling a list of all
the people who
are struggling to get their papers processed so that they can
institute a
class action.
"The people who are mostly affected
are mainly former farm workers and
whites who are mainly considered to be
supporters of the opposition MDC,"
Petras said.
The president
of the SADC Lawyers' Association and senior partner at
Scanlen and
Holderness, Sternford Moyo who handled Ncube's case, said issues
to do with
citizenship have to be properly dealt with to avoid the dangers
of rendering
a person Stateless.
"The Constitution actually prohibits the
legislature or the executive
from enacting any laws or taking any measures
which deprive a citizen by
birth of his citizenship. There is only one
exception when that person has
actually acquired foreign citizenship," said
Moyo.
He said a mere entitlement to a foreign citizenship would be
insufficient to strip one of their citizenship.
Moyo said it
was contrary to International Law and good international
practice to render
any person Stateless as it infringed on that person's
right to freedom of
movement.
"A denationalised person is vulnerable to abuse of his
rights. His
rights can be abused with impunity and this issue of citizenship
has only
been used as a tool for political retribution," Moyo said.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
AS hardships
mount, desperate Zimbabweans are going to Botswana
to do menial jobs such as
weeding and washing utensils while others cross
the border to indulge in
commercial sex work.
Investigations by The Standard confirmed
that even teachers and
headmasters with university degrees have trekked to
Botswana in the past few
months to do piece work known in vernacular as
maricho/ukuhlakulela.
These jobs have over the years been
associated with poor people
or those who did not go to school. A few years
ago, Mozambicans, fleeing the
civil war in their country usually took up
such jobs in Zimbabwe.
But as the economic situation worsens,
previously well to do
Zimbabweans both male and female are crossing the
border to do piece jobs.
Those who are fortunate to be still working in a
country with above 80%
unemployment, go on leave or fake illness before
heading for Gaborone.
Dressed shabbily and wearing white
tennis shoes in order to
attract sympathy from the Batswana, Zimbabweans
have become a sorry sight in
the streets of Gaborone and nearby villages
where they move from
house-to-house in search of piece
work.
These include cleaning yards overgrown with grass,
washing
clothes, pots and pans. In the villages, they embark on
back-breaking work -
weeding the fields.
In interviews,
several teachers said they had no option but to
take up such menial jobs as
they could no longer afford to make a living
back home. Besides, they said,
these jobs were readily available and earned
them foreign currency which
would be traded on the black market.
"I am a teacher and I
earn peanuts," said Cecilia Shiri, a
graduate. "I can't survive on my
salary. However, I survived the past year
because I do these
jobs,"
She added: "When I weed in the fields, I don't think
about the
oppressive Botswana sun, I think about the plight of my children
and how the
black market can help us survive these never-ending
hardships."
She said she was not the only one surviving this
way, as many
other teachers, even headmasters were surviving that
way.
Investigations revealed that a number of teachers had
quit their
jobs altogether, to concentrate on piece work.
For one piece job, such as clearing a suburban yard in Gaborone,
one can get
as much as 50 Pula (Z$40 000), a day.
A week of hard work can
earn a Zimbabwean teacher about 250 Pula
which can fetch $200 000 on the
black market. This would be more than a
teacher's monthly salary of around
$140 000.
Those willing to stay longer periods could be
employed as maids
or herd boys, who can earn between 500 to 900 Pula a
month, a small fortune
for many Zimbabwean workers. Hairdressers are also
trekking to Botswana
where they can just sit under a tree and plead with
passing Batswana women
to just let them "attend to their
hair".
Others go door-to-door, offering their services.
Getting as
little as 10 and 20 Pula, at the end of the month, they raise
enough to make
a difference back in Zimbabwe where foreign currency is in
great demand.
But not all Zimbabweans who go to Botswana want
to make an
honest living. There are many others who have given Gaborone West
Shopping
Centre, popularly known as GWest notoriety.
Young and middle-aged Zimbabwean women have been spotted lining
the streets
at the shopping centre, openly soliciting for sex during the
night,
especially during month ends.
Several have been arrested for
loitering for the purposes of
prostitution, and their cases have been
splashed in Botswana newspapers and
on television.
A
Zimbabwean woman who spoke on condition of anonymity said they
were
encouraged by the pay: 130 Pula a night.
In contrast, the
fine is a modest 25 Pula.
"Struggling Zimbabwean men no
longer have money to spare," she
said. "You can spend the whole night
soliciting for clients in Harare and go
back home
empty-handed.
"The Batswana men just love to spend their
money, and they can
be good companions too."
Walter
Wasosa, a Zimbabwean journalist based in Botswana, said
GWest was a popular
place for Zimbabwean ladies, some of whom had garnered
notoriety.
"At Horseshoe bar you tend to think that you
are at Mereki.
There are plenty of Zimbabwean women there who would be
soliciting at the
popular braai spot. I know of many Zimbabwean women who
come here for short
periods and return home with groceries," said
Wasosa.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Matabeleland region has been hit by a
critical shortage of
maize, attributed to a transport crisis at the National
Railways of
Zimbabwe.
The shortage has resulted in the
proliferation of illegal dealers,
especially in Tsholotsho and Binga in
Matabeleland North.
A 10 kg bag of maize-meal there now sells for
between $8 000 and $10
000. The gazetted price for a 10kg bag is $1 800.
There are reports that
maize is being distributed in some areas along
political lines.
Inquiries by The Standard revealed there was no
maize in Binga while
Tsholotsho and Nkayi received limited supplies last
week.
Grain Marketing Board acting chief executive, Samuel Muvuti,
attributed the shortage to transport problems faced by the NRZ.
He said the NRZ was transporting fertilizer and other agriculture
products
imported from China and could not transport the maize to the
southern parts
of the country.
The shortages have prompted some
disturbances.
In Nkayi, there were near-riots on Tuesday when about
300 villagers
laid siege to a maize distribution point at Tohwe Secondary
School.
The villagers suspected Zanu PF officials in the district
wanted to
distribute 160 bags of maize among their supporters.
The Movement for Democratic Change won the majority of the wards in
the
Nkayi rural district council during last October's local government
elections.
Nkayi representative in the House of Assembly,
Abednigo Bhebhe
expressed concern at the politicisation of food
distribution, saying it was
becoming entrenched in the
district.
"The villagers went to Tohwe Secondary School after the
maize had been
delivered and prevented it from being distributed to the
Zanu-PF supporters
who had come to collect it at the expense of starving
families," Bhebhe
said.
He said he had received numerous
complaints from the villagers about
"a maize racket involving Zanu PF
officials who compile names and get the
maize from GMB for distribution to
party supporters only".
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Zanu
PF Matabeleland North
chairman Headman Moyo were fruitless.
Zim Standard
By
Caiphas Chimhete
SOME parts of Kambuzuma
high-density suburb in Harare have been
without electricity for the past
three months as the bankrupt Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa)
Holdings battles to provide power to the
area.
A transformer
servicing the area blew up after its oil was drained out
by thieves last
November.
Since then, residents are using firewood and paraffin for
cooking and
heating and candles for lighting.
Irate residents
last week said the failure by Zesa to replace the
faulty transformer in
three months was a clear sign of dereliction of duty.
"It's like we
are living in some remote parts of Guruve, and yet we
are in the capital,"
said Previous Chimhoswa. "If I want to watch television
I have to go to the
bar, but what about my children?"
Another resident Sheila Sibanda
said all perishable goods she had
bought for Christmas went bad in the
refrigerator after the blackout.
"Image I had bought milk, chicken,
beef and other fresh produce for
Christmas. Everything went bad. I think
Zesa should compensate us."
MP for Kambuzuma Willias Madzimure has
held several meetings with Zesa
officials but all in vain.
The
MP said he had been assured three times by Zesa commercial
director, Mike
Gambe, and company spokesperson James Maridadi that power
would be restored
to the area.
"They said the problem would be sorted out in a week
but that was two
weeks ago. Residents are not happy," said the MDC
MP.
Gambe told The Standard on Friday Zesa was working hard to
restore
electricity, not only in Kambuzuma but also in several other areas
countrywide. But he added that the shortage of foreign currency to import
key components was a major hindrance.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - The critical water shortage in Bulawayo,
described as the
worst in living memory, may ring the death knell for the
city's ailing
industries and escalate unemployment, business has
warned.
Once the country's industrial hub, the second city lost
most of its
major industries after they shut down or relocated to Harare
during the
devastating 1991/92 drought.
This year, with only
about two months before the end of the rainy
season, there are signs the
situation could get worse, as three major supply
dams are already
dry.
The city has 10 months' supply of water in the remaining two
dams, but
the council says the chances are very high that the dams will run
dry before
the start of the next rainy season.
An existing
water rationing regime has been tightened as the city
battles to conserve
the little reserves that are available.
Hardest hit is the
construction industry, where several companies
involved in major projects
have either suspended operations or downsized
their activities.
Obert Sibanda, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce deputy
president
said the future of industry hangs in the balance due to the water
shortage.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in free-fall since the government's
controversial land reform programme in 2000.
But for Bulawayo
companies, the water shortage might accelerate the
decline.
"The prospects for business in Bulawayo this year are really bleak,
especially for industries that use a lot of water, such as the construction
industry," said Sibanda. "The water shortage means there won't be any
expansion projects because construction is now very expensive."
Sibanda owns Reliance Construction, one of the city's biggest
companies,
involved in such major works as the Joshua Mqabuko International
Airport.
Sibanda said companies had no option but to shelve new
projects and
concentrate on ongoing ones.
"We are now relying
on bowsers to get water to construction sites and
that is very expensive,"
he said.
The council is allowing industry to use only 65 percent of
their
normal water consumption a day and those who use more than the
stipulated
amount face steep fines.
Aggregate Properties, a
construction company involved in a major
housing project in the Mahatshula
medium-density suburb, said it had been
forced to suspend all civil works
owing to the water problem.
"We had no option but to suspend
operations," said the owner, Themba
Ndlovu. "After council banned the use of
piped water for the construction of
houses we were forced to use bowsers to
fetch water from alternative sources
and this adds to the costs, which
buyers will not be able to absorb."
According to the council's
executive committee, a number of companies
building residential properties
had applied to be allowed to downsize
operations. They now want to be
allowed to sell serviced stands instead of
constructing houses.
The companies include the Central African Building Society (CABS),
which is
financing a multibillion dollar housing project in Nkulumane
high-density
suburb, Bopse Land Developers and Aggregate Properties.
Sibanda
said the industry's only salvation could be the laying of a 34
kilometre
pipeline between the idle Mtshabezi Dam and the city's water
supply
chain.
But the government has shown little commitment to the
project,
allocating the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA)
$30 billion for the project.
The town clerk, Moffat Ndlovu said
US$3,4 million was required for the
project, which must be funded by the
government.
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY
MUTIMBA
THREATS of an election boycott by Shangani
traditionalists unhappy
with the Zanu PF official candidate have prompted
the ruling party to
unleash manpower from all the provinces, ahead of next
weekend's
by-election.
A few days before Kalisto Gwanetsa
squares up with candidates from the
two factions of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and the United
People's Party (UPP), Zanu PF party
elections machinery has descended on
Chiredzi south
constituency.
Even Masvingo town has turned into a "beehive" of
Zanu PF vehicles
from Midlands, Mutare, and Mashonaland East among other
provinces.
A senior party official who spoke to The Standard on
condition of
anonymity said his party poured its manpower into Chiredzi
South in a bid to
retain the seat after realising the situation was
tense.
Angered by the manner in which the Zanu PF candidate, a
Karanga was
selected, some Shangani-speaking members have threatened to vote
for
opposition parties rather than "the imposed candidate" who is not of
their
tribe.
"The party is shaken and they are trying
everything possible in their
power to instill fear in the Chiredzi South
people," said the official.
"They have bussed in youths from different
provinces to campaign and
intimidate voters because the situation on the
ground is unpredictable."
He said Zanu PF had brought in youths
from different provinces because
the chances of losing the seat were "very
high", as the opposition parties'
candidates were all of Shangani
origin.
Zanu PF has supplied fuel to service stations in Chiredzi
which can
only be accessed by its party officials and
supporters.
Tonnes of maize-meal are being distributed in the
constituency,
reports say.
The Shangani community has
reportedly intimated that it felt,
Gwanetsa, as a Karanga did not understand
their culture and traditional
values and would fail to articulate them in
Parliament.
A staunch Zanu PF supporter and war veteran, Salani
Mlilo, said: "How
can a Karanga represent the masses of Shangani people in
Chiredzi South when
he doesn't know anything about our culture?
"I don't think he can construct a simple Shangani sentence. We would
rather
vote for our fellow Shangani, no matter which party they
represent."
Zanu PF provincial chairperson Samuel Mumbengegwi, the
new Minister of
Finance declined to comment.
The opposition MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said Zanu PF was
abusing state resources in the
campaign.
"Zanu PF has not only poured party vehicles from other
provinces but
it is using state vehicles from different departments on party
business. We
have seen army trucks, DDF and several trucks from other
ministries being
used to campaign for the party but what I know is the
verdict of the people
will be harsh to them," Chamisa said.
Chiredzi South, a Shangani-dominated district has allegedly been
marginalised since independence. Illiteracy remains high in an area with
poor roads.
There is no radio and television
transmission.
Gwanetsa will square up with anti-Senate candidate
Immaculate Makondo,
and pro-Senate MDC Nehemia Zanamwe. The United People's
Party is fielding
Maitani Chauke.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
BULAWAYO - Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono (pictured),
says the
infighting in Zanu PF over President Robert Mugabe's successor is
sabotaging
his monetary reforms as rival camps, suspicious of his own
presidential
ambitions, take turns to throw spanners in the
works.
Gono told a breakfast meeting in Bulawayo on Friday the
jostling for
Mugabe's job was breeding "indiscipline among
politicians".
He complained: "People are no longer making decisions
because of the
succession politics. They are sitting on the fence. This is
sabotaging
economic reforms. It is tearing us apart.
"Those of
us who decide not to belong to a faction are suspected.
There is too much
indiscipline among politicians. Please, politicians do us
a favour and do
not throw some of us into your succession politics," he
said.
Gono has denied harbouring presidential ambitions. Mugabe wants to
extend
his term beyond 2008 and there have been rumours Gono is among the
people
being considered for the post of prime minister during a two-year
transition
period before presidential elections are held in 2010.
In his
monetary policy review Gono said: "Political maturity also
imposes a
responsibility on those participating in that field to refrain
from scorched
earth strategies where well-meaning turnaround programmes are
booby-trapped
simply for the purpose of scoring perceived political goals,
all in the name
of succession maneouvering."
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Beneficiaries of the controversial Operation
Garikai in
Bulawayo are being forced to lay their own water and sewerage
pipes after
the government failed to service their stands.
The
1 500 people allocated land in Cowdray Park under phase two of the
programme
have started digging trenches in which to lay the infrastructure.
The government allocated stands and built houses on unserviced land in
the
aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina, which left nearly one million
people
destitute and homeless.
It also affected more than two million
people. The housing programme
was meant to provide shelter for the victims
of the widely condemned
operation but the Bulawayo City Council says the 700
houses built in Cowdray
Park are a health hazard.
The houses
have no basic ablution facilities and the government has no
money to
complete the servicing of the infrastructure.
But the impatient
beneficiaries have started to service the areas
themselves.
Sifiso Ndlovu, a representative of the beneficiaries, confirmed they
dug the
trenches and bought the water and sewer pipes.
"This is a self-help
project to facilitate the construction of our
houses," said Ndlovu. "We have
laid about 384 metres of sewer pipes that
have been approved by the council
and 47 stands are now ready for
construction.
"We have dug
about 1 000 metres of trenches for sewer and have a
balance of about 800
metres. We still have a balance of 6 000 stands but the
problem is that we
are being delayed by rocks, which have to be blasted
first."
The government turned down international offers of assistance from
donors to
assist the victims. Two United Nations envoys, Jan Egeland and
Anna
Tibaijuka, sent by the world body to assess the impact of Operation
Murambatsvina, said the government had no capacity to build houses for the
victims.
Cain Mathema, Bulawayo Province governor, refused to
comment on the
issue. He said: "Tshiyana lami wena (leave me alone)." He
later cut his
mobile phone.
The allocation of houses and stands
under Operation Garikai was mired
in controversy with reports of government
officials, their wives, relatives,
mistresses and children being the major
beneficiaries.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
AT least 14 shacks had their roofs blown away recently
at Hopley Farm
1 during a windy downpour, leaving several families exposed
to the rains.
No one was injured.
The shacks were
built by a non-governmental organisation to
accommodate hundreds of
families, whose houses were destroyed by the
government during Operation
Murambatsvina in 2005.
When The Standard visited Hopley, several
residents complained that
the structures were not strong enough and feared a
repeat of the recent
destruction, if there is another downpour.
Most of the shacks are roofed with metal sheets and have tents or
plastics
on their sides.
One resident, Mrs Chipo Sami, said she and her
family escaped death by
a whisker when the roof of her one-roomed shack was
blown away.
"The whole roof was blown away, leaving us in the open.
Some of the
poles fell inside, it was a miracle that we were not hurt," she
said.
The roof of her shack landed a few metres away, destroying a
make-shift toilet.
Although she managed to put it back, the
roof is no longer as strong
as it was, exposing the family to
danger.
"It's like we are living in the open because the roof leaks
and
mosquitoes sneak in through these openings," said Sami, pointing to
several
gaps between the roof and the tent.
Another resident
who identified herself as Mrs Maruza of Zone 3, whose
shack was also
destroyed, said she spent nearly two days virtually living in
the
open.
"We managed to put the roof back but we fear that strong
winds might
come back again," she said.
So far about 2 500
households have been allocated stands at Hopley
while 365 families are still
staying in shacks, according to an official at
the farm.
However, their hopes of getting houses under Operation Garikai are
slowly
vanishing as the government has stopped construction of new houses
because
it has run out of funds.
A social welfare officer at the farm,
Ezekiel Mpande, refused to
comment.
"I am not entitled to give
comments to the press. You should talk to
the Garikai secretariat," he
said.
No comment could be obtained from the Minister of Local
Government,
Public Works and Urban Development, Ignatious
Chombo.
Hopley was set up as a temporary home for thousands of
families left
homeless and without means of livelihood in 2005 after the
government
demolished shanty towns, city backyard cottages and informal
business kiosks
in a controversial urban renewal exercise.
The
United Nations said the internationally-condem- ned exercise left
nearly one
million people homeless and indirectly affected another 2.4
million
others.
Zim Standard
By Vusumuzi
Sifile
THE government's proposed National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS)
could turn out to be another dud if they go ahead with it
without consulting
other major players in the health insurance sector,
especially medical aid
societies.
At a workshop organised by
the Association for Health Funders of
Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) on Tuesday, Members
of Parliament and representatives of
medical aid societies noted that if the
government went ahead to enact NHIS,
this would overburden the already
hard-pressed citizens.
They said the government's actions smacked
of "a man who marries one
woman and when he finds it difficult to maintain
her, wants to marry
another".
Instead of coming up with yet
another scheme, stakeholders felt the
government should consult widely on
how present health insurance schemes
could be transformed to increase their
relevance to all Zimbabweans. This
was however very unlikely, considering
that none of the more than 16 medical
aid societies operating in the country
are represented on the NHIS steering
committee.
If implemented,
the NHIS could impact badly on most civil servants,
who form half of formal
employees.
According to Martin Harvey, an insurance expert, the
diaspora and
informal sector are now the largest employers in Zimbabwe. As
such, there is
need to craft ways of ensuring the scheme is
"all-encompassing and covering
all categories of workers".
"The
government set up NSSA, and the payouts are pathetic," said a
representative
of Masvingo Municipality Medical Aid Society. "They set up
the National Aids
Council. The service delivery is also very pathetic. Now
they want to
introduce NHIS. What assurance do we have that it is not going
flop as
well?"
Participants noted that the government, through the National
Social
Security Authority (NSSA), was very much aware of the resistance the
NHIS
could face in Parliament, and was resorting to "bringing it through the
back
door" as a statutory instrument, which was "very unlikely" to be
debated by
Parliament.
AHFoZ board member Tapiwa Mashakada, the
House of Assembly
representative for Hatfield, said NSSA was deliberately
trying to
"circumvent Parliament by going through the statutory instrument
way".
Mashakada said: "Why do we have to create laws through the
back door?
Why can't the government leave service delivery to people who
have the
knowledge and structures (medical aid societies) to do so? Major
hospitals
are collapsing because the government is the major debtor and is
not paying.
What does it help to put a person on the government medical
health scheme
when there is no equipment? The government is compulsorily
holding the
public at ransom."
The chief executive officer of
Premier Medical Aid Society, Cuthbert
Dube said there was need for wide
consultations.
"A scheme of this nature is very difficult. Any
responsible government
would want its poorest citizens to access health
services. The idea is
noble. The problem is lack of transparency. As it is,
we are not sure what
this scheme entails," said Dube.
Blundering in the implementation of the scheme could lead to the
absolute
collapse of medical aid societies and private health service
providers,
leaving members of the public with very limited options as
government
hospitals are also struggling to survive, he said.
The participants
called on the government, through the relevant
parliamentary portfolio
committees, to hold public hearings across the
country to hear the ordinary
people's news.
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
on Health and
Child Welfare, Blessing Chebundo, said they had already lined
up such
meetings across the country to get people's views on the
project.
It has also emerged that attempts to have NSSA clarify
details of the
scheme have been in vain. The AHFoZ board member who
represents NSSA is said
to be "not so powerful," and always fails to clarify
NSSA's position on the
project. It was also not immediately possible to get
clarification from
NSSA.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive
officer, Karikoga
Kaseke, has been accused of beating up a Harare hotel
waiter who didn't give
him a scone he had ordered on time.
Kaseke's behaviour is said to have sent guests in the hotel foyer
scurrying
for cover.
According to Meikles Hotel daily reports, copies of
which have been
seen by The Standard, the ZTA boss is reported to have
manhandled Ngoni
Ngwindingwindi and hit him against the wall, ripping his
hotel uniform.
"At 15:33 hrs, Karikoga Kaseke cell No 011 867 847
of ZTA manhandled
Ngoni Ngwindingwindi, a waiter at the lounge near the
front office safes and
hit him against the wall and torn (sic) the hotel
uniform in the process.
"Kaseke is alleged to have accused Ngoni of
having failed to serve him
with a scone which he had ordered," reads a
report prepared by the hotel's
assistant security manager, James
Manhobo.
The report, which is dated 3 January 2007, says the ZTA
boss left
Zimbabwe's premier hotel in a huff after the embarrassing
incident. The
matter was referred to the security manager, Promise Moyo, and
Farai Chimba,
the food and beverage manager.
This is not the
first time Kaseke, supposedly the country's No. l
Ambassador of Tourism, has
been accused of causing a scene at the five-star
hotel.
Three
weeks ago, he was reported to have shouted at a security officer
and a
cashier at the boom gate, saying he was "not to be treated like an
ordinary
person" at the hotel.
Kaseke allegedly tore into pieces a parking
ticket issued to him,
telling the security officer not to issue him with a
ticket whenever he
visited the hotel.
"He even said the
attitude he is encountering at this place had led to
him to assault a waiter
at one time. Mr (Shepard) Zvinairo (senior manager
in charge of maintenance)
was informed," reads a hotel report dated 26
January 2007.
In
another incident on 27 August 2006, Kaseke demanded a lower rate at
the same
hotel. When he was told that there were no special rates, he
allegedly
became abusive.
Kaseke allegedly accused the receptionist, one
Fiona, of being tired
because they were "sleeping" with men behind the
counter.
In his own words "Makaneta neyi? Manga makarara nemurume
kuseri ikoko.
I am the boss here - call your manager, I want my special
rate," reads one
of the reports.
The matter was reported to the
hotel's room division manager, Sam
Chitengu, who advised Mungofa to stick to
the stipulated rate of $45 000 a
room.
The incident was
recorded in the duty manager's book.
Kaseke yesterday confirmed the
first two incidents but denied
manhandling a waiter. He also denied he
verbally abused a receptionist.
"If a waiter or a manager fails to
serve a scone in 30 minutes it
means something is wrong somewhere. So I took
the waiter to his manager, but
I did not hit him," said a furious
Kaseke.
He claimed he was entertaining potential investors from the
USA and UK
when the incident occurred.
"They wanted to invest
400 million euros and I had taken them to
Meikles. The industry should wake
up. We can lose investors because of some
lazy people," said Kaseke, adding:
"Hotel management apologised to me, which
shows they were
wrong."
Asked why he would go to the extent of physically attacking
the
waiter, tearing a ticket and verbally abusing a receptionist, Kaseke
said:
"That is bullshit, quote that. You have been paid to destroy me. No
amount
of political blackmail will stop me from doing a job I was appointed
to do."
Meikles management through their agency, Aquarius Public
Relations
said: "We are unable to comment on incidents involving our
guests."
In 2005, Kaseke was at the centre of controversy after
reports that he
had impregnated a 15-year-old orphan in 2003.
Nyasha Sonia Ndanga, now aged 19, was demanding $6.2 million ($6 200
revalued) monthly for the upkeep of a child she says was conceived when she
was 15.
The teenage girl, alleged Kaseke paid $4 million to her
relatives as
lobola in 2004 but was then reneging on his responsibilities as
the father
of the child.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
MARGARET Sangarwe, Environment and Tourism permanent
secretary became
the first high profile government official to be implicated
in chikorokoza
(illegal mining) following deliberations at the parliamentary
portfolio
committee last week.
Giving oral evidence to the
committee, Febbie Jabulani, a small-scale
miner in Chegutu, told the
committee Sangarwe, accompanied by a truck-load
of illegal gold panners
(makorokoza) arrived at a gold milling plant in the
area and caused
confusion.
"Mother (Sangarwe) drove the car with korokozas who
wanted to attack
me," said Jabulani, the organiser of the Women Mining
Association of
Zimbabwe.
She said the panners eventually milled
their ore in the presence of
police and Sangarwe.
Jabulani
alleged there were illegal gold miners at Sangarwe's farm but
nothing was
being done to stop the destruction of the environment.
Sangarwe,
invited to make a presentation, did not respond to the
allegations.
Hwange East MP Thembinkosi Sibindi came to
Sangarwe's rescue, saying
the committee did not want to "personalise" the
whole issue.
In his contribution to the committee, former Mines
Minister Edward
Chindori Chininga, warned the committee against dealing with
the symptoms of
the crisis if it was uninformed of the big sharks benefiting
from illegal
gold mining.
He was backed by Senator Tsitsi
Muzenda who said the committee has to
obtain the names of the beneficiaries
of makorokozas.
Small-scale miners invited to the committee said
they were not in a
position to name names as they feared for their
lives.
Committee chairperson Joel Gabbuza told the small-scale
miners to
write anonymous letters to the committee with the correct details
of
perpetrators of chikorokoza.
Earlier, the small-scale miners
had pleaded with the government to
give them a grace period of up to six
months to comply with the new
licensing requirements which they said were
cumbersome.
Sangarwe told the committee that Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera was a
cabinet decision and any grace period had to be effected with
authority from
the Cabinet. She said the ministries of Mines and Environment
and Tourism
needed to make presentations to Cabinet for a grace
period.
Sangarwe told the committee that a Cabinet decision had
been take to
order all arrested illegal miners to rehabilitate an area that
had been
mined.
Asked about the ministry's programme to
rehabilitate degraded areas,
Sangarwe said this was an expensive
exercise.
Thursday's meeting was intended to obtain information
from the
Ministry of the Environment and Tourism and small-scale miners to
end the
confusion caused by Operation Chikorokoza Chapera launched last
year.
Since the blitz was launched, small-scale miners had stopped
operations and now required to get licences from the ministries of Mines and
Mining Development and Environment and Tourism.
The miners are
required to obtain a management plan from the
Environmental Management
Agency on land rehabilitation. The miners told the
committee it was
"laborious" to get licensing from EMA but Sangarwe said if
they had
difficulties they (the miners) should talk to the agency.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
AT least 20 prospective investors have been kept guessing
because of
the absence of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) board to
process
applications.
Enock Porusingazi, chairman of the
portfolio committee on Foreign
Affairs, Industry and International Trade
told Standardbusiness last week
his committee had been besieged by 20
applicants from China and India whose
applications were still awaiting
approval.
ZIA is a product of the Zimbabwe Investment Act which
provides for the
establishment of a one-stop investment shop responsible for
implementing
promotion of decentralisation of investment activities and
supervising the
implementation of approved projects.
The ZIA
board is responsible for scrutinising, recommending and
registering
investors.
Porusingazi said: "There are Chinese and Indian
investors who came to
the committee saying they had applications waiting for
approval."
He said as a result of that enquiry, the portfolio
committee resolved
to meet with the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade on when the
board would be appointed.
A three-member
subcommittee was tasked with the mandate of finding out
when the ZIA board
would be in place.
Chaired by the newly-appointed Economic
Development deputy minister,
Aguy Georgias, the sub-committee has Gweru
Urban MP Timothy Mukahlera and
Mutare-Mutasa Senator Mandy
Chimene.
The sub-committee met Christian Katsande, Industry and
International
Trade permanent secretary last week. Details of the meeting
will be
discussed in the portfolio committee meeting on
Tuesday.
ZIA was formed after the promulgation of the Zimbabwe
Investment Act.
The Act was assented to by President Robert Mugabe last
month.
Under it, there should be an 11-member board appointed by
the Minister
of Industry and International Trade, in consultation with the
President.
The board would be required to submit reports to the
minister on its
operations and other issues as the minister may
require.
An investment committee would be set up to make
recommendations to the
board for approval or rejection of applications for
investment licences.
The minister would publish guidelines for
investment, mentionimg
general incentives that may be applicable to licensed
investors, both
foreign and local.
Porusingazi would not say
whether his committee would call Obert
Mpofu, the Minister of Industry and
International Trade to testify.
Zim Standard
by Caiphas
Chimhete
EVEN the seven-year-old grade two pupil, garbed in a
khaki school
uniform, did not know that he carried the precious stones on
his body.
Tinashe Munazvo got to know he was carrying five pieces
of diamond
tucked tightly along the rim of his oversized shirt when he
arrived in
Harare - nearly 350km from Hotsprings in Chimanimani
district.
He only realised his "cargo" as his mother ripped open
his new uniform
to take out the small precious stones, popularly known as
Zvingoda, to show
them to her husband.
"We were very lucky we
managed to get through police roadblocks with
our diamonds," said Evelyn
Munazvo, as she plucked other pieces of diamonds
from a camera. "There is a
heavy police presence and the searches are
thorough."
She had
removed the batteries from the camera, and instead stuffed the
small pieces
of diamonds.
Despite the heavy security presence along major roads
from Chiadzwa,
Changazi and Nechishanye in Manicaland province - where
diamonds were
discovered late last year - the precious stones, including
emeralds,
continue to be smuggled out of the province.
The
police have arrested several smugglers since the discovery, but
the
smugglers are always devising new methods to outwit the law.
"We
used to stuff the pieces in Camphor lotion or bread, but the
police are now
aware of that. The police searches are so thorough that at
times it's
dehumanising," said a diamond smuggler, who requested anonymity.
Some smugglers said the police search them even in their pants, under
the
tongue and rip apart repaired shoes which they suspect to be stuffed
with
the precious stones.
"They will make you undo your hair if they
suspect you are hiding
diamonds, or force you to remove nappies from a
newly-born baby," he said.
To beat the police traps, some smugglers
alight from vehicles a few
kilometers from roadblocks and walk through the
bush to rejoin the main road
several kilometres away, where the vehicles
would be waiting to pick them
up.
But the police are now aware
of this trick and at times waylay the
smugglers in the bush.
"We had to walk for over 30km from Twenty-Two Miles business centre in
Mutare through the mountains, after the police camped where we were supposed
to be picked up. Look at my legs! They are swollen," said a woman, who
identified herself only as Lionele.
At Twenty-Two Miles
business centre (about 35 km along the
Mutare-Birchenough Bridge road), the
body searches are more thorough than
anywhere else.
People are
ordered into a small tent and forced to strip.
Some smugglers now
go to Chiadzwa in Marange and Nechishanye in Buhera
to buy the precious
stones once every fortnight.
Some smugglers prefer to sell the
diamonds in South Africa where they
fetch higher prices than anywhere in
Zimbabwe. But, said Lionele, the
chances of arrest "are very
high".
According to diamond dealers in Harare, rough diamonds on
average sell
at around $150 000 a gramme but a single clear diamond can
fetch as much as
$700 000 on the black market.
But hundreds of
diamond smugglers have been arrested under different
operations designed to
curb smuggling of precious minerals from the country.
Police
spokesperson Andrew Phiri said the police would continue with
their
operations to stop smugglers "from robbing Zimbabwe of its mineral
wealth".
He said over 28 000 people have been arrested
countrywide and the
police have recovered 33,3kg of gold worth over $533
million and 11 593
diamonds under Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera.
Zim Standard
A wave of strikes in
Zimbabwe is
making the threat of a "crippling" general strike by the
country's largest
union federation largely academic, as current industrial
action or threats
of more to come are already bringing the scenario to
pass.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which has often
been in
the vanguard of protest against President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF
government, is taking a back seat, while a whole swathe of society,
including doctors, nurses, teachers, university lecturers and tobacco
industry workers have embarked on strike action, and miners, government
employees and students are on the brink of doing so.
Although
previous calls for general strikes by the ZCTU have largely
gone unheeded,
ZCTU president, Lovemore Matombo, has set a 23 February
deadline for
government to improve working and living conditions, or face
industrial
action. University students said they would boycott lectures next
week, but
many are already not attending classes because lecturers are on
strike.
Wage negotiations between miners and the Zimbabwe
Chamber of Mines
deadlocked in late January, and Tinago Ruzive, chairman of
the Associated
Mine Workers' Union, said the union was now considering the
way forward. The
mining industry is the country's second biggest employer
after the
agricultural sector.
Ad hoc strikes, such as a recent
one-day walkout by employees of the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
for better pay, are an illustration of
the high levels of dissatisfaction
among the national workforce as a
consequence of the world's highest
inflation level, now at 1 281 percent.
While inflation soars, wages
remain static. According to the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe's most recent
report on the monthly budget of the
average low-income urban earner, the
cost of living has increased two-fold
in a month. In January the council put
the required budget for a family of
six at US$92, (about $459 000 on the
parallel market) up from the previous
month's requirement of US$49 (about
$245 000).
In recent years, the formal economy has shrunk by 65
percent,
agricultural production has declined by 50 percent, unemployment
has been
running at nearly 80 percent and shortages of food, fuel,
electricity,
medicines and foreign currency have become
commonplace.
"The strike by ZESA, tobacco workers, medical
practitioners and
teachers is for a worthy cause," Matombo said. "With the
average minimum
wage currently pegged at Z$90 000 (US$18 at the parallel
market rate) and an
average family needing Z$459 000 (US$92) to meet basic
monthly requirements,
and inflation at more than 1 200 percent per month,
the nation must brace
itself for more serious strikes as workers fail to
make ends meet."
Although the ZCTU, an ally of the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change party, has been a fervent critic of Mugabe,
disillusionment with the
Zanu PF government's handling of the economy is
spreading among government
employees.
Edmore Tichareva,
executive secretary of the Public Service
Association (PSA), commented that
"The PSA, having noted with great concern
that the salaries that were
awarded civil servants in January 2007 had been
eroded by inflation long
before they were earned, has resolved to engage the
government with a view
to have this matter addressed."
The association has not ruled out
the possibility of strike action.
"In the meantime, the provincial
structures of the PSA have been requested
to hold meetings with members to
plan for the way forward in the event that
we do not get the relief we are
seeking," Tichareva said.
Tendai Chikowore, president of the
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association
(ZIMTA), said the association's members were
becoming worn down by the
government's failure to put inflation in check and
were "being
short-changed, and thus heavily paying for their understanding,
patience and
resilience." Zimta is widely regarded as a pro-government
body.
"Although teachers were awarded an increment in salaries and
allowances with effect from January 2007, failure by the government to bring
down inflation and stabilise prices of goods and services has rendered these
increments a non-event. Low remuneration has further reduced the status and
image of teachers, who cannot afford to buy decent clothing in order to
conform to the professional dress code," he said.
The
secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe,
Raymond
Majongwe, said his members had been on strike since the beginning of
2007
and were demanding a monthly salary of Z$650 000 (US$130) instead of
their
current salary of Z$150 000 (US$30). He said about 5 000 teachers were
leaving the country annually to seek employment elsewhere. -- IRIN.
Zim Standard
Comment
IN a country with a national average life expectancy of
around 30,
reaching the ripe old age of 83 is cause enough to celebrate.
However, it
does not require $300 million to mark the event.
In
11 days' time, President Robert Mugabe will celebrate his third
year as an
octogenarian. His ruling party is promising a lavish birthday
bash three
days later - the kind reserved for one finally withdrawing from
public
life.
But barely two months ago, the ruling party had an excuse to
fete its
leader and spend more than a billion dollars when it held its
annual
conference in Goromonzi.
However, in times of extreme
economic hardships, asking for $300
million so soon after is stretching
things too far and only serves to
demonstrate just how far removed some
people are from the lived reality.
The Goromonzi conference could
easily have combined an early birthday
party for Mugabe with the annual
"people's conference". It would have
provided ruling party delegates an
opportunity to convey their provinces'
best wishes and good health. This
would then have allowed Mugabe a private
function on 21 February, at much
less expense to all concerned. But Zanu PF
knows how to scale up sycophancy
to extremes.
Medical doctors have been striking for better pay.
Teachers have
issued an ultimatum if their salaries are not reviewed.
Workers have also
given a month-end deadline for nationwide demonstrations
because they are
not being paid enough. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
says an average
family now requires $500 000 a month. The national students'
body has warned
that more than a third of its membership will not be
attending classes this
year because their parents can't afford to pay for
their education.
The question that begs an explanation is: which
companies are going to
make contributions to Mugabe's birthday festivities
when they are unable to
pay their workers liveable wages? It can hardly be
the same companies that
saw their executives being jailed by the government
last year because they
wanted to sell their products in order to recover
their costs of production?
It can't be the same private sector that the
government was threatening last
week over price increases while calling for
a social contract?
It is ironic that the government and the ruling
party can profess
knowledge of how overburdened consumers are and yet it
sees absolutely
nothing amiss in hosting an ostentatious birthday bash. Just
how many
university students - their fees averaging $100 000 a semester -
would
benefit from $300 million?
As a member of the United
Nations and the United Nations Education,
Scientific and Cultural
Organisation, which uphold education as a
fundamental right to which every
person is entitled, Mugabe should find it
incongruous to accept being feted
in such a manner when more school children
have dropped out of school since
May 2005 and his government appears totally
unconcerned.
In
1991 Mugabe attacked what he saw as a form of taxation for
educational
resources, saying this amounted to a calculated attempt to keep
people
illiterate. He was unprepared, his criticism seemed to suggest, to
preside
over a nation of uncritical people.
It is time for Mugabe to tell
his sycophants that they can show their
admiration for him by helping his
government put more children in class, pay
doctors and teachers a living
wage, and make sure nurses get the recognition
they deserve.
Zim Standard
Sunday Opinion By
Bill Saidi
BEVERLY TILLY, who died in Harare a few years ago, once
said to me,
out of the blue: "You don't blow your own trumpet
enough."
About what? I wondered. Then I remembered what Oscar Wilde
was
reported to have said: "Humility is the worst form of
conceit."
George Charamba, albeit inadvertently, gave me fresh,
weird ideas
about humility.
According to him I created, out of
thin air, the scene where a bullet
drops out of the envelope addressed to
The Editor of The Standard.
Then, he said something quite bizarre,
to the effect that I was doing
at The Standard what I did at The Daily News.
What did that mean?
I wrote a column, yes, which I do for The
Standard too. But what else?
Certainly, I didn't blow up the ANZ
printing press in 2001; neither
was I involved in the closure of the
publishing company.
Charamba makes me sound like a one-man
demolition crew, a journalistic
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Such a
top-notch civil servant, allocating to me so much power! It's
enough to make
me want to run for president.
Another young man years ago, asked
the question on public television:
Who is Bill Saidi? I had criticised Supa
Mandiwanzira. His question bristled
with insults.
Geoff
Nyarota, editor of The Daily News, thought I ought to respond,
which I did.
We never heard from Mandiwanzira again. He has since gone on to
bigger
things.
Did I have something to do with his meteoric rise, with a
magic wand I
didn't even know I had?
Charamba is a powerful
man. He said he could get me fired. It takes a
man of enormous
self-confidence to say such things.
He sounded personal, as if I
had done him a grievous, personal wrong,
for which he would punish me
severely, personally.
It gave me a creepy, eerie sensation, like
being watched by bats in a
dark cave.
I have been punished
severely, personally, in this business in the
past 50 years.
On
occasions like this, I reflect on my career to discover that as a
cub
reporter, the first assignment to which I accompanied a senior reporter
was
the inaugural meeting of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress
in
1957. I was then 20 and I don't know how old Charamba was, but I am
prepared
to bet all the tea in China - or India, if the Chinese price is too
high -
that he was not 20.
Since that day I have covered the story of
Zimbabwe's rise . . . and
fall. From Zambia, between 1963 and 1980, you
might say I covered the
struggle. Then, after independence in 1980, I
covered the country's trials
and tribulations.
This period has
encompassed my own trials and tribulations, never
quite separate from those
of the country, most of whose leaders I have known
since that day in Mai
Musodzi Hall.
A few weeks after returning from Zambia in 1980, I
almost lost my leg
when a car belonging to the Central Intelligence
Organisation, the spook arm
of the government, knocked me down in what is
now called Robert Mugabe
Road - Manica Road, then.
I spent six
weeks in hospital and just missed being a member of the
physically
handicapped organisation.
In Zambia, in the 1970s, the offices
of The Times of Zambia, for which
I worked for just over ten years, were hit
by a rocket. These offices are
located in the main street of Lusaka, Cairo
Road.
If that was an accident, then we should believe Adolf Hitler
started
World War II by accident.
Before that, in 1975, I had
been fired by President Kenneth Kaunda,
for disclosing the hush-hush trip of
his emissary to Salisbury for talks
with the detained nationalist leaders to
do with the struggle.
Kaunda was furious and I was duly punished
with dismissal from the
paper. I was reinstated a little over a year later,
with no open apology.
To return to Beverly Tilly: she could only
have been referring to my
career in journalism - not as the lead singer of a
trio which wowed them in
Mai Musodzi, Runyararo and Cyril Jennings halls in
the 1950s.
My journalism career peaked when, after my return to
Zimbabwe, a
reader referred to my writing as "elegant prose".
But the greatest tribute was from Willie Musarurwa. He said Stanlake
Samkange, the founder of Nyatsime College, had confided to him that people
thought he wrote Comrade Muromo, the weekly column in The Herald in the
1980s.
I started the column soon after Farai Munyuki became
editor in 1981.
Musarurwa's tidbit gave me a glow: I almost went
ape with excitement.
Samkange was a genuine Man of
Letters.
It felt great to be in such company.
Still, I
accept Charamba's compliments too. At my age, such flattery
can be quite
overwhelming, George.
Zim Standard
Sunday view by Marko Phiri
THE rapid erosion of people's
disposable incomes in the past few years
has become the major talking point
as Zimbabwe's economic maladies continue
without any sign the government has
any clue as to how to stem that
haemorrhage.
What has made it
worse for many are the experiences Zimbabweans have
gone through since
independence; how so much has been taken from them by the
regime. Only ten
years ago, for example - though the decline had already
made its epiphany -
the so-called gainfully employed saw many young men
being able to purchase
household gadgets, get a pair of trousers each month
and maintain accounts
with exclusive men's wear shops, and just about have
the time of their
lives.
Looking at these same not-so-young men today and recalling
the lives
they were able to live, inspires the kind of anger against the
system
exhibited by good men and women who feel betrayed by someone they
love.
Now because so much has changed over the past decade - but
with the
authorities insisting we are better off than we were during the
white years
because we are now "ruling ourselves," - young men who get jobs
today toil
so much without much to show for it. One wonders what keeps them
waking up
in the morning to go to work.
I listened the other
day to a tout proudly saying his father had found
him three jobs, at
different factories, but each time he quit before pay-day
because he felt
the work he was putting in was not equivalent to the salary
he had been
promised.
Instead, he felt he was better off sliding the commuter
omnibus door
and yelling profanities at people old enough to be his
parents.
The attitude of this tout is not isolated. Nowadays, young
men prefer
to dice with incarceration or even death doing shady deals, than
waste their
lives working in the so-called formal sector, when virtually
there is no
formal economy to talk about, as everything worth anything is
now to be
found anywhere but at official outlets.
For many
young people in this country, the frustration has come from
knowledge of how
their contemporaries are living in neighbouring countries,
such as Botswana
and South Africa. The streets are full of stories about the
good life of,
not only the nationals of these two nations, but more
importantly, of
childhood friends from Zimbabwe who have found new life in
those
countries.
The fact that their peers, seemingly on the lower end of
everything
while they all walked the streets of their motherland, took
courage and
moved to a strange land, have become the envy of the
neighbourhood, suggests
Zimbabwe has killed the will and spirit of many
young people.
Now, those who remained and resisted the lure of the
Pula and the
Rand - but still figure themselves to be streetwise - have
become the envy
of other peers, less endowed with the gift of the gab, seen
in the legendary
car salesman.
It just is not normal to have
virtually all young people involved in a
deal of one sort or another,
chasing instant riches as if they were playing
Lotto.
In the
past, obtaining a university degree was the surest way of
saying one's
valedictions to poverty. But today, these people who, under
normal
circumstances are supposed to be the country's big brains, now also
spend
their time trying to broker some clandestine deals where the arm of
the law
is avoided like a plague.
What kind of government kills the human
spirit to levels where even
primary school children know their parents are
struggling to send them to
school?
Nothing like that happened
in the country's formative years, as young
children routinely expected to be
well-fed and sent to school, no questions
asked. It was their birthright,
but that has been taken away from them as
they now know "dad is perennially
broke".
So imagine what that does to a family man who each day
wakes up in the
morning, ostensibly to win the family bread, but comes home
with nothing for
the family that expects to be fed.
The erosion
of disposable incomes has turned the lives of many into
nightmares they
would not have imagined a decade ago. The proliferation of
"hot property" in
the streets is a sign that so-called ordinary Zimbabweans
have had it up to
their necks with the hardships.
Today, the streetwise will tell you
no sane person buys anything
directly from the shop, no matter what it is.
You want a lounge suite? Talk
to so-and-so who works at this furniture shop
and it will be delivered to
you for half the price. You want paint? We know
so-and-so who will bring it
to you later when the owls start
hooting.
That is the country we have become.
Steven Price in
Harare
February 5, 2007
As exclusively reported by Cricinfo last
week, three members of the Zimbabwe
national side have been forced to shave
their dreadlocks after being given
an ultimatum by the Zimbabwe board to do
so or be dropped.
The trio - Tawanda Mupariwa, Christopher Mpofu and
Keith Dabengwa - all
complied, albeit under protest, and the Zimbabwe Times
now reports that the
demands have caused outrage among others in the
side.
"I had to comply with ZC because they say it is a new dress code,"
one
unnamed player told the newspaper. "There was nothing I could do because
refusing meant I would be out on the final squad to the World Cup. If you
ask me, this is gross human rights abuse but I need to look after my family.
Cricket is my job and I cannot risk my job for dreadlocks."
Kevin
Curran, Zimbabwe's beleaguered coach, refused to react, telling the
paper:
"I will not comment on those matters. Talk to the authorities."
The new
dress code was introduced days after Peter Chingoka was re-elected
as
Zimbabwe Cricket's chairman. Critics point out that the side, which has
now
lost 13 consecutive ODIs, have greater worries than the hairstyles of
the
players. There is already unrest over the fact that players are paid in
worthless Zimbabwe dollars while it is widely claimed that others, including
administrators, are paid in US dollars.
This reflects a more
widespread policy called Pfekazvakanaka (which means
"dress well" in Shona),
a rigid dress code, inside Zimbabwe being enforced
by the ruling Zanu-PF
party.
At the moment the country's supreme court is considering the case
of a
seven-year-old Rastafarian boy who was expelled from school for having
dreadlocks. There are other instances of men with dreadlocks being accosted
by the police and being forced to shave them off. It seems ZC's latest move
is more evidence of that its leadership is merely aping the wishes of the
government.
© Cricinfo
New York Times
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: February 10,
2007
JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 9 - China is often depicted as a juggernaut of sorts,
its
untroubled and unfettered rise into the ranks of global powers a fact
that
lesser nations can only watch with awe and trepidation. On Friday,
President
Hu Jintao of China completed a 12-day tour of Africa that
suggested the
reality was more nuanced.
More than that, the visit
tested a basic tenet of China's economic
relations: that business is
business, and what a partner nation's people
think about it is not China's -
or the world's - preoccupation.
Mr. Hu swept through eight nations, among
them some of China's closest
African allies, largest trading partners and
most prominent objects of
Chinese investment. He left behind a
multibillion-dollar trail of forgiven
debts, cheap new loans and pledges of
schools and cultural centers, tokens
of affection for a continent of
strategic economic importance to Beijing's
future.
Yet in Zambia, Mr.
Hu was greeted with public disdain, and forced to cancel
one appearance,
even as he showered more than $800 million in gifts and
investments on the
nation, one of the world's poorest. In Namibia, a
decades-old ally, a
newspaper and human rights activists assailed China's
foreign policy as
selfish and lacking morality.
In South Africa, a generally warm visit was
clouded by President Thabo Mbeki's
recent warning that Africa risked
becoming an economic colony of China, and
by Johannesburg's major newspaper,
which devoted a full page this week to a
scalding critique of China's record
on human rights and labor rights.
Mr. Hu's stop in Sudan, where China has
extensive oil interests, reignited
criticism that Beijing has helped shield
its ally and oil supplier from
global outrage over attacks on civilians in
Darfur.
Mr. Hu also met his share of flag-waving supporters, of course,
and the
official parts of his trip - the meetings and agreement-signings
with heads
of state - were a diplomatic and commercial success. Most African
heads of
state like China, which supported many of their liberation
movements when
liberation was not fashionable. And they like Mr. Hu, whose
views on
sovereignty, human rights and development are frequently closer to
theirs
than are those of Western governments.
But an undercurrent of
disquiet accompanied Mr. Hu's barnstorming. Mostly,
it came not from heads
of state, but from the people they rule, some of whom
resent China's growing
influence here - for economic, racial and ideological
reasons.
"It's
important to note the obstacles the Chinese are running into" in
Africa,
said Bates Gill, a leading China scholar at the Center for Strategic
and
International Studies in Washington. "It has a lot to do with their
unfamiliarity with working in countries that have a vibrant private sector
and civil society. These guys in the Chinese Embassy, they don't understand
that."
China is not yet an overwhelming presence in Africa. The
juggernaut image
aside, China imports less African oil, invests less money
and spends less on
aid than does the United States or Europe. As an African
trading partner,
China ranks third, behind the United States and France, and
much of that
trade is in oil purchased from Sudan, Angola and Nigeria, not
in goods made
by African workers.
Unlike most other nations, however,
China is frequently seen here as
coveting Africa for its oil, gold and other
valuable minerals and as a
dumping ground for cheap Chinese goods - not for
its people or talents. Mr.
Mbeki said as much in December, warning in a
speech that Africa's
relationship to China as an exporter of ore and oil and
importer of finished
goods threatened to become "a replication of that
colonial relationship"
between Europe and its African possessions a century
ago.
True or not, the perception has been telling. In Zimbabwe, Zambia
and
elsewhere in southern Africa, an influx of Chinese shopkeepers and
street
traders has pushed locals into bankruptcy. South African textile
workers
lost tens of thousands of jobs after the 2005 expiration of a global
trade
agreement allowed cheaper Chinese goods - including knockoffs of
traditional
African prints - to flood the country. Angry trade unions called
for
retaliatory boycotts of shops selling Chinese goods.
Anti-Chinese
sentiment has mushroomed in Zambia since 2005, when an
explosion at a
Chinese-owned copper mine killed at least 46 workers and
spawned complaints
of unsafe working conditions and poor environmental
practices. In last
year's presidential election, the populist challenger to
President Levy
Mwanawasa based part of his campaign on a pledge to curb
Chinese influence
in the country.
This month, Mr. Hu canceled a visit to Zambia's
Copperbelt Province, in the
nation's north, apparently because of the threat
of protests.
For some foreign powers in Africa, such snubs are part of
the territory;
both the United States and Europe are regularly assailed for
agriculture
policies that are said to stunt African farm exports. One reason
China has
been welcomed into Africa, analysts say, is it can serve as a
counterbalance
to American influence now that the Soviet Union has vanished
from the scene
and Russia is far less active in the region.
But while
popular dissent is old hat to Westerners, it is less so to the
Chinese, for
whom foreign relations and domestic policies alike are shaped
by governments
- not activists, lobbies or public opinion.
Having claimed a bigger role
on the African and world stages , Mr. Hu is now
reaping the first bitter
fruits of pretension to leadership. One test comes
in Sudan, where he must
reconcile China's doctrine of noninterference in
other nations' affairs with
the outcry over the killings of civilians in
Darfur. In Khartoum, he gave
Sudan a $13 million interest-free loan to build
a new presidential palace,
but also said it was "imperative" to halt the
deaths in Darfur.