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Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday said his
newly
appointed cabinet remained "a war cabinet", but this time to fight
an
internal war against corruption.
"It's still a war cabinet," Mugabe
told reporters shortly after a ceremony
to swear in the newcomers to the
cabinet at State House, his official
residence.
"The war is getting
less and less political, that is vis-a-vis the British
and vis-a-vis the
Americans, those I think we have defeated now," he said
referring to the
political differences his government has with the West,
particularly over
Harare's controversial land reform programme.
"It is now the internal war
to fight the evils within our system, to fight
corruption, to fight
tendencies to amass wealth at the expense of the
nation, to fight
indiscipline, to fight crime," he said.
Reshuffle
Mugabe created a
new ministry of anti-corruption and anti-monopolies
programmes to be headed
by a veteran politician and ruling party stalwart,
Didymus Mutasa.
The
president on Monday night conducted his first reshuffle of a "war
cabinet" he
appointed in August 2002, following his re-election in
controversial polls in
March that year.
He dropped Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga but
kept most of the
other ministers from the old cabinet.
Mugabe elevated
deputy finance minister Chris Kuruneri to head that
ministry - seen as key in
attempts to turn around the economy which has been
recession in recent
years.
Outgoing Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa has been re-assigned to
the
ministry of higher and tertiary education, a portfolio he has held
once
before.
Famine
Mugabe said he also shuffled his cabinet
with the aim of correcting the
damage resulting from a famine that has hit
the country over three
successive years, and sanctions imposed by the
European Union, Australia,
New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United
States.
"We want to enhance the capacities of our own people to build
their own
country, to reverse the damage that has been done by a combination
of
drought and sanctions.
"This means of course that our agriculture
has got to be propelled, it has
got to be supported effectively," he
said.
Mugabe also split the former ministry of land, agriculture and
rural
resettlement into two.
Edited by Elmarie Jack
news.com.au
Tsvangirai treason trial resumes
From correspondents in
Harare, Zimbabwe
February 12, 2004
THE treason trial of Zimbabwe's
Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai, accused
of plotting to assassinate
President Robert Mugabe, reopened today with an
aide to Tsvangirai saying
they had been taken for a ride by a Canadian
political consultancy
firm.
Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the main opposition Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, gave an account of how he got to know
about
Dickens and Madison, a Canadian firm which accused Tsvangirai of trying
to
hire it to murder Mugabe.
The firm is owned by Ari Ben Menashe, the
key state witness in the case.
Ncube said Ben Menashe had introduced
himself as a former Israeli spy who
was on first name terms with several
world leaders including the Iranian
president Mohammad Khatami and former US
head of state Bill Clinton.
He said he was later surprised to learn that
the firm had been recently
formed with only a handful of employees and no
clients.
"It was in complete variance with what Ben Menashe had
presented to us that
his company was successful, had worldwide connections
and so much
influence," he told the Harare High Court.
He said Menashe
had claimed that he had negotiated an exit package for
Mugabe with the help
of Clinton but Mugabe had supposedly reneged on a
promise to take up the
offer.
"Ben Menashe told us that after the agreement had been sealed,
President
Mugabe had reneged on it and this had angered ... the United
States
government and in particular Bill Clinton and the financial backers of
the
deal whom he presented as the Jewish community in the US," said
Ncube.
Menashe had said that in the light of Mugabe's reneging on his
alleged
promise, his company had moved to support the MDC and had collected
two
million dollars ($2.57 million) from the Jewish community which would
be
released once the MDC engaged Dickens and Madison as its
political
consultants in the United States and Canada.
Mugabe returned
to power after elections in March 2002 which international
observers and
Tsvangirai said had been rigged. It has been beset by
political, social and
economic crises since then.
Tsvangirai has denied the conspiracy charges,
for which he could face the
death sentence if convicted, alleging he was
framed by the government in a
bid to discredit him ahead of the 2002
presidential polls.
Asked to comment on Menashe's evidence that the MDC
had sought his
assistance to assassinate Mugabe and stage a military coup,
Ncube said:
"That evidence is utterly false, completely and utterly false; no
such
request was made".
He said violence was against the party's
principles.
"It's completely repugnant in every sense. We (the MDC) have
always been
committed to legality, democracy and constitutional and
non-violent means of
succeeding to power," he said.
Because of the
volatile situation in the country in the run-up to the 2002
elections, Ncube
said "arranging a coup would have been extremely dangerous
... with violent
and often armed war veterans very closely aligned to
(ruling party)
ZANU-PF".
"(A coup is) the sort of dangerous adventure which would not
have been
contemplated by any person. It simply would have led to chaos," he
said.
The state's evidence is based on a secretly recorded
black-and-white grainy
and partially audible video tape of a meeting
Tsvangirai attended in
Montreal with Menashe.
Tsvangirai said his
party had engaged Menashe to help promote its image and
lobby the
international community for funding, but realised later that it
had also been
hired by the Zimbabwe government to conduct its
public
relations.
Ncube is a University of Zimbabwe Law lecturer who
joined the MDC in
February 2000 after its inauguration in September
1999.
Ncube was initially also charged with treason, but the charges
against him
were dropped.
Agence France-Presse
VOA
Zimbabwe: MDC Secretary General Testifies at Tsvangirai Treason
Trial
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
11 Feb 2004, 16:48 UTC
The
secretary-general of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change has
testified at the High Court on behalf of his political leader,
Morgan
Tsvangirai, who is on trial for treason. The defense got a boost when
the
court admitted into evidence documents that Mr. Tsvangirai's lawyers
say
contradict the prosecution's case.
A professor of law on leave from
the University of Zimbabwe, Welshman Ncube
told the court he drew up the
first contract between a Canadian firm and the
Movement for Democratic Change
for lobbying in the United States and Canada
ahead of Zimbabwe's presidential
elections in March 2002.
The firm is owned by Ari Ben Menashe, a key
prosecution witness in the trial
against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is
accused of plotting to kill
President Robert Mugabe. The state's case rests
on evidence that Mr.
Tsvangirai had three meetings with Mr. Ben Menashe, in
which an
assassination plot was allegedly discussed. The final meeting
was
videotaped, and is a key part of the state's case.
Mr. Tsvangirai
has denied the allegations and said he was framed by the
Canadian
company.
Mr. Ncube testified he was duped into believing that the
Canadian company
was well connected with world leaders and wielded much
influence, when in
fact, it had no influence and no clients.
The high
court, in a decision seen as boosting the defendant's case,
admitted into
evidence MDC's demand for the return of $100,000 paid to Mr.
Menashe and his
reply. These documents, defense lawyer George Bizos told the
court,
contradict the prosecution witness' testimony.
The opposition leader
faces the death penalty, if convicted.
Sunday Times (SA)
EU blasts clampdown on Zimbabwe
demo
Wednesday February 11, 2004 11:55 - (SA)
The
European Union condemned a clampdown on a pro-democracy demonstration
in
Zimbabwe and the arrest and mistreatment of a key leader, urging Harare
to
act to avoid any future incidents.
The chairman of the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Lovemore Madhuku
was allegedly assaulted and
dumped in a suburb on the outskirts of Harare,
after the demo last Wednesday
in which organisers said 34 activists were
arrested.
"The European
Union strongly deplores the arrest and assault of a large
number of
participants in the demonstration," said a spokesman for the Irish
EU
presidency, citing an EU statement.
"The EU, in particular, condemns the
apprehension and ill-treatment of Mr.
Lovemore Madhuku," and "calls on the
government of Zimbabwe to take all
necessary measures to guarantee the rights
of its citizens to freedom of
expression, association and peaceful assembly,"
the statement said.
Organisers of the demo, held outside parliament in
Harare, claimed that
Madhuku was beaten up by police. Police denied making
any arrests, but
acknowledged breaking up the march.
The EU
condemnation comes a before an expected decision next week to renew
EU
sanctions against the regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe for
the
third year.
AFP
From Business Day (SA), 11 February
Mbeki stance puzzles UK MP
International Affairs Editor
A senior British MP who
was an active supporter of the anti-apartheid
movement in the UK says he is
"puzzled" by President Thabo Mbeki's policy of
quiet diplomacy towards
Zimbabwe and is seeking to learn from the South
African government why
respect for human rights stops at the Limpopo. UK MP
Donald Anderson, a
member of Tony Blair's Labour Party, who chairs the
influential house of
commons foreign affairs committee, said yesterday in
Johannesburg that he had
expected SA to play a leading role in promoting
human rights. Anderson is in
SA this week leading 10 MPs from the committee
as part of a wide-ranging
investigation into UK relations with SA. A report
on their findings is due
out as early as May. Anderson said quiet diplomacy
had hurt investor
sentiment in the entire region. He did not discount the
possibility that
quiet diplomacy could work, but said he still expected that
human rights
would be a priority for SA. If Britain were to take a leading
role in trying
to mediate in Zimbabwe, it would play into Mugabe's hands,
Anderson said. The
UK committee's investigation will include parts of SA's
regional role and its
relations with Zimbabwe, the New Partnership for
Africa's Development, World
Trade Organisation negotiations and SA's role in
the war against terrorism.
Anderson said the inclusion of SA in the "war
against terrorism" was in
response to concern in the US that Africa
represented the "soft underbelly"
in the war. The UK committee's reports
have considerable influence on the
government and often lead to public
debate. Anderson said the motivation for
the report was to review UK/SA
relations 10 years after liberation and it was
not in response to any one
development in particular. After coming to office
in 1997, Blair established
close ties with Mbeki but relations have become
increasingly strained in
recent months over SA's stance on Zimbabwe, and the
war in Iraq.
From The Star (SA), 10 February
SA minister attacks UK on Zimbabwe stance
By Jeremy Michaels and Peter Fabricius
Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says a British "kith and kin" factor
is
frustrating the political crisis in Zimbabwe. She says the Zanu PF
government
does not want to be seen to being told what to do by former
colonisers. In an
interview with Independent Newspapers yesterday,
Dlamini-Zuma said the "kith
and kin" issue - recently raised by President
Thabo Mbeki - was first brought
up by the ANC when Ian Smith seized control
of Zimbabwe from Britain. It was
"still part of the problem" today. "The ANC
in the 1960s was also talking
about how the Labour government at the time
had not responded appropriately,
in their view, to the situation in
Zimbabwe, where Ian Smith had declared
independence. "The British had
responded in all other instances like that,
but when it came to Zimbabwe
they openly said that 'because of kith and kin'
they can't respond,"
Dlamini-Zuma said. "But of course we also know that
today land is taken away
from 'kith and kin' as well, so that is still part
of the problem, in my
view." Asked whether the 'kith and kin' issue was
complicating efforts to
find a political solution in Zimbabwe, Dlamini-Zuma
said: "It does, because
the Zimbabweans do not want to be seen to be told
what to do by their former
colonisers."
At a media briefing
earlier, Dlamini-Zuma said she saw nothing wrong with
the Zimbabwean Supreme
Court's controversial decision last week that the
country's harsh media law
is constitutional. The Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa) requires Zimbabwean media to register with
the government or face
closure. It has been widely criticised as giving the
Zimbabwean government
the power to close down media critical of itself.
After repeated closures,
the country's only independent newspaper, the Daily
News appealed to the
Zimbabwean Supreme Court to declare the Aippa
unconstitutional because it
clashed with the free-speech provisions of the
constitution. But last week
the Supreme Court dismissed the application by
the Daily News. At a
parliamentary briefing, Dlamini-Zuma was asked whether
it was possible for
the country to hold free-and-fair elections - due next
year - if the media
was controlled by the government through the Aippa.
Dlamini-Zuma said the
government always accepted the decision of its courts.
"I don't know whether
you are implying that we should not accept a
constitutional court ruling in
another country," she inquired."This was not
a government ruling, but a court
ruling," she added.
Dlamini-Zuma then questioned how the requirement
for media houses to
register under the Aippa would constitute control of the
media by the
government. "How does that translate to government control of
the media? If
the government just wants to register the media? If you are
expected to
register, you register. That's the law of the land." It was
pointed out to
her that the law allowed the government to control the media
because it
could refuse to register media houses it did not like. She
insisted she did
not see how this constituted an attempt by the government to
control the
media unless the government was refusing to apply the law.
"Unless we can
say that here and here and here the government has refused a
legal
application, and the court has said the government should register
that
media, and the government is refusing to apply what the court has said
(it
should do), then we can talk about it." She added that if the
constitutional
court in, say Britain, had made such a ruling, "you would
accept that
without question, as you accept many things from that part of the
world".
After stressing that she was "not quite the foreign minister
of Zimbabwe",
Dlamini-Zuma gave an update on the state of negotiations
between the ruling
Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
She said that
after President Mbeki visited Zimbabwe in December to meet
President Robert
Mugabe, Mugabe had briefed the Zimbabwean media that Zanu PF
was having
informal talks with the MDC, looking at various issues. "He said
that as
soon as they had finished those informal talks, they would go to
formal
talks and the media would be informed when that happened."
Dlamini-Zuma said
Mbeki and his delegation had also met with the Zimbabwean
opposition "to get
their impressions". She said the MDC had told Mbeki that,
as a result of the
government's near-readiness, they would tell their team to
speed up the
informal talks. "I think after that, Zanu PF announced they were
forming a
negotiating commission, which means they are probably preparing for
the next
phase (of negotiations)". Mbeki said on Sunday that Zanu-PF and the
MDC had
agreed to hold the parliamentary election in March 2005 - three
months ahead
of the scheduled June date that would have made the poll five
years later
than the previous election. But the MDC said in Harare that the
election
date was not the outcome of negotiations but a requirement of law.
The
Sunday Times reported that Mugabe would announce a date when he
returned
from leave later this month.
Comment from ZWNEWS, 11 February
Her Master's Voice
Those
who have seen and heard the South African Foreign Minister's outbursts
this
past week can be forgiven for speculating as to what exactly
Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma is for. She is not the architect of South Africa's
foreign
policy: that is decided for her by people above her pay-grade. She
is
certainly no diplomat. What is the point of Mrs
Dlamini-Zuma?
Whatever her value to the South African administration,
for
Zimbabwe-watchers Mrs Dlamini-Zuma serves two useful purposes. First,
when
speaking of South Africa's policy towards Zimbabwe, she speaks the
plain
unvarnished truth about its true nature. Where President Mbeki and
his
spokesmen obfuscate and prevaricate, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma gets straight to
the
heart of the matter. As long ago as 2001, she said: "We won't
condemn
Zimbabwe." A year ago she said it would be "unrevolutionary" to
criticise
Zimbabwe. Those two statements alone, amongst all the others she
has made,
have proved a better guide to South Africa's Zimbabwe policy than
anything
that has emanated from Mbeki's office.
Secondly, when
speaking of conditions inside Zimbabwe, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma
undergoes a pole
reversal: almost everything she says is the opposite of the
truth. Referring
to the decidedly unfree parliamentary elections in 2000,
she said: "We will
not treat the Zimbabwe government as if it was an
illegitimate government. It
was elected in democratic elections that were
free and fair." A year ago, her
view of the 'fast-track' land reform policy,
that has resulted in nearly
three-quarters of the population being fed by
international donors, was that
it had been marred by "a few administration
errors". Most recently, she
asked, rhetorically: "Has any journalist been
denied accreditation?" Within
hours, the head of Zimbabwe's Media Commission
had disobliged her, by stating
that no Daily News journalists would be
registered unless they found a new
employer.
So there we have two simple rules of interpretation. What
Mrs Dlamini-Zuma
says regarding South Africa's policy towards its northern
neighbour can be
taken at face value. When she speaks on other matters
Zimbabwean - about
face. Her statement that a solution to the crisis in
Zimbabwe is being
frustrated by a British policy of supporting its "kith and
kin", therefore
means that the problem lies not in London, but somewhere
closer to home -
first Harare, and second Pretoria. Her statement that the
Zimbabwe Supreme
Court's ruling that the AIPPA media act is constitutional
was a court
decision, and not that of the government, therefore means the
opposite. And
then she exploded on Monday at a press briefing, saying: "I am
not the
Zimbabwe foreign minister." She might as well be. The government in
Harare
should be decent enough to fund part of her salary.
Washington Times
South Africa's zinger from
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's recent attack on press freedoms and
ongoing sham trial of an
opposition leader are not only a reaffirmation of
the government's
bare-knuckled tendencies, but also a reflection of South
Africa's leadership
shortcomings.
South African President Thabo Mbeki,
the undisputed power broker of
southern Africa, said Sunday that the
government of Zimbabwe and its
opposition have agreed on an agenda for
negotiations geared toward holding
parliamentary elections. But Zimbabwe's
justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa,
said Monday that he didn't know of any
developments regarding talks with the
opposition party Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
Surely, Mr. Chinamasa's public disavowal of Mr.
Mbeki's statement was
embarrassing for South Africa. Mr. Mbeki's reticence to
push Zimbabwe even
moderately toward law, order and democracy already
undermines his
government's clout. It now appears that the Zimbabwean
government gave Mr.
Mbeki false informationregardingdemocratic developments.
Mr. Mbeki's failure
to react to this apparent deception further undermines
his credibility.
Organizations in South Africa haven't been so quiet
regarding the
transgressions of Zimbabwe's leader, Robert Mugabe. The General
Council of
the Bar of South Africa was quick to react to Zimbabwe's latest
attack on
press freedoms. The Zimbabwean Supreme Court ruled Thursday that
all
journalists working without a government-issued license face a
mandatory
penalty of two years in jail, without review. The South
African
organizations said the ruling "is not only a blow to freedom of
expression,
but also to the independence of the judiciary, and is to be
doubly
deprecated." The ruling has shut down Zimbabwe's only independent
daily
newspaper, the Daily News.
The South African National Editors'
Forum on Sunday echoed those
concerns and requested a meeting with the
Department of Foreign Affairs to
discuss them. But South African Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was
embarrassingly supportive of the court's
ruling.
Meanwhile, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC opposition party,
is
facing trial (and therefore a death penalty) on treason charges that
are,
according to serious observers, obviously trumped up. After South
Africa's
own struggles with repression and brutality, it seems inconceivable
that Mr.
Mbeki would stand idly by.
South Africa has maintained strong
press freedoms and a vibrant, open
debate itself. Its media is a reliable
watchdog of the Mbeki and other
governments, and it has bolstered
accountability in the region. But its
routine apologies for Zimbabwe's wrongs
are severely damaging its
credibility. Despite all of South Africa's
misplaced support, the government
of Zimbabwe has no qualms about publicly
embarrassing Mr. Mbeki. What will
it take for South Africa to finally change
its approach?
Zim Needs Us$9 Million to Buy Foot-And-Mouth Vaccines
The Herald
(Harare)
February 11, 2004
Posted to the web February 11,
2004
Harare
ZIMBABWE needs at least US$9 million (close to $34
billion) to buy
foot-and-mouth disease vaccines from Botswana this year and
effectively
contain the outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, Director
of
Veterinary Services, Dr Welbourne Madzima, said yesterday.
Dr
Madzima said a request for funding has been forwarded to the Government
for
the purchase of the vaccine to be used mainly in Matabeleland
South,
Matabeleland North, Midlands and Masvingo, which have in the past
recorded
frequent outbreaks of foot and mouth.
He said the vaccines
would also be used in other provinces when the need
arises.
Dr Madzima
said his department gets foreign currency from the Government as
an ongoing
exercise.
"We have been getting foreign currency from the Government as
an ongoing
exercise. We make applications for allocations when the need
arises. Right
now we have made an application because the last time we were
given was 24
September, an allocation that we have exhausted," said Dr
Madzima.
"We need at least US$9 million this year to purchase the
vaccines for the
areas that are prone to outbreaks to maintain a high level
of immunity in
our cattle. The vaccines will be administered to cattle that
we last
vaccinated last year or the year before."
He said the
Veterinary Services Department has to spend at least US$1
million importing
vaccines from the Botswana Vaccine Institute every month.
"The Government
undertook to give us US$1 million a month. We are aware that
there are many
sectors of the economy competing for the same foreign
currency from the
Government and we are aware that the country is not
generating much foreign
currency. But we also believe that we put up a
convincing proposal that will
get a good response from the Government," Dr
Madzima said.
He said the
country had managed to contain the major outbreaks of foot and
mouth that
occurred in Matabeleland North and the Midlands last year.
"We only
reported isolated cases in Chiredzi and Mwenezi areas at the
beginning of the
year. We have adequate vaccines for the cases and the
situation seems to be
getting back to normal," he said.
The frequent foot and mouth outbreaks
have in the past negatively affected
the country's beef exports to the niche
market in the European Union.
The country banned the export of meat
products last year following outbreaks
of the disease.
Dr Madzima said
at least three million cattle have to be vaccinated against
foot and mouth
this year if the funds were made available.
At the beginning of the year
the Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development Dr Joseph Made held talks
with Iranian experts on possibilities
of setting up an institution to
manufacture foot and mouth vaccines.
Dr Made said the major reason for
setting up such a factory were to reduce
the amount of foreign currency spent
on importing the vaccines from Botswana
and South Africa.
Legal Profession Loses Glitter
The Herald
(Harare)
February 11, 2004
Posted to the web February 11,
2004
Ruth Butaumocho
Harare
ZIMBABWE has witnessed an increase
in malpractice by law firms.
The cases ranged from practising without
registration, failure to renew
registration and abuse of trust
funds.
Some of the misconduct also included that of lawyers coming to
court to
represent a client in a drunken state.
At least 40 law firms
were barred from practicing following their failure to
renew licences, a
requirement stipulated by their mother body, the Law
Society of Zimbabwe
early this month.
All lawyers or law firms in private practice were
expected to register and
provide an audit certificate on funds held in
trust.
There are a good number of lawyers who have been caught on the
wrong side of
the law but still continue to practice.
This has left
many people wondering what could have gone wrong with the
learned
professionals who had once been held in very high esteem.
Discontent has
also been registered within the legal fraternity over
these
malpractices.
Mr Justice Maphios Cheda said at the opening of
the first term of Gweru High
Court circuit early this year that it was
disheartening to note that some
lawyers struck off the professional register
were illegally offering
services to members of the public.
"Of late,
we have seen a number of self-actors filing professionally drafted
pleadings.
However, when the self-actor appears in court, in most cases you
find out
that he is completely semi-literate.
"Preliminary investigations have
revealed that the authors of such pleadings
are blacklisted lawyers, former
magistrates or those who had a stint in
legal firms.
"The profession
cannot afford to have its image tarnished by such people,"
said the
judge.
It was also now common for legal practitioners to act in cahoots
with
criminal elements.
This has seen prominent lawyers being brought
before the courts on
allegations of corruption and other acts of
misconduct.
Last month, prominent Harare lawyer Wilson Manase, provincial
magistrate
Caroline-Anne Chigumira and prosecutor Blessmore Gorejena were
arraigned
before the courts to answer to charges of
corruption.
Charges against the three rose after a key suspect in the
Trust Bank fraud
involving $7,7 was granted bail in chambers despite the fact
that the State
had not approved that he be granted bail.
The three are
now awaiting courts ruling on the case.
Although the public is waiting
for the outcome of the case, several opinions
have been expressed with
members of the public saying such allegations raise
ire because lawyers were
custodians of justice.
"For a lawyer to be dragged to the courts like a
common criminal is not only
an embarrassment to the legal society, but brings
out glaring loopholes
within the legal fraternity," said a prominent Harare
lawyer.
He said the societys confidence in this noble profession had
waned,
destroying the trust that society had in lawyers and the judiciary as
a
whole.
"If lawyers can be subjected to the scrutiny of the public
through the
courts and spending nights in cells, then the legal profession is
threatened
and undermined as well," said Rudolf Mareya, an advocate officer
with a
non-governmental organisation.
He added that while it was too
early to comment on allegations that were
being leveled against Mr Manase,
the law would be upheld.
Law Society of Zimbabwe president Mr Joseph
James dismissed assertions that
the legal fraternity was no longer a noble
profession, saying it was normal
for any profession to experience
irregularities.
"The problem is everywhere. Go to South Africa, Zambia
and even the
developed countries, you will always come across some lawyers,
who misbehave
while in the line of duty," he said.
Mr James however
said the society handled several complaints of misconduct
from the members of
the public and these had since been dealt with.
"When we receive
complaints from the public we normally ask the lawyer
concerned to comment.
Failure to do so would be deemed as an act of
misconduct".
Commenting
on the 40 firms that were struck off the register at the
beginning of this
year, Mr Joseph said this was purely for administrative
reasons and had
nothing to do with their professional conduct.
"Law firms are supposed to
register the last day of December every year so
that they can continue to
practice.
"When they register, they need to avail their books to the
society. However
most of them failed to do that in time because of shortage
of accountants,
hence the decision we took," he said.
However be it as
it may some sections of society has accused the law society
of failing to
monitor the operations of its members regularly, resulting in
these
malpractices.
It has also been accused of being reactive rather than
proactive.
"We continue to monitor the operations of our members and it
is not fair for
people to start labelling us over one incident," said the law
society
president.
Mr Joseph added that despite negative media
publicity on the legal
fraternity he was satisfied with the performance of
his members who were
strewn around the country.
The Law Society of
Zimbabwe has more than 800 lawyers under its membership,
600 of them were in
the private sector.
'Look East' Policy Bears Fruit
The Herald
(Harare)
February 11, 2004
Posted to the web February 11,
2004
Donald Charumbira
Harare
Zimbabwe's "Look East" policy is
beginning to bear fruit, as the nation
shifts its foreign policy towards
deeper relations with genuine friends of
the East.
Recent
contributions to the land reform programme by such countries as
China, Iran
and Malaysia are evidence of the sincerity of these long-term,
all-weather
friends.
This has mitigated challenges resulting from the harsh and
unjustified
Western sanctions imposed against the country.
The double
standards of the West had become increasingly cumbersome in the
last decade
of the 20th Century, with regards in particular to the land
reform programme.
The high expectations that we had for support and
co-operation with the West
crashed when their true colours came to the fore.
It is no longer a
secret that any relationship with some Western nations is
based solely on how
a developing country can benefit the West, without as
much as consideration
of the needs of the developing nation itself.
A journey back in history
will show clearly that the genuine trade partners
who sought mutually
beneficial partnerships were the nations of the East.
Traders from China,
Iran, India, Malaya and other Asian nations had solid
trade links established
with Africa, long before the arrival of the
Europeans.
When the
Europeans came under the guise of friendship, they swiftly usurped
power and
made themselves despots in our lands. They plundered our resources
and,
through the British South Africa Company, made arrangements to legalise
their
rule in Zimbabwe. They had no morals or ethics as evidenced by the
deceptive
manner in which the Rudd Concession was obtained. They viewed
Africans as
quasi-human entities that had no human rights.
Free trade had always been
the chorus of the West. In the 19th Century, they
used threats and force of
arms to open up the countries of Africa and Asia
for trade. They objected
strongly when they were not allowed to use opium to
pay for the goods of
Asian countries.
They set up fortified trading stations in many of the
countries and used
superior arms to infiltrate the hinterlands to secure
supplies of local
products.
Stealthily they colonised and occupied
many of the counties they were
purportedly trading with.
In our
struggle for liberation, the West was, once again, double faced.
They
proclaimed sympathy with the liberation forces, yet they
clandestinely
supported Rhodesian rule in Zimbabwe. Evidence has pointed to
weapons supply
from Western nations, to support the Rhodesian
resistance.
It was the Eastern nations - China, North Korea and the
Soviet Union - which
supplied the liberation forces with training and
equipment for the armed
struggle.
Without their assistance, Zimbabwe's
struggle may have been further
protracted.
Similarly, after we gained
independence, the West flooded Zimbabwe with
promises and pledges, through
its popular "carrot-and-stick" strategy.
They imposed their will on the
country by demanding democracy, "free and
fair elections," open markets,
free-floating currencies, privatization - all
facets that would give them
unregulated control over Zimbabwe's economy and
politics.
However,
when the nation decided to undertake the Land Reform Programme
meant to
redress long-standing colonial imbalances, the fake friendships of
the West
soon dissolved. Their true colours have since come through. They
have imposed
sanctions on the country and supported puppet parties to split
the people of
the country.
Once again, it is the Eastern nations of China, Iran,
Malaysia and others
that are now rallying behind Zimbabwe's drive for
economic and agricultural
development. The proverbial East also encompasses
friendly countries that
are not literally in the East, but support the
ideology of south-south
partnership, such as Cuba, Libya and others. Indeed
it is in trying times
that one's true friends come to the fore.
The
time is opportune therefore, for Zimbabwe to turn its eyes away from the
West
and to actively adopt a Look-East policy. This is a policy that
involves
getting to know the East, engaging it, and working with it towards
national
development. This involves learning from the success stories of
Eastern
nations, and developing national plans based on the best practices
of the
East.
Learning from the East will not be easy. The Western nations have
long
ensured that there is little communication and co-operation between
Africa
and the East. As a result, the East holds great misconceptions about
Africa.
Trade has often been focused with the West, such that a product from
Africa
would first go to Europe before being exported to an Eastern nation,
and
vice versa.
A preliminary imperative is therefore to initiate
exchange programmes
amongst youth, businesspeople, women, parliamentarians,
farmers and other
groups. The key to successful relations with the East lies
in first
developing friendships before doing business. Unlike the West, many
cultures
in Asia value long-term relationships in business which emanate from
trust,
mutual understanding and friendship. We must develop friendships on
many
levels with people of the East.
The second imperative is to
launch solid avenues for long-term co-operation.
Such co-operation needs to
be honest, committed and efficiently implemented.
We must never abuse the
friendship and trust that we have with the East. We
need to be able to fulfil
our end of the bargain.
A crosscutting imperative is the constant need
for win-win partnerships in
all aspects of co-operation with the East. It is
not sustainable to depend
on aid alone, for this will either dry up quickly,
or be subject to
conditionalities that may damage terms of cooperation. All
parties to a
co-operative programme need to benefit equally.
Looking
East ultimately calls for us to discard the false friendships with
the West,
and concentrating our efforts on enhancing relations with the more
genuine
nations of the East, that are interested in transparent
win-win
relationships.
Let us realise that the West has never, and
does not see Africans as equal
human beings and partners. They will continue
to feel that their race is
superior and that they are entitled to own the
best that the world has to
offer. They will continue to think that they can
control and command all
other races.
They will always believe that the
cities and fertile lands are theirs and
theirs alone, and that we should be
grateful for the barren lands, forests
and jungles. They have proved over the
years that they are devoid of any
moral and ethical standards.
Let us
therefore affirm our sovereignty, integrity and dignity by
befriending those
who will take us as fellow and equal human beings.
Dispatch - East London
EDITORIAL OPINION
Zimbabwe rights
THE
Zimbabwe crisis has gathered like heavy cloud over southern Africa,
getting
darker and more stifling, punctuated with ominous flashes, yet
neither
erupting into storm nor opening to a rainbow of hope.
Outright critics of
President Robert Mugabe and his gang of supporters are
convinced the storm
must come. Others, like our President Thabo Mbeki and
Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Zuma, are convinced that the cloud will roll
back - so convinced
they have again been accused of dreaming.
In an interview broadcast on
Sunday, Mbeki apparently said Zimbabwe's ruling
Zanu(PF) and opposition
Movement for Democratic Change had agreed to bring
forward the next
parliamentary election to March next year. Mbeki's claim
was immediately
denied by MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
Ncube told Business Day
that, while Mbeki's call for urgent talks was
commendable, the only contact
between the parties was in talks about talks.
It could not possibly be true
that they had agreed to bring forward the
parliamentary election. The timing
of the parliamentary election was never
in dispute: "What has always been the
issue in dispute is the stolen
presidential election of March 2002."
A
few months ago Mbeki said substantive talks were under way between
the
parties, only to be immediately contradicted by both of them. Earlier
last
year he told the All-Africa Editors' Conference at Midrand that the MDC
had
asked him to take no action until all the 2002 voting challenges had
been
resolved by Zimbabwe's courts. Almost a year later the courts are
still
dragging their robes.
On Monday Nkosazana Zuma berated a
journalist for asking whether the South
African government was going to
protest over a Zimbabwe Supreme Court
ruling. With one judge dissenting, the
court found the constitution was not
infringed by a government ban on
reporters working without official
accreditation.
Journalists working
for the independent Daily News were refused
accreditation by the Zimbabwe
media commission because the newspaper is not
licensed - the subject of yet
another dispute before Zimbabwe's courts.
Zuma's attitude was that the
reporter would never have questioned a decision
of a British court - although
the British press has recently been highly
critical of the findings of Senior
Judge James Hutton regarding its
government's use (or abuse) of intelligence
reports.
The South African National Editors' Forum has condemned the
Zimbabwean
Supreme Court for the Daily News ruling and is seeking an urgent
meeting
with Foreign Affairs to say so.
Meanwhile the British
parliament's foreign affairs committee, in South
Africa on a fact-finding
tour, is "puzzled" by the government's attitude on
Zimbabwe "because South
Africa is such a successful model of transition".
MP Donald Anderson
said: "It would be better for foreign investors in South
Africa if the
government had a clear stance on human rights. South Africa is
paying a high
price for what is happening in Zimbabwe."
Our government can sneer at
Britain's record in Zimbabwe - it depends who
you choose to believe on the
recent history of land claims there. But we
cannot sneer at protests about
human rights and expect diplomats and
visiting MPs to recommend investment
here.
News24
137 Harare rapes in January
11/02/2004 17:36 -
(SA)
Harare - At least 137 young girls were raped in Harare in
January, according
to figures released by a rights activist on
Wednesday.
She described the figure as "staggering" for a capital of 1.5
million
people.
A separate study revealed that 18% of Zimbabwean women
had been raped in
their lifetime, according to Janah Ncube, head of the
Woman's Coalition of
Zimbabwe.
Ncube told scores of protesters who
took to the streets on Wednesday to
protest against rape that the figure for
the number of children raped in
Harare in January came from a clinic where
most cases like this were
treated.
More than 90% of reported rape
victims were infected by HIV, according to
the coalition. Zimbabwe is one of
the countries worst affected by the Aids
scourge, with at least 3 000
Aids-related deaths a week.
"We are really very angry, we are outraged,
we want a law to protect us,"
said Ncube.
The protesters included
women, men, parliamentarians and rights activists.
Has become an accepted
phenomenon
Escorted by police, the group marched from the mayor's office
to the city
centre park, Africa Unity Square, days after a woman was
gang-raped by five
homeless people in the capital in the early
evening.
The city's acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara expressed concern
that violence
against women had taken root in the country.
"Abuse of
women has become an accepted phenomenon in our society and we
should put an
end to this," she said.
"Rape is a form of torture and it kills," said
the mayor.
Last week, the 38-year-old woman, walking from her office to
her flat in the
city centre, was dragged into an alley and gang-raped by five
men.
"Gang rape has become commonplace," said Ncube. "We are now scared
to walk
in the streets even in broad daylight."
She said that in the
early 1980s, the "government had enough police to
unleash into the streets of
Harare to round up women who were walking
unaccompanied by males, claiming
that they were prostitutes".
"Why can the same police not be unleashed on
the streets of Harare to round
up street kids who have grown up to be street
rapists?" she asked.
The protesters carried placards urging the
government to round up street
children and take them to farms.
The
government has acquired, under its controversial land reforms, millions
of
hectares of land from whites for resettlement of landless blacks.
Edited
by Iaine Harper
New Zimbabwe
British journalists taken for ride in Victoria
Falls
By Trevor Grundy
11/02/04
BRITISH journalists
representing tabloids and consumer magazines which
specialise in luxury
travel and weddings in expensively exotic places have
been flown to starving
Zimbabwe to attend centenary
celebrations at the world famous Victoria Falls
Hotel.
The intention is that they help kick-start the tourist industry in
a country
which has become an international pariah because of the violent
policies of
its soon to be 80-year old leader, President Robert
Mugabe.
The journalists agreed to fly to Harare and then on to the five
star
Victoria Falls Hotel for centenary celebrations at the
weekend.
They are the guests of two huge hotel chains – the Zimbabwe Sun
Leisure
Group and Meikles Africa Hotels which was founded by a family of
intrepid
Scots who left Strathaven and Avondale in 1868 to start a new life
in
southern Africa during the Highland Clearances.
“We believe British
journalists can help us re-launch the tourism industry,
“ Victoria Falls
Hotel manager David Seaman said in a telephone interview.
”Last year, our
occupancy was only 22 percent. Victoria Falls is a safe
destination and to
make it even safer, we plan to introduce tourist police
because some visitors
are embarrassed when hawkers offer them curios for
their shoes.”
The
Victoria Falls Hotel was completed in April 1904 when the Rhodesian
Railway
was extended from Bulawayo to the River Zambezi.
“Favourable reports
about Zimbabwe’s tourism potential could do us a lot of
good,” said
Seaman.
The Minister of Tourism, Francis Nhema, is expected to fly to the
Victoria
Falls on the border with Zambia to meet journalists and tell them
that
foreign correspondents have exaggerated the security situation in order
to
“undermine” President Mugabe’s land policies.
Sources say it’s
possible that President Mugabe himself will meet the
journalists, although he
says publicly that he detests the British media.
The BBC, banned in Zimbabwe,
reports on events in that country from London,
Beit Bridge and
Johannesburg.
Tourism in destination-rich Zimbabwe is in the
doldrums.
In 1999, two million people visited Zimbabwe, tourism was the
country’s
third largest earner of foreign exchange and tourist spending
generated six
percent of GDP, employing over 200,000 people.
Following
the invasion of white-owned farms and violent attacks on the
opposition,
visitor numbers fell by 60 percent in 2000. The British stayed
away and
hotels experienced a 70 percent fall. About 10,000 workers lost
their
jobs.
Unemployment today has reached 85 percent and over 90 percent of
the country
’s 11.5 million people live below the poverty datum line
(pdl).
During the apartheid years in South Africa, journalists were asked
by the UN
not to help boost tourism by visiting that country where
black
leaders –including Nelson Mandela – were imprisoned on Robben Island
close
to that country’s most spectacular sight, Table Cloth Mountain in Cape
Town.
“We would like the British to return and experience our commitment
to
excellence,” says Seaman. ”But we are also targeting markets in
Spain,
France, Germany and Japan.”
The Zimbabwe Tourist Association
(ZTA ) has been keen to emphasise that
"violence occurs far away from our
main tourist centres. The international
press fails to report violence in
other countries, including South Africa.”
David Seaman has promised the
journalists the trip of a lifetime.
Magazines specialising in lifestyle
and luxury weddings have been targeted
by the hotel’s public relations
company in the UK.
At a time when ordinary blacks struggle to pay for a
loaf of bread a day to
feed families of between 6-8 people, the Victoria
Falls Hotel (owned by a
group calling itself Emergent Railway Properties) is
offering those about to
tie the knot memory-making ceremonies in a private
Anglican Church chapel.
Website adverts tell British couples of some of
the treats awaiting them in
soon to be starving Zimbabwe.
“An iced
wedding cake decorated with roses and the bride and groom’s name on
it (large
enough for 10 people). A champagne breakfast in your own room, red
roses, a
box of Belgian chocolates and a bottle of South African
sparkling
wine.”
And after the stresses and strains of a tiring
wedding night – “A
complementary massage for the bride and groom.”
The
happy couple will then be encouraged to eat at quality restaurants
named
after Africa’s best known explorers – Scotland’s Dr David Livingstone
just
one of them.
After sampling what the famous hotel has on offer,
reporters will be
encouraged to tell their readers about luxury “booze
cruises” along the
River Zambezi and the joy of sipping ice cold champagne as
a golden sun
sinks over the world’s largest curtain of falling water while
listening to
indigenous choirs and seeing local dancers in gardens once
walked upon by
Harold Macmillan, John Vorster, Kenneth Kaunda, Ian Smith and
members of the
Royal Family.
The journalists will travel free to
Zimbabwe and won’t have to put hands in
their pockets unless they want to
return home with curios sold at almost
give away prices because of the
recession and a 1000 percent inflation rate.
Normally air fares to
Zimbabwe (return) cost about £750 and hotel bills
would set a couple back at
least that same amount again.
And if holidaymakers do decide to return to
a country, they will find they
are on one of the cheapest holidays in the
world.
The British pound is pegged a $1 433 at the official rate. But
outside the
Victoria Falls Hotel hawkers with large leather bags watched by
the local
police offer as much as $9,000 for a British pound.
South Africa has failed Zimbabweans. There were always positive, active
things to be doing over the past three years of Zimbabwe’s economic and human
rights implosion beyond ‘silent diplomacy’. By focussing on Robert Mugabe and
his eccentric personal and party needs– itself wrong as he heads an illegal and
massively corrupt and brutal regime – South Africa has denied itself and
Zimbabweans a number of constructive measures of long term value. Part 1. A Stable Yet Dynamic Foreign Exchange
Regime The four markets have different foreign currency prices according to the
economic value of their activities. The model values exports ahead of essential
imports, aiming to “get the ball rolling” by earning foreign currency; then it
provides the means to buy essential imports as cheaply as possible in order to
keep the domestic cost structure and inflation down; it also provides for import
needs for the local production of consumer goods and services; finally, it
treats imported consumer goods as the lowest priority and thus with the highest
foreign exchange prices, providing a degree of protection for local producers.
Part 2. Building Citizen Rights, Economic Security and
Participation Empowering Citizens as Investors and Owners |