Jan 31, 7:07 AM EST
By
ANGUS SHAW
Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- The poverty
line for maintaining a family of five
in economically ravaged Zimbabwe rose
last year to $467 per month - but
without increased earnings to cover the 8
percent rise, Zimbabwe's state
statistics agency said Monday.
The
nation's 240,000 civil servants, teachers and government workers are
planning to strike to protest average monthly incomes of around $200. With
massive unemployment, most Zimbabweans survive on the equivalent of about $1
a day. Two million people are set to receive food aid in coming months,
according to the United Nations.
The former regional breadbasket is
struggling to emerge from political
gridlock, economic collapse and
international isolation and sanctions after
President Robert Mugabe ordered
the seizures of thousands of white-owned
farms in 2000, disrupting the
agriculture-based economy.
In its latest bulletin, the agency Zimstat
said a family of five needed a
monthly income of $467 if it was to be
defined as "not poor" and able to
meet its basic needs.
It said in
December that family needed to spend nearly $150 on food alone to
consume a
minimum number of calories to stay healthy. Other expenses
included housing,
clothing, transportation and education and health care.
The report did
not account for one expense that appears to have become a
necessity even for
the poorest of the poor: mobile phones. Street vendors
say they need phones
to help them eke out a living buying and selling their
wares.
A state
regulatory body said more than two-thirds of the population - even
beggars
and street children - own 7 million mobile phones and that
inexpensive
Chinese-made phones have clogged the nation's three mobile
networks.
The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
reported it was
investigating below-standard mobile phone services for
congestion, network
failures that "dropped" lines during calls and generally
poor connections.
It reported that in the embattled economy just 380,000
fixed landline phones
were still in use after years of breakdowns and a lack
of money and
equipment for maintenance.
Phone congestion was worsened
by the introduction last year of $1 prepaid
airtime coupons, the smallest
affordable unit, the regulatory group said.
http://af.reuters.com
Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:34pm
GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - China
Development Bank could fund up to $10 billion in
Chinese investment in
Zimbabwe's mining and agriculture sector, a big boost
for a country
struggling to attract foreign investors, a government minister
said on
Monday.
Isolated by the West over charges of human rights abuses and
election fraud,
President Robert Mugabe has increasingly looked for help
from China, which
is pushing onto the continent in search of natural
resources for its
expanding economy.
"We have met with officials from
China Development Bank and they have said
they are willing to invest up to
$10 billion in Zimbabwe," Tapiwa Mashakada,
minister of economic planning
and investment promotion, told Reuters on the
sidelines of a business
conference in Harare.
Such an investment would dwarf Zimbabwe's gross
domestic product (GDP),
which is expected to be about $6 billion this
year.
No immediate comment was available from the Chinese embassy in
Harare.
Mashakada told the conference he expected Zimbabwe to produce
about 1.5
million tonnes of maize in 2011, up from 1.3 million a year
before. He saw
gold production hitting 13 tonnes in 2011, up from 8.3 tonnes
in 2010.
Zimbabwe also has the world's second largest platinum
reserves.
China is "looking into mining development, that is exploration
and
exploitation, agriculture, infrastructure development and information
communication technology," said Mashakada, a minister from Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party.
He would
not say if the investment would come this year.
The announcement could be
aimed at trying to prod Western investors to sink
more money into Zimbabwe
out of fear they will lose ground to China.
China's investment has been
growing steadily in Zimbabwe over the last
decade but it still lags behind
what Beijing invests in neighbouring
Mozambique, Zambia and Angola.
A
unity government formed between Mugabe and Tsvangirai in 2009 has brought
stability to an economy crushed by hyperinflation about two years
ago.
However, the authorities have failed to attract foreign investment,
especially from traditional Western investors who want more political
reforms and are worried about a law that says 51 percent of firms worth over
$500,000 should be owned by black Zimbabweans.
China's exports to
Zimbabwe amounted to $159 million in 2010 while the
southern African country
exported $57 million worth of goods, according to
official
figures.
Analysts accuse Beijing of ignoring human rights abuses by
African leaders
as it pursues the resources needed to fuel its rapid
economic growth.
Chinese investors have snapped up commercial and
residential properties in
the capital Harare over the past few
years.
"The Chinese are now moving towards strict due diligence,
accountability and
transparency. At the end of the day this really depends
on us, how we
position ourselves as a destination for investment," said
Mashakada.
"China is coming in a very big way."
http://www.businessweek.com
January 31, 2011, 10:58 AM
EST
By Brian Latham
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s
President Robert Mugabe intends to abandon
talks over a new constitution and
call elections in June after deploying
troops to intimidate voters into
supporting him, three members of his party’s
decision- making body
said.
The soldiers have also been told to prevent the opposition from
campaigning
while candidates of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front
will take orders from the military and intelligence
services, the party
members said, declining to be identified because of
concern about their
safety. One of the members dictated a list to Bloomberg
naming more than 60
military officers and where they will based during the
campaign.
Calling a mid-year election would breach an agreement with
Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change, which formed a coalition
government with
Zanu-PF in 2009, to draw up a new constitution and hold a
referendum on that
before elections were held. That agreement was brokered
by neighboring
countries including South Africa and brought to an end a
decade-long
recession. It left the MDC in control of the finance ministry
while giving
Mugabe authority over the military and police.
Killed,
Homeless
The MDC won a majority of parliamentary seats in the 2008
election and while
Tsvangirai garnered the most votes in a first round
presidential election
held concurrently. He boycotted the runoff citing
attacks his supporters by
the army and police. That election and elections
in 2005, 2002 and 2000 were
marred by electoral irregularities, according to
local and international
observers including missions sent by the European
Union.
In 2008 at least 86 MDC supporters were killed and 200,000 forced
to flee
their homes due to political violence, according to the
party.
Mugabe, who has been in power since the country won its
independence in
1980, said on state television on Jan. 24 that he may call
an election
without the adoption of a new constitution because the MDC is
avoiding going
to the polls. Earlier this month the MDC said in an e-mailed
response to
questions that some of its supporters around the country have
been attacked
by the military.
Rugare Gumbo, a spokesman for Zanu-PF,
denied that the military will be
deployed, in an interview from Harare, the
capital. His party does plan to
have elections called this year, he said.
Talks over the constitution,
already a year behind schedule, are due to be
completed by June 30 and a
referendum held after that.
‘Blood
Bath’
“The situation has the potential for a blood bath if these
elections are
rushed,” Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s finance minister and
secretary general of
the MDC, said in an interview from Harare
today.
Zanu-PF officials in the central province of Masvingo and the
eastern
province of Manicaland have already been summoned by the military
and told
that the campaign in their areas will be run by a senior air force
officer,
one of the party officials said.
The military will also be
tasked with forcing Zimbabwean citizens to sign a
petition denouncing
sanctions imposed by the EU and the U.S. against Mugabe
and many of his
closest allies in government and the military, the party
officials
said.
Sanctions on Mugabe
Those sanctions are frequently cited by
Mugabe and his party as the reason
for the country’s poor performance
economically because they say they amount
to a directive to lenders to shun
the country. Local directors of
foreign-owned companies will also be
pressured to denounce sanctions in the
media or face harassment from the
government, the officials said.
“The current situation is too poisoned
for free elections to he held without
blood-letting,” Eldred Masunungure,
director of the Harare-based Mass Public
Opinion Institute, said in an
interview.
Zimbabwe has the world’s second-biggest reserves of platinum,
after
neighboring South Africa. Rio Tinto Plc, based in London, and
Johannesburg-based Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Anglo Platinum Ltd.
operate mines in the country.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Guthrie Munyuki
Monday, 31 January 2011
17:06
HARARE - The main faction of the MDC led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
has raised a panic alarm following the disappearance of
its top official in
Harare this morning which it says could be a
kidnap.
"Last Maengahama was this morning picked up by two
unidentified men in plain
clothes in Harare’s Central Business District.
His whereabouts remain
unknown and the party is making frantic efforts to
locate him," the party
said in a terse alert to the media.
Police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was unreachable to confirm the
incident.
Officials said they would make further comments once they had
gathered
details of the disappearance and location of the youthful
Maengahama who at
one time escaped an abduction allegedly set up by the
intelligence agents.
"We are yet to know his whereabouts but so far we
have not been successful.
The picture is not yet clear but we are running
around to try and locate
him. I am still gathering the information," MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa
said.
Before the March 29 Presidential
elections in 2008, Maengehama was trailed
by suspected intelligence
operatives during a meeting at Northside Community
Church in
Borrowdale.
Recently he came out firing at Zanu PF by accusing the
liberation movement
of frustrating service delivery in the MDC run
municipalities where
councillors are locked in battles with unrelenting
Local Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo who contends that some of them are
incompetent and not fit
for office.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
By Aislinn
Laing, Johannesburg 1:31PM GMT 31 Jan 2011
Dr Williams, speaking as head
of the Anglican Communion which met last week
in Dublin, said he and his
fellow church leaders had been "deeply distressed
to hear of the continuing
bullying, harassment, and persecution" of
Anglicans who supported the
official church in the diocese of the capital,
Harare, and further
afield.
He said evidence suggested that a faction of priests led by an
excommunicated bishop loyal to President Mugabe were receiving police
backing to attack parishioners – many of whom have been shut out of church
buildings and forced to worship in the open air.
He appealed to
President Mugabe to "put an end to these abuses forthwith",
adding: "We are
convinced that the unmerited, unjust, and unlawful
persecution of the
members of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe damages
further the good name and
reputation of the Republic of Zimbabwe and results
in untold and unnecessary
additional suffering for many thousands of
people."
Zimbabwe's
Anglican church has been divided since 2007 when Nolbert Kunonga,
the then
Bishop of Harare, split from the Anglican province of Central
Africa in 2007
citing opposition to the ordination of homosexual priests and
declared
himself an "archbishop".
He was excommunicated the following year but
retained control of several
church buildings in the Zimbabwean capital
including St Mary's Anglican
cathedral, which now stands locked apart from
occasional services attended
by a handful of stalwarts of Mr Mugabe's Zanu
PF party.
In a letter last month to Zimbabwean Anglicans, Chad Gandiya,
the Bishop of
Harare, said police were harassing his parishioners claiming
new laws allow
them to punish any member of the congregation going within
200 metres of an
Anglican church, and evict priests from their rectories. He
said that there
was no court ruling which sanctioned such measures.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
31
January 2011
While attention has centered on how ZANU PF militants target
members of the
MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai, SW Radio Africa has been
supplied with a
dossier compiled by members of the Johane Masowe WeChishanu
Apostolic
Church, detailing how their members have also been targeted in the
last 3
years.
The document entitled ‘ZANU PF Terrorism Against Our
Church’ describes how
senior church members have been killed, tortured or
assaulted, for not
supporting ZANU PF. The church is thought to have over a
million followers
in Zimbabwe and is one of three influential apostolic
sects drawing huge
crowds to their services. This success has encouraged
ZANU PF to try and
gain supporters, by hook or crook.
The dossier
details how a ZANU PF district leader known as Bonas
wekuMazonde, tortured
and then killed Prophet Partric of Machaya in
Muzarabani. The prophet’s
crime was that ZANU PF felt he was not opening up
access to the church for
the party, especially when they were holding their
campaign meetings. The
same thug beat to death the son of another church
leader, known as Edson
Nyamhunga.
Tendai Chiwimi was beaten to death, again in Machaya,
Muzarabani and his
fellow church members ‘banned from night prayers.’ The
majority of the
congregation fled and sought refuge in the urban centres. In
May 2008
prophet Obey Mapuranga had his whole homestead burnt down in
Muzarabani
because ZANU PF militants accused him of being an ‘MDC traitor’.
ZANU PF
district youth leader Samson Kaerenga led the attack.
The
militants have stopped at nothing to try to force church leaders to
comply
with their instructions. In Mukumbura for example, Prophet Wainege
was
beaten and badly tortured with burning plastic put on his back. They
accused
him of supporting the MDC and discouraging church members from
attending
ZANU PF meetings. Wainege was thrown out of his family home before
it was
burnt down. Fingered in the attack were ZANU PF district leaders Alfa
Kararira, Gohwo and Mapundu.
Surprisingly the children of some of the
ZANU PF thugs joined in the
violence. Prince Bvanya for example was stoned
by the child of war vet
Kararira.
In April 2008 a ZANU PF district
leader, identified as Muparamoto, assaulted
Fryrege, Grasuence and Craby at
Chimbuwe Primary School in Mt Darwin. They
had refused to attend a ZANU PF
campaign meeting, citing church rules
prohibiting them from participating in
politics. All three were brutally
assaulted and warned against going to
church on a Friday, the same day that
ZANU PF had its meetings. Their
communal farming lands were also taken away.
In the Kaitano area (Mt
Darwin), under Village Head Chipemvu, the church
says Apostle Harrison
Chimutsimhu was ‘beaten and tortured for going to
church on a Friday instead
of going to ZANU PF campaign meetings. Again a
ZANU PF district leader,
Erick Chipemvu, led the attacks. Another church
member, Batsirai Gono, who
used to work at the Cargil depot in Hoya, was
beaten up and suffered a
broken leg. Again he had also refused to attend
campaign
rallies.
ZANU PF provincial youth chairman Ringson Chinyere, Simeon
Chinyere (ZANU PF
ex-Detainees chairman), Rediot Kagodo, Christopher Kagodo,
Chief Kasekete,
Senator Manyeruke, and ZANU PF MP Mushore, were all fingered
in the
violence.
In Centenary, church leader Reuben Matiredza was
chased away from his place
of worship and hauled before the traditional
Chief Nembire. They accused him
of being an MDC supporter and not allowing
his church followers to attend
ZANU PF campaign meetings. They forced him to
pay two cows and two goats,
ordered him to vacate his place of worship and
bring all his followers to a
ZANU PF campaign meeting. ‘The case was taken
to a provincial Magistrate’s
court and the Vapositori won the case against
the chief,’ the document said.
Although Mugabe’s party has met stiff
resistance from the church leaders,
one area where they met with success was
Kasekete Village, Sohwe, in
Muzarabani.
‘The whole church has been
infiltrated and assimilated into ZANU PF. It has
been turned into a ZANU PF
district with all structures manned by church
membership. All church members
seen not to be cooperative were intimidated
and tortured to comply. The
intimidation continues and the whole church is
now in the hands of ZANU PF,”
the church said.
Even those who fled to Mozambique were hunted down
there. SW Radio Africa
was told how Prophet Temba in Mukumbura was forced
out of his homestead in
November 2007 for ‘not participating in ZANU PF hate
campaigns and torture
and beatings.’ He fled to Mozambique but ‘was followed
up and threatened and
reported to Mozambican authorities as a sell-out,’ the
church said.
‘Ours is a struggle for freedom of our church from the
draconian oppression
of this Mugabe regime. We realise it’s a dragon beast
that’s dragging our
church with it to extinction. So we want to fight, and
fight it we will,’
the church members vowed in the dossier released to
us.
With elections around the corner Mugabe’s regime have made no secret
of
their plans to court supporters from the 5 million member strong
apostolic
sects. Mugabe pardoned convicted serial rapist, Madzibaba Godfrey
Nzira, and
deployed him to the Muzarabani District, in what is expected is
the start of
a national campaign to coerce members to support ZANU
PF.
Meanwhile the MDC-T on Monday issued a statement saying their Deputy
Local
Government Secretary, Last Maengahama, was picked up in the morning by
two
unidentified men in plain clothes in the Harare city centre. His
whereabouts
remain unknown but ‘the party is making frantic efforts to
locate him.’ By
late evening party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said they had
still not managed
to locate him.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Irene Madongo
31 January
2011
Welshman Ncube could still become Deputy Prime Minister if he fires
former
MDC-M leader Arthur Mutambara from the party, an analyst has said,
after
Mugabe stressed this weekend that Mutamabara can remain DPM as long as
he
wants to.
Since taking over as leader of the MDC-M this month
Ncube has moved fast to
attempt to take complete hold of power available to
the party, which is now
being referred to as the MDC-N. Once elected, he
soon announced that he was
now a principal to the Global Political Agreement
(GPA), and would thereby
dislodge Mutambara.
Ncube then went on to
declare that he was going to take over the position of
DPM from Mutambara,
whom he said had been offered the position of Minister
of Regional and
Integration Affairs. So far Mutambara has not publicily
commented on these
developments.
However, this weekend in Addis Ababa Robert Mugabe publicly
dashed Welshman
Ncube’s previous statement that he will become Deputy Prime
Minister, by
announcing that he can only do so if Arthur Mutambara resigns
on his own
accord.
On Monday political analyst Prof John Makumbe
said: “(An option) Welshman
has is to dismiss Arthur Mutambara from the
party. If he dismisses him or
expels him from the party, Mutambara will not
have any leg to stand on. He
will have to step down as DPM and Mugabe will
have to go to Ncube and ask
that his party nominates a new DPM.”
“It
can be done. The mood in the party now is that he could be dismissed
because
of the 25 ‘followers’ – the national chairman of the party has gone
out of
that party with 25 others and so Mutambara can easily be accused of
leading
a faction,” Makumbe said.
Ncube’s MDC has rejected Mugabe’s statement
saying each party, not the
President, has the right to appoint
representatives.
The MDC’s claims contrasts sharply with constitutional
law expert Lovemore
Madhuku, who has always maintained that Mutambara can
remain in office,
unless he is fired by Mugabe.
So far Mutambara has
not stated what his next move is, but Mugabe’s apparent
backing of Mutambara
fuels ongoing speculation that ZANU PF is luring him to
join ZANU PF. On
Friday ZANU-PF secretary for information and publicity,
Rugare Gumbo, said
Mutambara would be welcome to join the party.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Monday 31 January
2011
HARARE – The Southern African Development Community (SADC)
and Africa Union
(AU) should push for security sector reforms in Zimbabwe to
include an
agreement on the role of soldiers and other security organs in
the conduct
of future elections, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) has said.
In a position paper on political developments in
Zimbabwe made available to
ZimOnline at the weekend, the ZLHR said the
security forces remained the
ones with the final say in political
developments in Harare and urged SADC
and the AU to urgently seek commitment
by service chiefs to define the role
of the military in electoral
processes.
It called for the “immediate engagement of the security sector
by senior
military structures in SADC and AU to establish a firm agreement
on military
role (or non-role) in electoral processes”.
Hardliner
Zimbabwean army generals have refused to publicly to recognise the
inclusive
government’s authority, especially former opposition leader – now
Prime
Minister – Morgan Tsvangirai’s role.
The generals – who include Zimbabwe
Defence Forces commander Constantine
Chiwenga, air force commander Perence
Shiri, police chief Augustine Chihuri
and secret service boss Happyton
Bonyongwe – are believed to hold a de facto
veto over the transition process
by taking advantage of their positions and
symbiotic relationship with
President Robert Mugabe.
The cabal of powerful generals, with the support
of elements in ZANU PF,
still believes that Tsvangirai should not be
permitted to lead the country,
even if he wins an election.
It has
previously been suggested that to get the generals to agree to step
down,
SADC and the AU should use the "carrot and stick" method, with offers
of
immunity from prosecution for past political crimes in return for
retirement.
There has also been a proposal to assure the generals
they would be able to
keep at least some of their ill-gotten wealth and that
to further sweeten
the deal Western governments should lift visa and
financial sanctions
against officers agreeing to step down.
The
senior Zimbabwean security officials are believed to fear prosecution
for
gross human rights abuses committed in recent repression campaigns,
especially those associated with the violent 2008 presidential and
parliamentary election campaign as well as the 1980s anti-insurgents
campaign in Matabeleland and Midland provinces.
The so-called
Gukurahundi massacre in the two provinces left over 20,000
mainly
Ndebele-speaking people in Matabeleland dead in the 1980s.
The ZLHR also
proposed other short-term benchmarks to test political will
and readiness
for polls scheduled for later this year or in early 2012.
These include
the depoliticisation of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, repeal
of tough
security and media laws, operationalisation of the Zimbabwe Human
Rights
Commission and an audit of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to
ensure its
operations and structures are conducive for the holding of free
and fair
polls.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
31
January 2011
Political analysts on Monday expressed serious concerns over
the reported
appointment of Robert Mugabe as one of the mediators in the
ongoing Ivory
Coast crisis.
The daily Newsday paper reported on
Monday that Mugabe was appointed to help
deal with the crisis that erupted
after the presidential poll in the West
African nation.
The AU said
Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who chairs the
AU Peace and
Security Council, will head the crisis panel.
Noureddine Mezni, the
spokesman for AU Commission chief Jean Ping told the
Agence France-Presse
news agency in Addis Ababa that other members of the
panel are Presidents
Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Idriss Deby of Chad,
Jacob Zuma of South
Africa and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania.
State broadcaster, ZBC, confirmed
Sunday that Zimbabwe had been selected to
be one of the 6 members of the
high level panel to deal with the electoral
crisis in Cote d’Ivoire
following a resolution by the Peace and Security
Council meeting last Friday
that called for the expansion of the negotiating
framework.
The AU
said the panel was expected to come up with binding resolutions,
within a
month, to resolve the two-month-old power struggle in Ivory Coast
between
incumbent strongman Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the
internationally recognised winner of the November elections.
Former
Zimbabwe diplomat to Ethiopia, Clifford Mashiri, told us he was
surprised by
the AU’s decision to appoint Mugabe as mediator.
‘Mugabe is unsuitable
for this role. He stole an election and is therefore
not worthy mediating in
an issue regarding stolen elections. Obviously there
would be conflict of
interest in the sense that he will not advise Laurent
Gbagbo in an objective
manner. Mugabe is considered an election thief, so
how can he be involved in
a crisis that involves another election thief, it’s
impossible,’ Mashiri
said.
Early this month, Gbagbo dispatched envoy Zoge Abie, to seek advice
from
Mugabe, as his political life hung by a thread. Abie met the then
acting
President John Nkomo, in a meeting that was also attended by acting
Foreign
Affairs Minister Herbert Murerwa.
Gbagbo is under pressure
from the world super powers and Economic Community
of West African States
(ECOWAS) to relinquish power. He has been told to
hand over power to
Ouattara, who they recognize as the legitimate winner.
Gbagbo, like
Mugabe in 2008, is facing a legitimacy crisis. He has since
been slapped
with sanctions by the European Union and he faces the
possibility of
military action if he continues with his resistance to
vacating office.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
31/01/2011 00:00:00
by
PRIME
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has accused President Robert Mugabe of
causing
needless “alarm and despondency” after the veteran Zimbabwean leader
threatened to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.
Speaking
from Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic
Forum
Tsvangirai said the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of an
election
are “subjects of an executive decision that must be taken after
consultation
and agreement”.
"President Mugabe continues to needlessly cause alarm and
despondency in the
country by pretending to be oblivious to the fact that
this is a coalition
government. The President and the Prime Minister now
share executive
authority and one cannot act exclusive of the other in
making executive
decisions,” he said.
Mugabe last week said he could
use his powers under the “old Constitution”
crafted in England in 1979 to
dissolve Parliament.
Tsvangirai, however, said there was no such thing as
an "old Constitution".
Zimbabwe has one Constitution which has been amended
19 times.
The 19th amendment, which was made soon after the formation of
the coalition
government in 2009, incorporated clauses from a 2008
power-sharing pact
between the two politicians, which stipulate that none of
the partners could
make unilateral decisions without consulting the
other.
The two-year term of the coalition government is due to end on
February 11
but could be extended to give time for an ongoing exercise to
draft a new
Constitution which is one of the preconditions for the holding
of fresh
elections.
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/
Monday, 31 January 2011
19:44
Harare, (IRIN) - Elvis Marume, 42, a teacher at a faith-based
school in
Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West Province, has been threatened with
death by
alleged elements of the ruling ZANU-PF party's youth militia in
response to
rumours that he had spoken disparagingly about the country’s
land reform
policy.
"I was sleeping with my family when a gang of
about eight youths, whom I
know as they reside in a nearby village, knocked
on the front door and
demanded to see me. Not suspecting anything, I opened
the door for them and
one of them violently pulled me outside,” he told
IRIN.
"They showed me what looked like a gun and told me that they were
going to
kill me because they had received reports that I was teaching my
students
that the land reform programme was bad because it had created food
shortages
in the country."
Marume has since applied for a transfer to
the capital, Harare, hoping for
safety, but there has been an upsurge of
political violence in many parts of
the country, including Harare, ahead of
possible national elections.
President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the
country since independence from
Britain in 1980, launched the fast-track
land reform programme in 2000,
which redistributed more than 4,000 white
commercial farms to landless black
Zimbabweans and set in motion a
decade-long economic malaise. In the first
quarter of 2009 nearly seven
million people - more than half the
population - relied on food
aid.
Marume reported the incident to the police, but had little faith
that the
culprits would be arrested. "Having witnessed the violence that
took place
in 2008, I know what can happen to you once you have been
targeted".
In the 2008 elections a presidential runoff was held after the
first round
of voting failed to produce an outright winner. Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
pulled out of the
second round in protest over political violence against
his party members.
The election was not recognized as free and fair. The
Southern African
Development Community, the regional body, intervened, and a
government of
national unity was formed in February 2009.
But as yet,
no date has been set for a national election. Current
legislation gives the
president the right to call elections, but opposition
parties say that doing
so unilaterally would defeat the consensus politics
of a unity
government.
The Southern African Coalition for the Survivors of Torture,
a Zimbabwean
rights group, said in a recent statement that the incidence of
politically
motivated violence increased in Harare in January, and alleged
that at least
one person aligned to the MDC was shot, several were assaulted
and many
others were threatened, but the police refused to
intervene.
''A lot of my [MDC] colleagues are saying that if this
violence continues,
we should arm ourselves and retaliate because we can't
be overwhelmed by a
party that does not enjoy much support''
ZANU-PF
has been collecting signatures in an attempt to put pressure on the
European
Union (EU) and the US to end economic sanctions targeting senior
ZANU-PF
figures, including Mugabe and his wife Grace, for alleged gross
human rights
abuses and electoral fraud.
Philemon Sibanda, 24, an MDC youth activist
from Chitungwiza, a satellite
town about 30km south of Harare, was recently
admitted to a hospital after
being attacked by alleged members of ZANU-PF
because he refused to sign an
anti-sanctions petition that Mugabe's party
was circulating.
"They attacked me and my two friends in broad daylight
near a shopping
centre as we were going to elect a new [MDC] leadership for
our district.
Two police officers watched as we were being assaulted by more
than 20
youths who were dropped off by a ZANU-PF truck," Sibanda told
IRIN.
He had reported the incident to the police, but did not expect his
attackers
would be arrested. He said the MDC had issued instructions that
political
campaigning should not be carried out openly.
"A lot of my
[MDC] colleagues are saying that if this violence continues, we
should arm
ourselves and retaliate because we can't be overwhelmed by a
party that does
not enjoy much support."
Tip of the iceberg
A well-known ZANU-PF
activist, popularly known as Stunner, is suspected of
being involved in the
attack on Sibanda but has denied any responsibility.
"Those MDC youths
are cry-babies. When they are beaten up for stealing other
people's
property, they claim they are being victimized by ZANU-PF,” the
activist
told IRIN. “However, they should be warned that the days of calling
for
sanctions are over, and we will do anything to stop them."
The MDC has
released a statement claiming that scores of their supporters
have been
attacked by ZANU-PF militias in suburbs around Harare and
Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe’s second city, and that villagers in nearby rural areas
were being
forced to buy ZANU-PF membership cards.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) said in a statement that the police
had arrested MDC activists and
charged them with public violence during
skirmishes in Mbare, a high-density
suburb of Harare.
"The police alleged that the Mbare residents attacked
some ZANU-PF youths
with stones, and also threw stones at the police after
clashing with some
ZANU-PF supporters in the suburb," the ZLHR statement
said.
"What you see is the tip of the iceberg. More violence is taking
place in
rural areas and going unreported,” said John Makumbe, a
Harare-based
political scientist.
“State agents are now part of the
organized violence, and there is bound to
be a sharp increase in political
disturbances in the coming months. If the
elections are ... there will be
bloodshed," he told IRIN.
The national organ on reconciliation and
healing set up by the unity
government was "a lame duck that has dismally
failed to address the issue of
political stability after the 2008 violence,"
Makumbe said.
Militias were once again beating up political opponents
because they knew
they would be protected.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
31 January 2011
The MDC-T recently held a disciplinary hearing
against two of its senior
legislators from Manicaland province, following
accusations that they
stirred up disturbances in Mutare two years
ago.
Both legislators strongly deny the accusations. The two senior
officials who
attended a hearing two weeks ago in Harare are Giles Mutsekwa,
the MDC-T MP
for Mutare north, and Musikavanhu MP, Prosper
Mutseyami.
There were allegations that the two were behind violent scenes
that erupted
in Mutare during a party restructuring exercise, under the
direction of
national organising secretary Elias Mudzuri.
In 2009,
MDC activists in Manicaland alleged that Mudzuri was putting up his
preferred structures, in a bid to oust party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The
former energy minister denied the allegations. But that did not stop him
from being harassed and manhandled by some party activists.
But after
these events in Mutare, the standing committee of the party met in
Bulawayo
for a conference. One of the resolutions from the meeting was to
reprimand
both Mutsekwa and Mutseyami for failing to rein in activists from
their
constituencies who were blamed for disrupting the restructuring
exercise.
‘This matter was dealt with in 2009 by the standing
committee, which is the
decision making body of the party. It was a case
that saw both MPs being
censured by the party and all was behind us until
someone decided to bring
it up again because of the jostling for posts for
the forthcoming congress,’
a source in the party told us.
SW Radio
Africa understands that Mutseyami has been backed by his province
to seek
election for the post of deputy organising secretary, meaning he
would have
to work with Mudzuri in the department.
‘Both MPs attended a hearing two
weeks and what they are waiting for now is
the judgement. But as far as we
are concerned we see this as more of a power
struggle between known
protagonists than anything else,’ our source added.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Chengetai Zvauya
Monday, 31 January
2011 17:16
HARARE - Laws that punish perpetrators of torture -
especially for political
reasons - should be part of the country’s
jurisprudence to end impunity, the
Speaker of the House of Assembly,
Lovemore Moyo has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a book launch by
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights in the capital, the Speaker said
government had found it necessary
to domesticate torture laws as this would
go a long way in ending impunity
among the perpetrators of political
violence.
Moyo said the country experienced widespread political violence
in 2008 in
the run-up to and during the Presidential election run-off as no
laws to
curb or deter the practice were in force.
"In 2000, I
supported a motion moved by the late Honourable Mike Auret that
government
should bring to the House for ratification, the UN Convention
against
Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment,” Moyo
said.
"Although the motion was passed, the Executive has to date not
brought the
Convention to Parliament.
"If we had ratified this law we
were not going to experience the problems of
violence we had during election
time because people who are involved can be
prosecuted by the international
criminal courts as we will be members to
that treaty,'' he said.
Moyo
said for Zimbabwe must ratify the torture laws so as to benefit from
the
International Criminal Court (ICC)’s laws that will bring to book
culprits
of torture and other related political violence.
Moyo said while he
was working hard during his term of office as Speaker
of Parliament to
have laws against political violence domesticated, he was
not getting any
joy from the Executive which was not supportive of the laws.
He said in
2010 MDC legislator Tongai Mathuthu moved a motion in parliament
to create a
Committee of Parliament to investigate election -related
violence and the
motion was still on the Order Paper.
Moyo who is also the national
chairman of the MDC-T, said his office has
been blamed for failing to
legislate against political violence, meant to
protect the ordinary
citizens.
''I am making these statements, not on behalf of my political
party but as a
Speaker of Parliament, saddened by the fact Zimbabwe is
always on the
international map for the wrong reasons related to political
violence during
elections time and we must have laws enshrined in our
statutes to curb the
culture of lawlessness and thuggery.''
He said
the domestication of the human rights laws would bring peace and
stability,
law and order and subsequently national healing and integration
to the
country.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Thelma Chikwanha
Monday, 31 January
2011 16:53
HARARE - The Director of National Parks and Wildlife,
Vitalis Chadenga has
denied any involvement in the recent invasion of
Kuimba Shiri
birdsanctuary.
Last week, Daily News reported that
Chadenga was leading war veterans who
invaded the tourist resort after he
had addressed them.
“I was not leading the invaders. I was actually there
in my capacity as the
director of National Parks and Wildlife,” Chadenga
said.
Chadenga, who used a Zanu PF slogan before addressing the
invaders said
that he had actually gone there to rescue the tour operators
because no
body had the right to hold them at ransom.
“If I had not
used the Zanu PF slogan, the invaders would not have listened
to me,”
Chadenga said.
Zanu PF supporters last week launched fresh invasions of
tour operators in
the Lake Chivero area which prompted an apology from vice
president Joice
Mujuru.
President Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao is
linked to the invaders and he
has been reported saying the invasions of
the lake side resorts are not
over.
There have been reports that
Stan Mudenge, a senior Zanu PFmember recently
encouraged the invasion of a
conservancy in Masvingo to make way for a
Chinese farmer who intends to
grow cotton on the land.
Meanwhile, Patrick Zhuwao, President Mugabe’s
nephew has defied vice
president Joice Mujuru’s call to desist from invading
tourist resorts around
the lake Chivero area.
Zhuwao who is the
Member of Parliament for Zvimba has stated that he is
interested in bird
sanctuary Kuimba Shiri.
He told the Standard weekly that the people of
his constituency would
re-invade the tourist resorts after organising
themselves. He vowed to
tackle the racists operating in his
area.
The invasions of tour operators around the Lake Chivero area were a
well
orchestrated plan by war veterans from Sally Mugabe
district.
Their intention was to take over the tourism facilities and
hand them over
to senior Zanu PF officials.
On January 6, the war
veterans wrote to the minister of land and rural
resettlement Herbert
Murerwa informing him of their plans to invade the
tourist resorts which was
copied to National Parks and Wildlife and Patrick
Zhuwao.
Mujuru last
week apologised to the tour operators saying Zanu PF was not
aware of the
invasions. Local Government Urban and Rural Development
Minister Ignatius
Chombo who is also Zanu PF secretary for lands and rural
settlement
dismissed the invaders as common criminals.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo said he could not comment on Zhuwao’s
defiance since he did not know
anything about statements from both Mujuru
and Zhuawo.
“I really
can’t comment about Mai Mujuru’s statement because I only read it
in the
papers. You call them invasions but I don’t know anything about it.
I don’t
know anything about Zhuwao’s statement,” Gumbo said.
During the same week
which Mujuru apologised to tour operators, Zanu PF
politburo members, Stan
Mudenge and Saviour Kasukuwere told owners of
conservancies in Masvingo that
they were going to invade them to make way
for a Chinese farmer who intends
to grow cotton on the land.
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/
Written by Guy
Monday, 31 January 2011 15:48
Zimbabwe’s troubled aviation industry
received another blow this week when a
report, giving their Civil Aviation
Authority a customer satisfaction index
of 29%, was made public.
The
Zimbabwe Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAAZ) 29% customer satisfaction
index
is an all time low and far below the generally accepted worldwide
figure of
68%. The customer satisfaction report was commissioned by the CAAZ
and
published in August last year, and obtained by the Sunday Times last
week.
In the report, airlines, pilots and service providers lambasted
the CAAZ for
incompetence and blamed its management for a multitude of
problems.
"Senior management tend to be too authoritative, like a
father-son
relationship, the CEO [David Chawota] is inaccessible and
arrogant, and he
lacks the strategic vision to see the parastatal through,”
the report said.
"CAAZ deliberately delays assessment and processing of
documents and ignores
stakeholder complaints. The previous CEO had a vision
and people at heart.
Most pilots interviewed said there should be no
politics at CAAZ as this had
led to the appalling conditions which have
forced most of them to leave for
other countries," reads part of the
report.
Much of the infrastructure at airports is not working, the report
says,
adding that equipment such as conveyor belts have been broken for over
a
year. Passengers bemoaned the often out of order check-in systems and
flight
notification screens.
More serious are complaints from
airlines that runway lights did not work
half the time and during wet
weather. Management admitted that its
surveillance and communications
systems were obsolete, making Zimbabwe’s
airspace very dangerous to fly
in.
Yet another problem is wild animals on the runway, particularly
warthogs at
Harare International Airport. In November last year an Air
Zimbabwe MA 60
hit five warthogs during takeoff, injuring several passengers
and causing
extensive damage to the aircraft. A few weeks later a South
African Airways
aircraft hit two warthogs during takeoff. The CAAZ hired a
private security
company to put up an airport perimeter fence and introduce
a new
surveillance system. However, the pigs often burrow under the
fences.
Some projects that were started nearly a decade ago have still
not been
completed, such as renovations at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo
International Airport
in Bulawayo. Work on upgrading the terminal began in
2003 and was supposed
to have been completed in July 2005, but work was
suspended in 2006. It was
resumed early last year, but hindered by lack of
funds, and will only be
completed some time this year, CAAZ chief executive
David Chawota said in
September 2010.
The report is another indicator
of Zimbabwe’s troubled aviation industry,
which has been ailed by the
country’s economic meltdown, its political
crisis and economic sanctions.
For instance, in 1988 there were 1206 active
pilots in Zimbabwe 380 active
aircraft, but today there are around 167
pilots and 65 active aircraft, the
Sunday Times reports.
Zimbabwe’s national carrier, Air Zimbabwe, has also
suffered from the
country’s aviation decline. It is operating at a loss of
US$2 million a
month and has a debt of up to US$64 million, even though the
government
gives it US$3 million every month, the Sunday Times
reports.
On December 30 last year Peter Chikumba, chief executive officer
of national
carrier Air Zimbabwe, quit after four years in the position. His
departure
followed strikes by Air Zimbabwe pilots in September and early
December over
demands for higher salaries and better working conditions.
During the two
week strike in September, the carrier lost more than US$5
million and was
forced to hire aircraft and crew from South Africa to serve
some of its
routes.
Air Zimbabwe sacked 400 workers in the strike,
who subsequently engaged the
carrier in a legal battle, demanding US$1.3
million worth of severance pay
that was awarded to them by an independent
arbitrator.
Chikumba’s departure also came months after a parliamentary
investigation
revealed that the national carrier was unable to service its
aircraft or pay
its mounting debts.
Air Zimbabwe's passenger numbers
have declined by more than 30% since 2000.
This coincided with a sharp drop
in tourist arrivals as the country plunged
into a political and economic
crisis. Air Zimbabwe used to fly on 25 routes,
but currently services just
seven as it tries to minimise costs. As a
result, South African airlines
have been taking over from the national
carrier. Statistics contained in a
2009 report entitled Tourism Trends and
Statistics, produced by the Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority, indicate that five
of the major airlines serving Zimbabwe
(Air Zimbabwe, South African Airways,
British Airways/Comair, Air Namibia
and South African Airlink) take up 93%
of the airline market share in the
country. The three South African
operators take up 87% of the
market.
Zimbabwe’s first low-cost carrier, Fly Kumba, aimed to challenge
South
Africa’s dominance of the Zimbabwean market, but it ceased operations
on
January 8. The airline originally planned to start operations in
September
2009, but only got going in March 2010, with a flight from
Bulawayo to
Johannesburg. They were flying the route three times a week on a
Boeing
737-500 leased from Air Namibia until shutting down less than a year
later.
At the time of its launch, Fly Kumba was half the price of Air
Zimbabwe and
four times cheaper than South African Airways.
In early
January this year Air Zimbabwe asked the government – its sole
shareholder –
for US$500 million to buy two new aircraft for regional routes
and two new
aircraft for long haul flights. The carrier wants new aircraft
to supplement
its 30 year old fleet, which is heavy on fuel and maintenance.
Although Air
Zimbabwe has had no fatal accidents since 1980, the airline’s
bosses have
been concerned by the ageing fleet.
Air Zimbabwe flies two Boeing
767-200s between Harare-China and
Harare-London. The airline also has three
737-200s which service regional
routes including flights to South Africa and
the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Domestic routes are mainly flown by three
Chinese Xian MA 60
turboprops.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/
Eyewitness News | 5 Hours
Ago
Vets in Zimbabwe are appealing for funds to help care for 44 caged
lions
near the southern town of Masvingo.
The local veterinary trust
said they urgently need piping, water troughs, a
water tank and gates to
secure the animal pens. The Animal and Wildlife Area
Research (AWARE) Trust
said the lions were dewormed and treated for
injuries.
The females
were given contraceptives because they were kept in the same
cage as the
males.
National Parks and the Wildlife Authority have managed to secure
meat for
the animals from two abattoirs. But diesel is urgently needed to
transport
the meat to the lions.
According to reports, the lions
belonged to a prominent farming family whose
land was invaded more than two
years ago.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Monday 31
January 2011
HARARE – While politics remain the most obvious threat
to Zimbabwe’s
economic recovery, wage pressure is emerging as the most
formidable menace
to an economy that looks on the mend but that remains very
fragile.
With public servants threatening to shut down schools, hospitals
and the
state bureaucracy unless given more, Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition
government
faces its first real test from a restive populace unhappy about
unfulfilled
promises.
Long used to incessant feuding and pointing
fingers at each other, the
coalition partners now have to put up a united
front against a whole new
common enemy in the form of higher wage
demands.
The International Monetary Fund said last week that containing
government
spending, particularly public sector wages, would remain the main
challenge
for Zimbabwe going forward.
“This is a longstanding issue
in Zimbabwe and it continues to be a challenge
to get the consensus to hold
back public wage increases,” observed Sharmini
Coorey, Deputy Director of
the African Department.
Civil servants are demanding a minimum wage of
$500, more than double the
average $200 which most government workers earn
and have threatened to
strike to force the government to accede to their
demands.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said the government does not
have the money
and already spends 60 percent of its revenues on salaries for
civil
servants.
Consultant economist John Robertson said funds to
meet the civil servants’
demands were not provided for in the 2011 budget,
causing a dilemma for Biti
and Public Service Minister Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro.
“The January salaries paid to the military and civil
servants reflect my
concern, and we now hear of plans for strikes and other
protests. As about
one third of Zimbabwe’s working population draws a
government salary, this
disappointment is affecting the business sector
too,” Robertson said in a
commentary last week.
Analysts warned last
week that the handling of the civil service wage
dispute could ultimately be
the turning point for the coalition government.
“The looming civil
service strike could prove costly for both Mugabe and
Tsvangirai. The Prime
Minister will have to prove to those who voted him in
that he is still
together with them while the strike action will hand Mugabe
a long rope with
which to hang himself,” analyst Donald Porusingazi said.
ZANU PF is
believed to be the force behind the strike action, clandestinely
urging the
government workers to down tools in order to portray the MDC-T as
an
uncaring party that does not keep its promises.
But Porusingazi said the
invisible ZANU PF nudge on the civil servants could
backfire for Mugabe’s
party, which has been in power since independence in
1980.
“ZANU PF
must be careful not to create conditions of open confrontation
between civil
servants because it could end up being engulfed by a fire it
would have
started itself. I am sure the party’s strategists are aware of
the perils of
such a confrontation spilling into the street,” he said.
The analysts
also noted that ongoing talk of elections later this year or in
early 2012
could pile additional pressure on both Mugabe and Tsvangirai to
support
increasing civil service salaries – even beyond government means.
None of
the coalition parties wants to be seen to be the one against giving
more pay
to public servants ahead of polls.