Zim Online
Tue 21 February 2006
HARARE - President Robert
Mugabe's Cabinet is considering new
legislation to allow legislators who
either defect or are expelled from
political parties to retain their
parliamentary seats, a senior government
minister told
ZimOnline.
Under present law, Members of Parliament (MP) who are
elected to their
seats on a party ticket must relinquish the seat on leaving
the party to
pave way for a by-election to fill the vacant post. An MP who
loses his/her
seat in this manner can still contest the by-election on the
ticket of
his/her new party or as an independent if they have not joined any
other
political party.
It was widely reported last year and not
denied by the government that
it was planning to use its overwhelming
majority in Parliament to amend
Zimbabwe's constitution for the 18th time to
allow for floor-crossing in
both houses of
Parliament.
The minister, who cannot be revealed,
said Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa had submitted a draft of the
proposed new legislation to Cabinet
for its consideration and endorsement
before it is brought before parliament
"in the next couple of
months".
"Instead of going to a by-election, the new proposal,
tailoured along
the same 'Floor-Crossing' format in South Africa, will
result in members of
Parliament being afforded an opportunity to either form
another party within
parliament and cross over to it or join the ruling
party without necessarily
going through an election process," said the
minister, who is also a member
of the ruling ZANU PF party's inner politburo
cabinet.
Chinamasa, who is also ZANU PF legal affairs secretary and
is leader
of the House of Assembly, denied that the government planned to
change the
law to permit MP's to change political parties without losing
their seats.
"Who wants to cross the floor? As leader of the House
such a proposal
has not been brought before Parliament by any MP," said
Chinamasa.
But our source said ZANU PF had always intended to amend
the
constitution to allow floor-crossing as part of a series of
constitutional
changes meant to smoothen Mugabe's exit from power when his
term ends in two
years' time.
The amendment was however being
speeded up because of deepening
division in the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party
that is most certain to break the party into
two rival political parties.
With support among the MDC's 41 MPs
almost evenly balanced between
party president Morgan Tsvangirai's faction
and his deputy Gibson Sibanda's
faction, the government would have to run
more than a dozen by-elections in
the constituencies held by whichever of
the two factions loses control of
the party.
The government,
which is battling to raise money to import food, fuel
and other basic
commodities in short supply in the country, does not have
enough money for
such an exercise and allowing for floor-crossing could
easily resolve the
matter, our source said.
The Sibanda faction of the MDC is expected
to hold its congress next
weekend while Tsvangirai's group will have their
own in March. The
congresses are expected to formalise the disintegration of
the six-year old
political party that had until now looked the most likely
to end Mugabe and
ZANU PF's 25 year grip on power. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 21 February 2006
HARARE - Former
student leader Arthur Mutambara tipped to take over
the leadership of one of
the factions of Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) party yesterday called for a re-unification of
the party and other
democratic forces in the country.
The MDC faction controlled by
deputy president Gibson Sibanda and
secretary general Welshman Ncube is
scheduled to hold its congress next
weekend at which new leaders will be
elected. The other faction of the MDC
controlled by president Morgan
Tsvangirai is due to hold a separate congress
next month.
In a
statement yesterday Mutambara, whose own bid to lead the
Sibanda-faction of
the MDC is said to have sparked divisions within that
group according to
some media reports, said there was critical need to
reunite and refocus the
pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe.
"There are three critical
success factors that define the way forward:
Reunification of all democratic
forces fighting for change in the country,
the need to refocus and energise
the vision, values and strategy of these
forces, the development of a
comprehensive macro-economic blueprint that
resolves the economic crisis,"
Mutambara said.
He however did not say how, if elected to lead the
Sibanda group, he
hoped to reunite the MDC whose splintering has virtually
rewound the
political clock back to the eighties and early nineties when
President
Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF completely dominated the
politics of
Zimbabwe.
A respected academic and popular leader
even after spending many years
outside Zimbabwe, Mutambara, however said
that the infusion of new
leadership "untainted" with the squabbles of the
past was necessary to bring
the MDC together.
He said:
"(Zimbabweans have) witnessed with distress the split in the
main opposition
party MDC. For the past four months, the party top
leadership has failed to
unite the ranks of the movement.
"As the party goes towards two
separate congresses, the infusion of
new leadership, untainted by current
disagreements, is imperative to
facilitate the reunification
process."
And in a separate statement Ncube, the kingmaker in the
Sibanda-faction of the MDC, rejected several reports that have circulated
since last weekend suggesting infighting in the group allegedly after deputy
secretary general Gift Chimanikire - who is also vying for the top post --
refused to step aside for Mutambara.
Ncube said the MDC
constitution guaranteed every member the right to
challenge for any post in
the party.
He said: "The management committee noted the right of
all members of
the party including the deputy secretary general, Gift
Chimanikire and
Professor Arthur Mutambara to present themselves to congress
for election.
Furthermore the management committee noted that in
terms of article
5.4.3, it is the prerogative of the party's 12 provinces at
Congress to
nominate for election any members of the party who wish to
contest the
position of President, Deputy President or any other party
position."
Speaking to ZimOnline separately Chimanikire he was
standing for
president of the faction because he could not see any reason to
step aside
for Mutambara.
Chimankire said, "I am standing for
the post of president. I did not
find anything convincing for me to stand
down so we have agreed that I will
be participating with anybody who wants
to contest for the post.
"No one wanted take responsibility of
having spoken to Mutambara but
some just confirmed that they held telephone
conversations with him. It was
a casual meeting characterised by frank
talk." - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 21
February 2006
HARARE - Economic experts on Monday predicted that
the final collapse
of Zimbabwe's long ailing economy was nigh after
President Robert Mugabe
confessed that his government had discarded the
economics rule book and was
printing money to guarantee its political
survival.
Besides the obvious push-up effect on inflation, the
decision to
ignore basic economic rules will scare away the few investors
still
interested in doing business in Zimbabwe while also dissuading the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western donors from providing
financial assistance - vital to any efforts to revive the economy, the
experts said.
Speaking during a televised interview last Sunday
night to commemorate
his 82nd birthday, Mugabe said he would continue
printing more money, a move
he said was necessary because accepted economic
principles and monetary
rules did not apply to Zimbabwe's economic
crisis.
Mugabe turns 82 today.
But Harare-based
consultant economist John Robertson said Zimbabwe
will pay dearly for the
government's decision to ignore economic rules.
He said: "The
President may have the power to order his government to
ignore the rules but
in economics there are severe penalties to pay for such
behaviour -
economies collapse because people disobey the rules."
Robertson
said the Harare administration's chances of redeeming itself
as a democratic
government guided by sound economic principles and worthy of
international
support were fast fading by the day, adding that Mugabe's
comments were only
helping stick the badge of "rogue regime" on his
government.
An
economist with a commercial bank in Zimbabwe's second largest city
of
Bulawayo concurred with Robertson saying: "In essence, what the President
is
saying is that he does not want to play by the accepted rules of the game
and that given a chance he would want to do things that are at tangent with
the IMF even against advice from his own officials."
The bank
economist, who did not want to be named for professional
reasons, said
Mugabe's comments were "the clearest sign yet that unless
there is a
complete change of direction, the total collapse of Zimbabwe's
economy will
be a reality sooner than most people expect."
Defending his stance
to ignore accepted economic principles and
conduct, Mugabe said his
government had no option but to keep the printing
machines running in order
to be able to feed hungry Zimbabweans, a quarter
of whom require urgent food
aid after poor harvests last farming season.
The veteran President,
whom critics hold responsible for ruining
Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy
because of repression and wrong economic
policies, castigated his Ministry
of Finance for wanting to implement
"bookish" economics that he said cannot
work in Zimbabwe.
Respected University of Zimbabwe business
lecturer, Anthony Hawkins,
said Mugabe's utterances would damage investor
confidence and help fuel the
country's inflation, already among the highest
in the world.
Zimbabwe's annual inflation was pegged at 613.2
percent in January
from 585.5 percent recorded the previous month and is
seen approaching 1 000
percent in the next three months.
"It
will also drive up the price of foreign currency especially if
that money
(being printed by the government) is used to buy foreign
currency," Hawkins
said.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious shortage of foreign currency,
which is
blamed for shortages of fuel, food, electricity and agricultural
inputs
because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.
Mugabe's televised birthday address comes about two weeks after a team
from
the IMF completed a mission to Harare, during which they told the
Zimbabwean
authorities to adopt economic policies that conform to
international best
practice.
Among its recommendations was the need for the central
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) to discontinue its quasi-fiscal activities
that were cited as
fuelling money supply growth and high
inflation.
The RBZ has been dolling out large sums of money to
largely ruling
ZANU PF party supporters without proper monitoring strategies
in place.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono also shocked the business
community last week
when he revealed that he had to print Z$21 trillion to
purchase the foreign
currency that was used to settle Zimbabwe's arrears to
the IMF. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 21 February 2006
HARARE - Hundreds of police recruits
in Harare have been forced to
skip meals after Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri allegedly diverted
Z$800 million meant to buy their food towards
President Robert Mugabe's
birthday celebrations.
Mugabe turns
82 today but celebrations to mark his birthday will be
held at the weekend
in the eastern border city of Mutare.
Sources within the Zimbabwe
police told ZimOnline on Monday that
Chihuri ordered the police finance
department to divert $800 million meant
to buy food for the recruits towards
Mugabe's birthday celebrations.
"Chihuri ordered the finance
department to set aside at least $800
million for the 21st February Movement
celebrations. It is unfortunate that
the recruits have to miss some of their
meals as part of their monies have
to be channelled towards the
celebrations.
"But this is having a terrible effect on the recruits
who have to
undergo gruelling physical training. The training saps their
energy," a
senior police officer said.
The 21st February
Movement is named after Mugabe's date of birth and
is made up of youths born
after independence in 1980.
Contacted for comment, police spokesman
Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena could neither confirm nor deny the
allegations only saying the
police had a duty to participate in "programmes
of national significance".
"I cannot confirm anything regarding the
disbursement of police funds
as this is an internal matter but the police
have a duty to participate in
programmes of national significance," he
said.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party was last week still making
frantic
efforts to raise about Z$10 billion for the event. Businesspersons
in Mutare
have also complained that ZANU PF officials were forcing them to
donate
towards Mugabe's birthday.
Mugabe's birthday has over
the years almost been elevated to a
national event marked by feasting, music
and dance. The event comes as the
country grapples its worst ever economic
crisis critics blame on repression
and wrong policies by the Zimbabwean
leader. Mugabe denies the charge. -
ZimOnline
IOL
February 20
2006 at 04:23PM
By Angus Shaw
The deputy agriculture
minister forecast bleak food harvests this year
in Zimbabwe, and blamed
fertiliser shortages and technical ignorance among
black farmers resettled
on formerly white-owned land, a state-run newspaper
reported on
Monday.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sylvester Nguni, in a rare
admission of
failures in the nation's land redistribution programme, said
many new
farmers who received land lacked the expertise to produce crops on
what he
called a "commercial and even subsistence level," The Herald
reported.
Even farmers with adequate resources still failed to
produce
"meaningful" crops, Nguni said.
'Slashed the
yields'
Despite good seasonal rains, Nguni predicted the harvest
beginning
around April would produce half of what had been
expected.
"The truth is, most crops have adversely taken the brunt
of the
shortage of fertilisers, and this has inevitably slashed the yields
by about
50 percent," he said.
In some areas where fertilisers
were used, above-average rainfall had
leached out crop nutrients and
herbicides.
He said many new farmers lacked training and
experience. And the
government's Agricultural Research and Extension
department (Arex), which
provides trainers and advisers, was understaffed
and lacked transport and
gasoline as the country suffers its worst economic
crisis since independence
in 1980.
President Robert Mugabe has
insisted his land redistribution
programme, begun in 2000, was intended to
correct colonial era imbalances in
ownership.
Critics say,
however, that prime farms were allocated to ruling party
cronies, judges,
city business owners, government supporters and
law-enforcement officials
with no farming experience.
The central bank governor, Gideon Gono,
in October criticised some new
farmers for using their land only as "weekend
picnic venues."
He also castigated some for allegedly using
agricultural loans to buy
luxury off-road vehicles for private use and
profiteering by selling the
subsidised gasoline available to resettled
farmers at black-market prices
that were inflated tenfold.
Nguni was receiving a donation of 28 bicycles for Arex experts,
according to
The Herald, a government mouthpiece.
It said the department now
employed about 3 000 extension officers,
about half the 6 000 it needed
countrywide.
Last year Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket,
produced about 800
000 tons of corn, the staple food. The country consumes
around 1,8 million
tons a year. Before the chaotic and often violent
seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms began in 2000, food
surpluses were exported.
Last week, the state-run Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board predicted a
50-percent drop in production estimates for the
main, hard currency-earning
crops this year, citing late and inadequate
loans to growers and shortages
of fertiliser, chemicals and
gasoline.
Official inflation in the crumbling economy soared last
month to 613
percent, one of the highest rates in the world, as the United
Nations (UN)
food agency distributed emergency food aid to more than three
million people
facing acute hard currency and food shortages.
At least five million of the 12,5 million population were likely to
need
food assistance before the next harvests, and food handouts were now
expected to continue long afterwards, according to UN experts and charity
groups. - Sapa-AP
Reporters without borders
20 February 2006
Reporters Without
Borders strongly condemned a brutal attack against
freelance journalist Gift
Phiri, former reporter for the weekly Zimbabwe
Independent, who was beaten
up by men accusing him of working for media
hostile to the
government.
The attack came three weeks after threats were issued against
those who
contribute to foreign media by the minister in charge of the
Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
"Forced into unemployment,
threatened with prison and now beaten up : the
fate Robert Mugabe reserves
for independent journalists is more and more
vicious," said Reporters
Without Borders.
"Given the timidity of certain African political leaders
when it comes to
criticising Zimbabwe, we call on African press freedom
organisations to
express their solidarity with independent journalists and
to protest to the
government in Harare."
Phiri was brutally beaten,
on 16 February 2006, when he was returning to his
home in the eastern Harare
suburb of Sunningdale, after watching a football
match in a local bar. Five
men jumped on him and beat him for about 20
minutes before leaving him for
dead in front of his door.
The journalist, who was kicked and beaten with
knuckle-dusters, was left
with injuries to his face and ribs. Earlier in the
day, he had noticed the
presence of CIO men in the neighbourhood.
His
assailants accused him of working for the US public radio Voice of
America
(VOA) and the privately-owned radio Voice of People (VOP). Phiri is
currently unemployed given the steep reduction in jobs in the press after
the closure of many independent newspapers.
The attack came three
weeks after the State Security Minister, Didymus
Mutasa, was quoted on 27
January by the government weekly Manica Post,
published in Mutare, eastern
Zimbabwe as warning journalists that "the net
will soon close". The
minister, in charge of the CIO, said that some people
were using pseudonyms
to work for foreign media but the government had
pinpointed their "closets".
He accused them of being "driven by the love of
the United States dollar and
British pound which they are paid by the
foreign media houses to peddle
lies."
iafrica.com
Mon, 20 Feb
2006
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe late on Sunday accused Britain of
using
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a tool to overthrow his
long-ruling
government.
"The British want to use the fact of our
owing the IMF, the British and the
Americans, to bring about the change of
regime here," Mugabe said in an
interview broadcast on state
television.
"(The IMF and Britain) is squeezing us economically so
politically we would
do what they would want us to do. No other country has
been treated this
way," the long-time Zimbabwean leader said two days ahead
of his 82nd
birthday.
"We saw through their machinations. We also
realised they wanted to use our
neighbours in this strategy and we resisted
it," said Mugabe, who has been
in power since independence in
1980.
Zimbabwe last week paid the IMF US$9-million to clear long-standing
arrears
and thereby averting expulsion from the global lender.
"We
have now succeeded in clearing the debt we owed directly to the IMF,"
Mugabe
said during the interview.
'Political monster'
"That's because we
want to get rid of this problem with the IMF. The IMF has
never worked in
the interest of Zimbabwe here. It's only in regard to
Zimbabwe that the IMF
became this political monster that we saw rearing its
head in order to
consume us here," he said.
Zimbabwe's relations with Britain were
strained over the past seven years
after Mugabe launched controversial land
reforms that saw government seizing
properties from white commercial
farmers, mostly of British descent.
Mugabe has often accused British
Prime Minister Tony Blair of harbouring
plans to "recolonise" Zimbabwe by
using the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party as a
front.
In the interview, the president also lamented laxity among his
cabinet
ministers and the growing problem of corruption.
He
criticised ministers for fertiliser shortages and for failing to
resuscitate
factories left idle when scores of white owners left the country
at the
height of political violence which rocked the country four years
ago.
AFP
News24
20/02/2006 10:41 -
(SA)
Harare - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has likened the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to the devil, days after his country
managed to avert
expulsion by clearing its critical debt arrears.
In
a late-night interview on Sunday with state television ahead of his 82nd
birthday on Tuesday, Mugabe said former colonial power Britain had tried to
turn the IMF into a "political monster" to bring about regime change in the
country.
Mugabe claimed: "The British wanted to use the fact of our
owing the IMF...
to bring about, you know, a change of the regime
here.
"It's only in regard to Zimbabwe that the IMF became this political
monster
that we saw rearing its head in order to consume us.
Last
week Zimbabwe paid back the last US$9m of debt arrears it owed to the
IMF's
General Resources Account (GRA). The world body had threatened to
expel
Zimbabwe if the debt, dating back to 2001, was not cleared by
March.
Zimbabwe still owes the IMF around $120m in arrears under a less
critical
account - the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
(PRGF).
In Sunday's interview, Mugabe said the IMF "had never worked in
the
interests of Zimbabwe" and likened the institution to the
devil.
"We've paid back. Yes, that's their money. If you borrow money
from the
devil you must know you're indebted to him and it's his money -
otherwise
the devil will devour you and you've no excuse."
Zimbabwe's
central bank governor Gideon Gono has been making strenuous
efforts to clear
the country's name with the IMF. Zimbabwe has not been lent
any money from
the IMF since August 1999.
For the past six years this once prosperous
southern African country has
been dogged by critical shortages of hard cash
needed to pay for medical
drugs, fuel and power. Inflation is over 600%, and
poverty is deepening.
Sapa-dpa
Prof. Arthur G.O. Mutambara
Africa Technology and Business Institute
(ATBI)
Managing Director
P.O. Box 78349
Sandton 2146
phone: (27 11)
704 3065
fax: (27 11) 462 6323
cell: (27 83) 287 9091
email: arthur_mutambara@hotmail.com
*************************************************
Press
Statement
Prof. Arthur G.O. Mutambara: February 20, 2006
As
Zimbabwean citizens, it is part of our civic duty and obligation to
develop
political and economic solutions to the country's current problems.
There are
three critical success factors that define the way forward:
Reunification
of all democratic forces fighting for change in the country.
The need to
refocus and energize the vision, values and strategy of these
forces.
The
development of a comprehensive macro-economic blueprint that resolves
the
economic crisis.
On the first factor, Zimbabweans have witnessed with
distress the split in
the main opposition party MDC. For the past four
months, the party top
leadership has failed to unite the ranks of the
movement. As the party goes
towards two separate congresses, the infusion of
new leadership, untainted
by current disagreements, is imperative to
facilitate the reunification
process.
It is in this context that I
define the framework of my entry into
Zimbabwean politics. As a member of the
MDC, I am prepared to work with
anybody who shares the above terms of
reference.
Arthur G.O. Mutambara
VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
20 February 2006
The
recent split in Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change has the
country's
opposition in disarray. However, a potential new leader has moved
into
view.
Arthur Mutambara is a former student leader who is now recognized
as one of
Africa's most prominent scientists.
Fifteen years ago at
the University of Zimbabwe he lead the student
opposition to the ruling Zanu
PF.
According to records at the university he was a brilliant engineering
student, who won every scholarship he applied for.
After completing
his doctorate at Britain's Oxford University he went on to
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and became professor at several
other universities
in the United States. Unlike many African academics,
Mutambara was always
determined to return to Africa.
Over the weekend he arrived back in
Zimbabwe from Johannesburg where he
heads up an African scientific
institution for talks with leaders of one
faction of the MDC. Some in this
faction want him to make himself available
as a candidate for the top job,
as president.
Late Monday he confirmed his re-entry into Zimbabwe
politics, and said he
hoped the enthusiasm of a new leadership which he said
was untainted by
current disagreements, would make unification of the two
factions of the MDC
possible.
According to the MDC's constitution any
one of the 12 provinces would have
to nominate him and authorized delegates
to the party's congress next Sunday
will vote for a new
president.
Should he get the necessary nomination, and win the vote,
analysts say his
political past, intellectual prowess and reputation as a
leader, would do
much to revive Zimbabwe's stalled opposition politics and
could lead to the
two factions re-uniting.
The faction of the MDC
lead by party president Morgan Tsvangirai declined to
comment on Mutambara's
sudden re-entry into Zimbabwe's opposition political
scenario.
Tsvangirai's faction is holding its congress next month,
but he is certain
to be the only candidate for the top job.
The MDC
split last October over adherence to the party's constitution.
Tsvangirai
said that even though a narrow majority of party executives voted
to
participate in the first ever elections for a senate last November, the
MDC
should not take part.
He said participation was a waste of time and money
and the electoral
playing field was not level.
Most of the MDC's top
leaders rebelled against him, saying he had defied the
party's
constitution.
The party split into two factions with both declaring
themselves to be
authentic.
A senior MDC official, legal secretary
David Coltart, who has remained
outside of either faction is trying to
arrange what he describes as an
"amicable" divorce between the two
sides.
Mail and Guardian
Matthew Burbidge | Johannesburg, South Africa
01 December
2005 12:02
On May 25 this year, Zimbabwe's government began
Operation
Murambatsvina -- a massive campaign of forced evictions and
demolitions. Six
months later, says a damning Human Rights Watch (HRW)
report released on
Thursday, the government has made no arrangements to
provide even temporary
shelter to the internally displaced. Thousands of
people are now living in
the open.
"We have been out in
the open since the end of May when our
houses were demolished during
Operation Murambatsvina. We are not getting
any assistance from anyone. I
have two children staying with me, but I sent
the other two to the rural
areas.
"My husband does not have a rural home and I don't
think he
would appreciate it if we went to my rural home. I don't have the
money to
send my children to school. The kids have colds because of staying
outside
and in the cold. I can't afford medical assistance. Sometimes we
sleep
without eating a meal or anything. We don't know what's going to
happen once
the rains come," a displaced mother of four, living by the edge
of a forest
in Victoria Falls, told a HRW researcher in
September.
HRW is an international NGO, based in New York,
that conducts
advocacy and research on human rights
issues.
Forsaken
On the front page of the
report, entitled Evicted and Forsaken:
Internally Displaced Persons in the
Aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina,
there is a Reuters photograph of an
old man sitting among his possessions in
front of his destroyed home in
Norton, Zimbabwe. He sits close to a small
fire; his toes protrude from his
shoes. He clasps his hands; he does not
look angry. There are cupboards,
couches and clothes strewn nearby. Women
and children mill about in the
background of the photograph. Perhaps they
are trying to reconstruct the
rooms with the furniture, repositioning it
inside a house that now has no
walls.
In September and October, HRW sent a new research
mission to the
country to look into the plight of the internally displaced
persons. The
researchers carried out site visits to numerous locations in
four of
Zimbabwe's provinces and conducted more than 50 interviews with
displaced
people, human rights activists, local authorities, church
officials, United
Nations staff in Zimbabwe and others.
"The political, economic, humanitarian and human rights
conditions in
Zimbabwe are all in precipitous decline. While drought and the
devastating
HIV/Aids pandemic have influenced these conditions to some
extent, the
actions of the Zimbabwe government and its indifference to the
dignity and
well-being of its citizens lie at the heart of Zimbabwe's
current crisis,"
says the report.
"Ruling through intimidation and with
respect for the rule of
law or the rights of his citizens, President
[Robert] Mugabe's latest
outrage -- the forced eviction and displacement of
hundreds and thousands of
mostly poor people from the urban areas throughout
Zimbabwe -- has attracted
international condemnation but been defended with
characteristic bluster."
'Cruel indifference'
The report says the displaced "have continued to suffer the
cruel
indifference of their government; no protection or assistance, no
compensation, no accountability, restrictions on freedom of
movement".
The report says up to 223 000 children were
directly affected by
the operation.
An ActionAid report
found that, overall, 22% of children who had
been attending school dropped
out because of the evictions. The
displacement, says the HRW report, also
hindered parents' ability to pay for
schooling, which meant that even more
children dropped out of school.
The report says that with
unemployment at about 80%, most adults
in Zimbabwe try to make ends meet in
the informal sector. Many lost their
livelihoods when the government
destroyed market stalls and other
informal-sector businesses and
homes.
Now the government has prevented them from making
money by
selling fruit, for example, says the report.
Chipo D, a Harare township resident, told HRW that although his
stall was
destroyed, he still tries to sell vegetables, "but the police
arrest me and
make me pay a fine".
Another witness told HRW: "People whose
market stalls were
demolished have come back and are selling their
vegetables in the open.
Police come about five times a day and harass the
vendors, and take their
goods for free.
"One woman got
tired of police harassment and threw stones at
the policeman three weeks
ago. She was arrested by the police, and I don't
know what happened to
her."
Obstruction
The report says the
Zimbabwean government has persistently
obstructed humanitarian operations.
It says the UN staff interviewed by HRW
in September and October cited the
Zimbabwean government's continuous
obstruction of operations as the main
reason for the international agencies'
inability to implement their
programmes.
In its recommendations, among others, HRW calls
on the Zimbabwe
government to take urgent measures to provide protection and
assistance to
the displaced, including shelter, food, water and sanitation
and medical
services.
It also calls on the government to
allow the special envoy of
the African Union Commission, Tom Nyanduga, to
return to Zimbabwe and fulfil
his mandate and report to the AU on the status
of internally displaced
people.
It calls on the AU to
adopt a resolution strongly condemning the
mass evictions and demolitions as
well as strongly condemning the
obstruction of international humanitarian
assistance.
The report says the plight of people displaced by
the Zimbabwean
government cannot be overlooked any
further.
"It must generate a sense of outrage sufficient to
trigger
concerted action to protect and assist the displaced."
Sudbury Today, UK
A farmer forced to
flee for his life from militants in Zimbabwe has written
a book about his
experiences.
Now living in Nayland, Richard Wiles was driven off the land he
had loved
and worked during more than half a century as radicals mounted a
violent
campaign to reclaim white-owned land.
His three-year struggle
to keep his land, part of which was a nature
reserve, is told in his diaries
Foredoomed is my Forest, The Diary of a
Zimbabwe Farmer, which has just been
published.
"Rhodesia was paradise," said Richard, now 80, who, after
being de-mobbed
from the Second World War went to the African country in
search of a better
life.
"Britain was a pretty dreary, depressing
place straight after the war, so a
lot of us went to Africa and a new
life."
To start with, he worked for the Colonial Development
Corps.
In 1950 he married Beth, and they had three children.
The
couple started their own farm three years later, naming it Stockade, and
it
was from there that Richard fled over two years ago.
"Beth died there in
1994. She is buried in a forest glade on the farm. It
was so sad to leave
her behind but the situation made it impossible to
stay," he
said.
The book is dedicated to her as "my wife and, later, my guardian
angel".
Richard stayed at Stockade and continued to
farm.
Rumblings of unrest started in the late 1990s when Zimbabwe's
president,
Robert Mugabe, pledged to give white-owned farms to black poor
people in
order to right the "wrongs" of British
colonialism.
Squatters were encouraged to take over farms by force using
intimidation and
violence.
"They moved into my home and I had to get
out. It was heartbreaking because
I had been there for such a long time and
then this happened," said Richard.
Militants set up base on his farm and
he was constantly threatened and told
to leave. He tried in vain to save his
land and his nature reserve but
failed, as did so many others, some of whom
were killed or badly hurt by
those forcibly taking their land.
When
he returned to England to settle after leaving Zimbabwe, Richard could
not
believe how much had changed.
"The motor car rules here. People don't
seem to be able to get along without
a motor car," he said.
"Luckily,
this part of Suffolk is lovely and I am very happy here."
But he admits a
lot of his thoughts are with his home in Zimbabwe.
He will never be able
to forget the men who forced him out, strutting over
his land where once
"his Beth" trod.
"My home?" he writes in his book. "I shall never see it
again. In the grassy
clearing in the woods, no posy of garden flowers will
rest on her grave. Her
wildlife visitors will be cruelly snared and
killed.
"Now, saddened, I want to leave this battleground and everything
associated
with it, far behind."
Foredoomed is my Forest, The Diary
of a Zimbabwe Farmer can be ordered
online at www.trafford.com. It is priced at
£14.99.
20 February 2006
Cape Argus
February 20, 2006
By Basildon Peta
The last vestiges
of Zimbabwe's crumbling economy seem set to go as
mining houses freeze
billions of dollars in exploration, expansion and new
investments over a
proposed law that wants them to relinquish half their
shareholdings to black
Zimbabweans.
The troubles in the mining sector are disclosed in
a confidential
document prepared by the key mining federation, the Zimbabwe
Chamber of
Mines (ZCM), for Mines Minister Amos Midzi, which warns that
major investors
could withdraw from Zimbabwe if the government goes ahead
and legislates
unrealistic local ownership targets that could see mining
firms being
compelled to relinquish large chunks of their shareholdings to
locals or to
the state.
President Robert Mugabe has hinted that
he wants up to 50% of mining
companies to be controlled by
Zimbabweans.
In the confidential document, the ZCM said the now
widely held
perception among mining investors was that with the value of the
industry at
more than $20bn, neither the government nor locals could raise
enough money
to purchase 50% shareholding in existing mining companies,
therefore the
government wanted to expropriate equity in private mines in
the same way it
had seized productive farmland.
The
document added: "With this perception, both potential foreign and
local
investors have stopped committing both borrowed and equity funds
towards
exploration, expansion or Greenfield projects for fear of losing
both
control of the business and a big portion of their investment."
Meanwhile, Mugabe has blamed his country's economic woes on his
"self-centred ministers" whom he said were failing to meet the goals of a
"development cabinet".
In an interview with the
state-controlled Zimbabwe Television to mark
his 82nd birthday on Wednesday,
Mugabe , who rarely dismisses ministers over
non-performance, warned that
the chop might now be looming for some of them.
IOL
February 19 2006 at
06:16PM
By Charlene Smith
Every week tens of thousands
of refugees flow into South Africa, and
each week South Africa ships out a
few thousand - more than 1 000 to
Zimbabwe alone. But United Nations and
police officials say trying to stem
the tide is like trying to stop a
tsunami with a bucket.
Jonathan Martins, programme manager of the
UN-funded International
Organisation on Migrancy, said South African borders
were "incredibly
porous".
"People from as far away as Ethiopia
tend to go to South Africa
because there is a perception there are jobs and
opportunities (there)."
People-smuggling rings are cashing in on
the situation, particularly
from Zimbabwe, as people flee economic meltdown
and political repression.
Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper says
syndicates operating at Beit
Bridge use South African-registered vehicles to
transport people from as far
away as Bulawayo to Johannesburg for a fee of
R800 to R1 000.
They are taken to the Beit Bridge border, where
they are guided across
the Limpopo and then picked up by taxis on the South
African side.
According to Limpopo province police statistics, 753
illegal
immigrants were arrested between January 5 and 12, an average of 100
a day.
However, this is the rainy season in Limpopo which sees fewer
immigrants
entering the country as the Limpopo River floods, making the
crocodile-infested waters even more hazardous than usual. But even when the
river is low it is dangerous.
Jabu Ndebele, a 22-year-old
Zimbabwean who goes back and forth across
the border carrying items to trade
in Zimbabwe, always uses the river route,
but recalls that the first time he
came with five friends, two were eaten by
crocodiles.
Lions in
the Kruger Park also regularly attack refugees coming through
from
Mozambique.
United Nations officials and police say human
trafficking - the "new
slave trade" - is on the increase. Human smuggling is
often a choice by
people who want to, and will pay to be smuggled into a
country.
Martins said someone trafficked to South Africa from a
neighbouring
state "could be sold for around R500".
"Children
are more expensive. The price depends on what is considered
exotic. We have
cases of African women trafficked to Europe for $40 000
(R242 000) and
European women trafficked here for R100 000 or R150 000 or
more."
According to police sources and the International
Organisation on
Migrancy, women from places like the Democratic Republic of
Congo are
offered jobs as housekeepers in South Africa, only to have their
passports
seized and be forced into prostitution.
South Africa
is sufficiently concerned about trafficking to have
established a task force
two years ago and a busy toll free helpline, 0800
555 999.
Police say they have not had a successful prosecution yet against
traffickers, hindered by a lack of legislation against the practice in South
Africa, in spite of South Africa last year signing the Palermo Protocol, in
which nations pledged to fight the scourge.
In South Africa,
the Sexual Offences Unit tracks child trafficking,
while the Organised Crime
Unit attempts to break adult trafficking rings.
Police officers
complain that, "because there is no legislation, the
initiative is on those
trafficked to testify, so that we can get a
conviction. They may be
frightened of the gang or they may want to return to
them because they get
drugs and are often well treated."
In a major child trafficking
case last year involving Johannesburg,
Durban and the Eastern Cape, not a
single child was prepared to testify.
Some ran away and others are back with
the Nigerian syndicate leaders who
have moved them to the Phalaborwa area,
according to a senior source in the
National Prosecuting
Authority.
The only laws that can be used against traffickers at
present include
those against sex work, kidnapping, murder or sexual
crimes.
Criminal investigation authorities say a lack of laws and
co-ordination on trafficking between neighbouring countries mean, once a
person crosses a border, police in the investigating country are
hamstrung.
There are, however, two pieces of legislation pending
that include
trafficking provisions. The Children's Bill was passed by
parliament last
year and is waiting to be signed into effect by the
president, but the
Sexual Offences Bill, which has waited four years to be
heard by parliament,
is nowhere close to being passed. The SA Law Commission
is also working on
draft trafficking legislation.
Loren Landau
of Forced Migration Studies at the University of the
Witwatersrand said, "A
lot of people are voluntarily smuggled by syndicates.
Many come here with
the idea of going to Europe or Canada. They use South
Africa as a transit
point.
"We have spoken to Home Affairs officials about finding a
more humane
way of dealing with refugees than very costly forced
repatriation. But they
are reluctant to recognise asylum seekers, especially
from Zimbabwe."
By Professor Stanford Mukasa
20
February 2006
In today's Letter from America Prof. Stan Mukasa
revisits
a prediction made by Chinese Premier Chou Enlai 40 years ago
that
Africa was ripe for a revolution and argues this prediction
is
appropriate to today's Zimbabwe.
...........................
The simultaneous protests last week by
university students and the
women's organization, Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
or WOZA, was an encouraging
beginning to the mass protests that many people
had advocated for several
years now.
This is the kind of natural
response by any people anywhere in the
world when faced with the oppressive
conditions imposed by an illegitimate
regime like that of Robert Mugabe and
ZANU PF in Zimbabwe.
For a long time the international community has
been puzzled by the
lack of any real protest among Zimbabweans as Mugabe
systematically drove
the country to a Stone Age existence.
Zimbabweans are among the most enlightened people in Africa. They are
well
aware not only of their visible oppression and the rape of their
country by
Mugabe but also how people in other countries have reacted, and
in some
cases successfully, in protests against their oppressive regimes.
In
Zimbabwe Mugabe has committed one criminal act against another with
utter
impunity. Yet Zimbabweans have characteristically stood by like
spectators
in a football match and done absolutely nothing of any
significance by way
of protests.
Apologists for the do- nothing politics of Zimbabweans
have agued that
Mugabe has created conditions that are too militarily
oppressive to stage
any meaningful protest.
Mugabe is using the
military, police and the youth militia thugs to
harass, threaten or
intimidate and in many cases torture, kidnap, jail and
even arrest
opposition supporters. Zimbabwe is now a military state. The
military are
virtually running the country. Nelson Chamisa noted that
soldiers are now
even selling ZANU PF party cards!
To worsen the situation, Mugabe has
so mismanaged the country's
economy that Zimbabwe has now been reduced from
bread basket for the region
to a basket case. Over half of the Zimbabwean
population is now surviving on
food handouts from the international
community. Over one third of the
country's population has left for greener
pastures.
In a remarkable contrast, the economies of neighbouring
countries are
improving. Mozambique, for example, has progressed by leaps
and bounds. The
country that in the 1970s was regarded as one of the poorest
in the world
has bounced back. It has replaced Zimbabwe as a leading
economic power in
the region, even surpassing Namibia! Investment in
Mozambique is booming
while it has dried up in Zimbabwe.
The
Zimbabwean dollar is now a joke.
Here are some comparisons.
In
Somalia, where there is no government, US$1 is equivalent to 1,630
Somali
shillings. Imagine that! People in a country without a government are
able
to maintain a currency that is over 100 times stronger than the
Zimbabwean
dollar.
Let us come to the SADC region.
In Mozambique, US$1 is
equal to 26,323.2 Mozambique meticals. In
Zambia, US$1 is equal to 3,264.35
Zambian kwacha. Now remember the 'good old
days' when Zimbabweans used to
laugh their lungs out at the value of the
kwacha and look with utter
contempt the Mozambican metical, especially when
the Zimbabwean dollar was a
legal tender in that country!
When Joaquim Chissano replaced the late
Samora Machel he paid a visit
to Zimbabwe and suggested that the two
countries unite into one country.
Mugabe's officials scoffed at the idea.
One ZANUPF chest thumping official
said Zimbabwe cannot unite with a country
as poor as Mozambique. He boasted
it would only drag down Zimbabwe to the
level of the impoverished
Mozambicans. I daresay if the same suggestion was
made it would be the
Mozambicans turns to say "No thanks!"
Even in
one of the poorest countries in the world, Tanzania, US$1 is
equal to
1,194.66 Tanzanian shillings.
And in Zimbabwe US$1 equals about 100,000
Zimbabwe dollars. On the
black market it was trading at up to 165,000
Zimbabwe dollars for every
US$1.
In terms of inflation Zimbabwe has
scored a whooping 600 percent
inflation. This is likely to skyrocket after
Zimbabwe printed 21 trillion
dollars to buy foreign currency to repay the
IMF debt. Many economic
observers say real inflation in Zimbabwe is now over
1,000 percent.
Now, whether it is 600 percent or 1000 percent let us
comparing
Zimbabwe's inflation to neighbouring SADC countries. According to
the
statistics released by the Ministry of Finance in Botswana SADC
countries
had an average inflation rate of 10.3 percent in 2005!
These are precisely the conditions Mugabe has created in Zimbabwe that
more
than justify a long -drawn mass protest.
Yet apologists for the
do-nothing politics somehow do not seem to see
the gravity and dehumanizing
impact of the pathetic misery these conditions
have created for the majority
of Zimbabweans. Without protest nothing will
improve for
Zimbabweans.
In the same camp with the do-nothing lobby is another
dinosaur species
of the so-called opposition politicians, notably the
pro-senate MDC splinter
group led by Gibson Sibanda -Welshman Ncube fast-
food combo who is
religiously and fanatically clinging to the old methods of
protests that
have repeatedly failed dismally.
Remember Ncube
saying they will stick to Mugabe's election agenda no
matter how rigged. He
even said even if it were to elect a janitor his group
would still
participate in the elections. Presumably, Ncube would be the
candidate for
the janitor!
When Chinese Premier Chou Enlai made a tour of 10 Africa
states
between December 1963 and February 1964 he declared that Africa was
ripe for
a revolution.
This was the same time Africa was gaining
her independence from
colonialism. In essence what Cho Enlai was asserting
here was a repudiation
of the nationalist flag independence that Africa was
being granted.
The term "revolution" as described by people like Samora
Machel,
Amilcar Cabral and Augustino Neto was aimed at overthrowing a system
of both
colonialism and neo-colonialism and to replace it with one that
served the
interests of the masses and the workers.
Nowhere in
Africa can this be truer than in Zimbabwe today.
The Mugabe regime has
always perpetuated this neocolonial type of
independence in Zimbabwe.
Neo-colonialism means taking over the reigns of
political power in order to
enrich yourself and your cronies with the state
resources.
The
level of corruption in ZANU PF has reached alarming proportions.
Mugabe's
cronies are using the State to enrich themselves. They are grabbing
state
assets, farms, companies in their unending quest for private
enrichment.
The entire state system has now been privatized by ZANU
PF. A medieval
system of fiefdom has emerged where all the land and assets
are said to
belong to the state when, in fact, they belong to individual
ZANUPF
sycophants and cronies.
The masses in Zimbabwe are now
spectators in this unprecedented
plunder of the country. ZANUPF cronies are
ransacking the country pocketing
anything they find. Yet Zimbabweans are
witnessing this daylight theft of
their country's assets and apparently
doing nothing about it.
Imagine if you went to your house one day and
saw some strangers
stealing your property. Or you woke upon one morning to
find thieves
everywhere in your home, taking whatever they liked. Would you
just stand by
and watch the way you would watch a football game? Or would
you do something
to stop these thieves and robbers?
The protests
and demonstrations by university students and the women
of WOZA are
indicative of Cho Enlai's statement on the conditions for a
revolution.
And 40 years after the statement by the Chinese
premier, Mugabe has to
all intents and purposes created the conditions for a
revolution. There is
an expectation from the international community that
Zimbabweans cannot just
sit and watch their country being raped and
plundered by Mugabe and his
cronies.
The students and women have
taken the lead. It is now up to the rest
of the civil society leadership to
play their leadership role in mobilizing
the masses into a concerted protest
against the Mugabe regime.
Two top MDC officials Thokozani Khupe and
Nelson Chamisa recently
articulated this view of a protest when they said
the party was now focusing
on a strategic shift, or what Chamisa called a
paradigm shift, in the
opposition politics in Zimbabwe.
By forming
an alliance with other opposition groups MDC would now
appear to be
mobilizing all the resources of the opposition movement in a
mass
demonstration against Mugabe.
If the leadership in the opposition
movement can put their heads
together and not waste time and resources
fighting among each other they
should be able to take their positions at the
helm of the new onslaught
against Mugabe.
Despite the do-nothing
apologists, this time it looks like the people
of Zimbabwe might be ready to
take to the streets, as evidenced by the
student and women's protests. What
they need now is an organized machinery
to mobilize them into one final push
against Mugabe.
But the people of Zimbabwe should not just sit and wait
for some
Messianic leader to lead them against Mugabe.
They should
also work on independent strategies aimed at achieving one
common aim: to
make Zimbabwe ungovernable.
The Mass Democratic Movement in South
Africa is a good example of how
the masses in South Africa took to the
streets without necessarily waiting
for any leader to take charge.
If the opposition movement leadership are not able to put their act
together
or are slow in putting together a unified front for confronting
Mugabe then
people should on their own spontaneously take to the streets.
There are
occasions in history where people have mounted effective
demonstrations
without waiting for some leadership to the front.
Nelson Chamisa and
Thokozile Khupe taught their Zimbabwean audience in
Philadelphia an
interesting slogan: Mugabe mudenga. Rovera pasi.
While, of course, no
one would advocate or expect hoisting the
82-reay-old geriatric sky high and
bashing him against some hard rock, let
this slogan be the marching song for
a peaceful protest against Mugabe.
As Cho Enlai stated 40 years ago:
Africa, or more specifically
Zimbabwe, is now ripe for a revolution or a
mass protest.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
zimbabwejournalists.com
By
a Correspondent
When Zimbabwe's government seized his family
farm in 2001, Graham Rae
looked for a way to start over.
He cashed
in an overseas nest egg, took out some big loans and moved
north across the
Zambezi River, leasing land from a Zambian rancher to begin
planting
tobacco, seed corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum.
"Zambia seemed
politically mature," said the lifelong farmer, and
Zambia's government,
eager for investment in agriculture, was welcoming.
Five years later,
however, Zimbabwe's cast-out white farmers are
facing eviction again--this
time from an economic rather than political
threat.
Since 2001,
Zimbabwean farmers have helped boost Zambia's tobacco
production 500
percent, to 24,000 tons in 2005. But the world price for
tobacco--a major
crop among the newcomers--has remained steady while the
price of fertilizer,
fuel and other crucial inputs has doubled because of
rising oil prices and
strengthening southern African currencies.
That means farmers who once
earned a hefty 50 percent profit on their
crop, and used much of it to pay
back equally hefty start-up loans, are now
making almost nothing, even as
loan payments continue to come due.
Some are rushing to plant
alternative crops or are just "living a
subsistence existence from hand to
mouth," Rae said. But many, having
invested heavily in tobacco sheds and
equipment, have no means to borrow
more and are struggling to stave off
bankruptcy and avoid losing their farms
once again.
"They're
falling like bloody ninepins at the moment," lamented Chris
Thorne, another
Zimbabwean farmer growing tobacco near Chisamba, an hour and
a half's drive
north of Lusaka, Zambia's capital. But "we'll survive
somehow," he promised.
"We can't start again. We've been there, done that."
Starting over
hasn't been easy for any of the Zimbabweans. Most lost
nearly all their
savings with their farms, which Zimbabwe's government began
seizing in 2000
as part of a campaign to transfer land to black owners and
to salvage
President Robert Mugabe's plunging popularity. That effort has
thrown
once-thriving Zimbabwe into widespread hunger and near economic
collapse.
Evicted white farmers eager to remain in the business
have since
fanned out across Africa, taking loans and starting new
operations from
Mozambique to Nigeria.
Most, like Rae, are raising
what they always raised--tobacco, corn,
soybeans, cattle, vegetables and
flowers. But many have had to learn new
languages, new weather patterns, new
soils and new ways of living.
Rae, 48, now sleeps under a mosquito net
and takes anti-malaria
tablets but, like most of his neighbours, still has
been "walloped" by the
disease, which wasn't a problem on his old farm. His
marriage, stressed by
the land seizures, has broken down, and his three sons
now live in South
Africa with their mother. He has lost touch with most of
his old friends.
"We slave from dawn to dusk here to re-establish what
we established
over many years in Zimbabwe," he said. Still, "people are
pretty adaptable
and they learn to make the best of any situation."
Rae is doing better than many of his neighbours. As one of the first
to see
his farm taken in Zimbabwe, he also was one of the first to arrive in
Zambia
and was able to enjoy a couple of years of good tobacco profits
before
production costs skyrocketed. After at first leasing land, he also
reached a
deal with the owner to combine their investments and become
co-owners. That
has given him a better financial footing than many of his
neighbors.
Some, trapped in heavy debt, have had to sell their new
farms to
tobacco companies, then remain on simply as hired hands, Rae said.
Others
are barely hanging on, hoping for better times and better crop
prices.
"Almost all of the Zimbabweans are in exports and they're all
having
the same problem, which is totally out of their control," said Peter
MacSporran, an agricultural consultant who helped many of the transplanted
Zimbabweans find land and loans to start over in Zambia.
"They're
really struggling," he said. "The little bit they have is at
risk, and
they're feeling battered."
Zambia also could be battered by the
Zimbabwean farmers' losses.
Zimbabweans now are the fifth-biggest investor
in Zambia, due largely to
about 200 Zimbabwean farmers in agricultural
projects. And tobacco farmers
across Zambia employ about 20,000 workers,
many of whom stand to lose their
jobs if the farms go under, MacSporran
said.
Politically, the transplanted Zimbabwean farmers face few
problems in
their new homeland. Most are leasing land rather than buying,
"so they
shouldn't [face] that same [ownership] issue," said Lovemore
Simwanda, a
spokesman for the Zambian National Farmers Union. Only about 10
percent of
Zambia's arable land is being worked, so pressure to redistribute
land is
minimal, he said.
Rae now acts as a technical adviser to 60
small local farmers on land
adjoining his, building good relations and
helping them learn about solar
power, conservation tillage and better seed
varieties.
"In Zimbabwe, we weren't as proactive," he
acknowledges.
Chicago Tribune
africast.com
HARARE,
February 20 -- Over 500 000 sanitary products have been collected to
help
desperate women in Zimbabwe forced to use newspapers and rags as
substitutes.
Speaking to Sapa on Monday Thabitha Khumalo, human
rights activist and
founder of Dignity, Period!, said a pack of 10 sanitary
pads in Zimbabwe
cost about 1,5-million Zimbabwean dollars (about
R100).
"The problem started in the late 1990s when a company
manufacturing sanitary
products relocated from Zimbabwe to South
Africa.
"That's when we started feeling the pinch as prices of the
remaining stock
started escalating," Khumalo said. "Then in 2001 and 2002 we
started getting
sanitary pads from the black market, but the hygienic
standards were not
good."
Khumalo said women in Zimbabwe were now
subjected to domestic abuse as their
spouses were mistaking infections
acquired from using improper materials for
sexually transmitted
infections.
Khumalo, who is also a member of the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions
(ZCTU), said the lack of sanitary products was a violation of
women's rights
to dignity.
"The global village always forgets to
provide sanitary products in cases of
disasters. They always assume that
women can cope.
"There's always this talk of food and medical supplies,
but none of basic
things such as sanitary pads," said Khumalo.
"Gone
are the days when such things were taboo because as women get infected
they
also infect their men."
The donations were made possible with the help of
British-based
non-governmental organisation (NGO) Action for Southern Africa
(ActSA).
The NGO raised money in the United Kingdom to help fund the
campaign.
Among the supporters of the campaign are 5FM, Johnson and
Johnson and
Procter and Gamble. - Sapa
Sunday News, Zimbabwe
Acting
News Editor
Parliament has not been publishing The Hansard since
late last year,
depriving the public of a vital source of information on
legislative
debates, the Sunday News can reveal.
The Hansard is a printed
manuscript containing a complete and accurate
record of the debates of the
House of Assembly.
The Clerk of Parliament, Mr Austin Zvoma, confirmed on
Friday that Jongwe
Printers, the company contracted to print the handbook,
has failed to
produce the publication owing to the availability of raw
materials.
"It's true that we have not been receiving Hansards because Jongwe
Printers
has been failing to procure newsprint. Jongwe Printers last printed
Hansards
late last year and we have a backlog of 17 editions. We sat briefly
last
year and the Hansards are not yet out. They have been giving us the
Hansards
without any problems since mid-1980s.
"The backlog is seriously
affecting all the Members of Parliament, the
Parliament and all Ministers
who have to respond to the questions that are
raised by the House. Some of
the debates are raised during the Ministers'
absence and they need the texts
in front of them when responding to these
issues. We have written to them
(Jongwe Printers) to give an assurance that
they should deliver on time and
they confirmed they are going to do that,"
he said.
Mr Zvoma said
Parliament had an agreement with Jongwe Printers to print The
Hansard and be
paid thereafter. However, he would not reveal the amount of
money involved
in the deal.
About 8 060 copies of The Hansard are supposed to be printed the
day after
each Parliamentary sitting and these are meant for Members of
Parliament,
constituency information centres and members of the
public.
Following the passing of the Zimbabwe Constitution Amendment No 17
Act,
Zimbabwe's House of Assembly now consists of Lower and Upper
houses.
The number of copies of The Hansard needed for the Senate could not
be
ascertained yesterday.
The non-availability of The Hansard seriously
affects democratic processes
because the public is not kept accurately
informed on what happens in
Parliament. Voters want to know how their
representatives in the House
contribute to national debates.
"The
production of The Hansard also affects the general public. As part of
our
reforms, we said Parliament is an open institution where the people
raise
issues. If they (Jongwe Printers) fail to produce The Hansard, we can
go to
other companies, but the last time we checked, there was no other
company
that was able to print them. We are going to keep our doors open,"
said Mr
Zvoma.
The Speaker of Parliament, Cde John Nkomo and the President of Senate,
Mrs
Edna Madzongwe, could not be reached for comment.
Zanu-PF's secretary
for information and publicity, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira,
confirmed on Friday
that Jongwe Printers has not been able to print The
Hansard but attributed
it to the unavailability of newsprint.
He said negotiations with Mutare Board
and Paper Mills, Zimbabwe's only
maker of newsprint, were underway, adding
that the printing of The Hansard
would resume next week.
"The problem is
not with Jongwe Printers, but with Mutare Board and Paper
Mills. It (Mutare
Board and Paper Mills) said it had a short supply of
newsprint because it is
also supplying the paper to other companies. It has
very little in stock.
The company is the only one that supplies newsprint to
all companies in the
country like The Herald and others.
"I spoke to the managing director of the
company, a Mr Gwaunza, yesterday
(Thursday) who said we will receive
newsprint next week. He said he will
give us 24 tonnes of newsprint on
Monday. What is needed is 50 tonnes, but
he said he will give us only half
of that. We will get the remainder during
the course of the week. If we get
the newsprint, we will clear the backlog
the same day," said Dr Shamuyarira.
From The Limpopo Mirror (SA), 17 February
By Andries van Zyl
Two
heroic farm labourers came to the rescue of a pregnant Zimbabwean woman
on
Saturday, February 11, after she ran into trouble while trying to cross
the
crocodile-infested Limpopo River illegally into South Africa. The woman,
said to be in her thirties and about seven months pregnant, tried to cross
the flooded river on Friday, but ran into trouble and got stuck on a tree
stump. It was only on Saturday afternoon at about 16:00 that she was spotted
by two farm labourers from a farm in the Weipe area. The police were
alerted, but in the meantime the two farm labourers swam in and rescued the
woman, taking her back to the Zimbabwean side as it was the closest dry land
at that stage. The woman said nothing, as she was in shock. By the time the
police arrived at the scene, the woman was gone. Fearing the worst, the
police even brought along a police diver. It is speculated that the pregnant
woman tried to cross over into South Africa to give birth to her baby,
allowing her to qualify for the South African government's child grant. The
Musina police said that no case had been opened, as the woman had returned
to Zimbabwe.
From: "Masimira, David"
Comment on the Article "Zimbabwe Border Charges"
published in good faith on
20/2/2006
The article on carbon taxes
is grossly erroneous. Some of your writers are
far removed from reality. I
travel regularly between Zim and Botswana. The
rates advertised are annual
rates and not 30 days. Carbon tax is 90 Pula per
30 days and Road Access Fee
or Toll is 50 Pula per entry. Travellers are
allowed 5 million dollars as
cash which they can carry out of the country
and not 300 000 as said.
Similarly Botswana charges 120 Pula toll per
foreign vehicle for every entry.
I don't find anything sinister about
that.For the record.