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HARARE (AFP) - Police released 33 Zimbabwean opposition
activists on
Thursday and arrested three others according to an opposition
spokesman and
a lawyer for those freed.
"All the 33 arrested in
connection with the rally in Highfields on Sunday
were released yesterday
(Wednesday) after paying a deposit fine of 2,500
Zimbabwe dollars (10 US
dollars) each," lawyer Alec Muchadehama told AFP.
Scores of people were
arrested Sunday as riot police used teargas and water
cannons to break up a
planned rally in Harare by chief opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Opposition lawmakers Paul Madzore
and Tendai Biti, who were arrested on the
eve of the rally, were released on
50,000 dollars bail each on Tuesday.
The event had been approved by the
high court but Tsvangirai later abandoned
plans to address the crowds after
the attacks on his supporters.
In a separate development, MDC spokesman
Nelson Chamisa said member of
parliament Willias Madzimure, the party's
deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma and
women's league official Grace Kwinje were
arrested at Harare's main police
station, where they had been
summoned.
"We don't know what charges they are facing and we are now
trying to
ascertain where they have been detained after they were moved from
Harare
central police station," Chamisa said.
"It's all part of a
campaign to induce fear in the opposition leadership but
it will not
work."
Tsvangirai had planned to use the rally to launch his latest
campaign for
the presidency of the troubled southern African
nation.
The next presidential elections are due to take place in 2008 but
Mugabe,
who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980,
is
trying to delay them to 2010 in order to coincide with parliamentary
polls.
Following Sunday's aborted demonstration, police issued public
notices
formally banning political rallies and processions in parts of
Harare,
saying there were fears the gatherings could degenerate to
widespread
rioting.
Police have effectively prevented large-scale
anti-government demonstrations
for the last five years, with organisers
routinely arrested ahead of any
show of strength by the
opposition.
Chamisa said the MDC would contest the ban on rallies in the
high court.
Reuters
Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:56 PM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main teachers'
union called off a strike on
Thursday after higher wage demands were met by
the government.
Teachers from public primary and secondary schools
stopped working on
Wednesday demanding higher pay. They joined doctors and
nurses, who have
boycotted work since the end of last year.
Political
tensions are on the rise in Zimbabwe as workers grapple with a
severe
economic crisis marked by the highest inflation in the world at 1,600
percent and shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food and rising
poverty.
The secretary general of the main Zimbabwe Teachers' Association
(Zimta),
Richard Gundane, said the government had increased wages for
teachers and
other civil servants.
"We came to an agreement last
night (Wednesday). Now there is a solution, so
we have called it off,"
Gundane said. "We have accepted what has been
offered and asked members to
go back to work."
President Robert Mugabe's government on Wednesday
imposed a three-month ban
on political rallies and protests in the capital's
volatile townships
following violent weekend clashes between riot squads and
opposition
supporters.
The teachers were pushing for a Z$450,000
monthly salary -- $1,800 at the
official exchange rate but just $90 on the
black market -- double what the
government had initially
offered.
Union officials declined to give details of the new salary
package, but said
it had been extended to all state employees, heading off a
showdown with the
government, which fears strikes could gain momentum and
turn into street
protests.
Mugabe, who turned 83 on Wednesday, and
has been in power since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain in 1980, denies
his government has run down one of
Africa's most promising economies, saying
it has been sabotaged by Western
powers opposed to the seizures of
white-owned commercial farms to resettle
blacks.
Reuters
Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:38 PM GMT
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's main opposition said on Thursday it would go
to court to
challenge a government ban on rallies and protests, which has
fuelled
tensions in a country rocked by a wave of strikes over the cost of
living.
President Robert Mugabe's government on Wednesday imposed a
3-month ban on
political rallies and protests in the capital's volatile
townships following
violent clashes at the weekend between riot squads and
opposition
supporters.
Police fired teargas and water cannon to stop
a rally organised by the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which state
media said authorities
feared was an MDC launch pad for street protests
against Mugabe's
government.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa -- who on
Wednesday described the government
ban on rallies and protests as a kind of
"state of emergency" -- said on
Thursday his party would challenge this
decision in court.
"We are working on the papers, but we are going to
approach the courts over
this ban because in our view, it is over the top
and a blatant attack on
basic rights -- freedom of association and freedom
of speech," he said.
The MDC would also sue for damages for its
supporters who say that they were
assaulted by the police at the weekend,
and to charge the police with
contempt of court for defying a court order to
allow Sunday's rally to go
ahead.
"VAMPIRE REGIME"
Chamisa
said other tactics were also under consideration.
"Besides this battery
of legal cases against this vampire regime, we are
also working on a
political strategy to confront them, but we are not going
to discuss that
strategy in public," he said.
Tensions are rising fast in the southern
African country over a deepening
economic crisis marked by spiralling
inflation, which at 1,600 percent is
the highest in the world, shortages of
foreign currency, food and fuel and
surging unemployment.
Since the
start of the year, Zimbabwe has been rocked by a spate of
industrial strikes
for higher wages, including doctors and some teachers,
and unions are
threatening more job boycotts, which authorities fear could
spill onto the
streets.
On Wednesday, the union representing most teachers in Zimbabwe's
public
primary and secondary schools went on strike and an umbrella body for
all
government workers' unions says more civil servants could join the
strike.
The government union leaders were not immediately available for
comment on
Thursday.
Mugabe, who turned 83 on Wednesday, and has been
in power since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain in 1980, denies his
government has run down one of
Africa's promising economies, saying it has
been sabotaged by Western powers
opposed to seizures of white-owned
commercial farms to resettle blacks.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1209989.0.0.php
REBECCA McQUILLAN February
22 2007
He shall eat cake. The 83rd birthday festivities on Saturday of
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe will be a grand affair, with the finest
food and
drink, and lavish celebrations, in the manner to which the Most
Consistent
and Authentic Revolutionary Leader has become
accustomed.
The cost, in hard currency terms, will be £30,000. Now you
might think this
would present something of a problem. It is hard, after all,
to overstate
the economic crisis in which Zimbabwe is mired. It has a 1600%
inflation
rate, the world's highest. On one day this week, Tuesday, the price
of bread
rose 136%, meaning that it costs the average person a week's wages
to pay
for one loaf. Some 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed. Shelves are
empty.
Discontent is so widespread that even the government's own police
officers,
traditionally kept sweet by enhanced pay, are deserting in the face
of
intolerably low wages.
All this has certainly created something of
a challenge. But there's always
a way. This time, reports suggest, it
involved summarily deducting money
from civil servants' already paltry wages
and strong-arming near-bankrupt
local businesses into "donating"
money.
For the harried, overburdened people of Zimbabwe, this latest show
of
self-serving tyranny by Mugabe produces no moment of revelation, no
change
of heart; the scales have long since fallen from their eyes. It just
deepens
their antipathy.
advertisement
"If they said, Come and
join us,' and sent a car here to fetch me, I would
never go," said one
poverty-stricken Harare street vendor of the
celebrations. "Even though I am
starving, I would not go. I hate him." How
long can he go on, Zimbabweans
must ask themselves. How long indeed - and
how long before statesmen from
neighbouring African states bring their own
moral weight to bear in ending
the anachronistic nightmare that Mugabe's
rule has become?
It is
Zimbabwe's tragedy that, as other sub-Saharan African countries have
moved,
however haltingly, towards openness and democracy, it remains
shackled to the
past.
It is half a century since the first African nation, Ghana, threw
off its
colonial rule, prompting others to follow suit in quick succession.
The next
20 years, in several countries, saw the rise of despotic leaders,
who
treated their fellow citizens with varying degrees of brutality. Some,
such
as Jean-Bedel Bokassa in the Central African Republic and Idi Amin
in
Uganda, instigated mass murder; others confined themselves to repression
of
dissent. What they all had in common was the imposition of one-party
rule,
economic mismanagement, corruption and the misappropriation of
resources.
It is that totalitarian mould that produced Robert Mugabe. Yet
it is a mould
that has since been melted down and reshaped for a new century.
This week,
as riot squads fired tear gas and water cannon to break up an
opposition
party meeting in Harare, and a three-month ban was imposed on
political
rallies in Zimbabwe, audiences gathered in the Ugandan capital,
Kampala, to
watch The Last King of Scotland, dramatising the years of Idi
Amin's rule.
Viewers emerged into what is now an increasingly prosperous
and
forward-looking capital city, reminiscing with tear-stained eyes on a
closed
chapter of their history. Uganda is not an untroubled country - an
uprising
by the brutal Lord's Resistance Army in the north continues - but,
since
Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 replacing Amin's despotic
successor,
Milton Obote, Uganda has become steadily more open and
stable.
Mugabe's style would be laughable were it not so
horrifying
The wind of change is once again blowing through the
continent. To the north
of Zimbabwe, Tanzania, one of the world's least
developed countries,
provides a shining example of good governance that has
seen record economic
growth rates in recent years, first under President
Mkapa and latterly
Kikwete, while in Mozambique to the east, multi-party
democracy and careful
economic management have at last brought economic
growth to another
desperately poor country. Against this backdrop, Zanu PF's
brand of
repressive, intolerant rule and President Mugabe's patrician style
of
brushing away criticism as if it were a troublesome mosquito, even as
his
people starve, would be laughable were it not so horrifying.
And,
yet, from other African leaders there is only the occasional murmur
of
dismay, and otherwise silence. The great Mugabe, once such a potent
symbol
of post- colonial African confidence, still now, in his ninth decade
and in
the grip of political madness, cows all criticism. Like some
malevolent old
aunt whom no-one wants to stand up to, he sweeps ahead,
unfettered. No-one,
even now, will openly criticise the great freedom fighter
.
Yet Mugabe's past glories have long since been eclipsed by his more
recent
crimes. The man who carried a nation's hopes on his shoulders on
becoming
President in the wake of white rule 27 years ago shrugged them off
lightly.
Having spent 10 years in prison at the hands of Rhodesia's white
ruler Ian
Smith and then fought bravely to obtain the fairest possible deal
for black
Zimbabweans, he may once have been a hero. But there soon
followed
repression, summary killings of opponents and, latterly, disastrous
economic
decline stemming from the seizure of white-owned farms, which led to
sharp
falls in production. Last year, the homes of 700,000 people,
mostly
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
were
bulldozed in Harare. Most are still homeless.
So where are the
voices of condemnation? No wonder the MDC's leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, has
criticised African heads of state for failing to condemn
Mugabe, saying it is
damaging their "credibility". Among Mugabe's reticent
neighbours is Thabo
Mbeki in South Africa. Partly, some believe, his silence
is due to solidarity
stemming from a common struggle over the ending of
white rule; he also, no
doubt, fears that Mugabe would portray any critic as
being in hock to the
west. He prefers "quiet diplomacy", but there is little
sign that strategy is
working: Mugabe has been urged to stand down after
this term in office but
already looks set to resist that.
Such reticence comes at a cost. It is
unquestionably wrong to imagine that
Africa's problems stem from the
corruption of its past leaders alone, and it
is unquestionably right to blame
much of the continent's current ills on the
self-serving meddling of wealthy
countries. But international observers have
a right to be anxious about the
security of democracy in Africa when a
despot such as Mugabe goes
unchallenged by his own neighbours. "Africa is
still incredibly badly
governed by Africans," said Michael Buerk said in
this newspaper earlier this
week. Many would disagree with that view and
with plenty of evidence to
support them, but in convincing the sceptics,
condemnation by Mbeki and
others of Africa's longest surviving despot would
go a long way. Most
importantly, it could end Zimbabwe's criminally
unnecessary
suffering.
Reproduced with the permission of The Herald (Glasgow) (c)
Newsquest
(Herald & Times) Ltd.
Mail and Guardian
Godwin Gandu
22 February 2007
02:17
A day without an internet connection does not
contribute to the
balance sheet of a corporate trying to compete in the
global village. No
telephone line means no access to international
clients.
That's the nightmare facing Zimbabwean business
executives at
present. Making international calls is now a luxury enjoyed
only by
government officials who are guaranteed speedier connections for
voice or
data calls.
"It's a disaster," says Jameson
Timba, chief executive of
eWorld, a Zimbabwean internet and
telecommunications service provider that
has been in business for the past
10 years.
Internet subscribers face a torrid time when
sending or
receiving email. According to Timba, Zimbabwe simply does not
have
sufficient bandwidth to carry the required volumes of
data.
Service providers blame TelOne, the country's
fixed-line network
and major supplier of bandwidth, which has acknowledged
owing huge debts to
South Africa's Telkom without revealing exact
figures.
The situation is not much better for mobile
communication. "The
current congestion of mobile networks is a function of a
growth in
subscriber numbers which is not matched by network expansion,"
says Timba.
TelOne officials blame the network's problems on
shortages of
foreign currency. The network is hunting for foreign currency,
financing
commercial farmers for horticultural and tobacco exports to raise
foreign
currency.
"A vibrant telecommunications
infrastructure is an incentive for
foreign direct investment," Timba says,
adding that "any measures to attract
foreign investment which ignores the
plight of the telecommunications
industry is an exercise in
futility".
Mobile network companies are also constrained by
the shortage of
foreign currency. Also, the country's telecommunications
regulator has
forced these companies to adopt unviable international
tariffs. In response,
the companies have stopped handling international
calls.
Though among the more modest of the difficulties now
experienced
in Zimbabwe, such telecommunications troubles reduce business
efficiency,
which in turn worsens the sky-high inflation rate, says John
Robertson, an
economic consultant.
Yearly inflation leapt
to a record 1 593,6% in January, showing
no respite in a crisis marked by
chronic shortages of foreign exchange, food
and fuel and unemployment of
more than 80%.
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks
February 22, 2007
Posted to the web
February 22, 2007
Johannesburg
Hyperinflation and an unrealistic
foreign exchange rate has posed tremendous
challenges for humanitarian
organisations in Zimbabwe struggling to provide
aid and development
assistance.
"We fund the number of programmes that we can at the current
inflation and
exchange rate, but it is very difficult, we have to
continuously watch our
actual budgets so that we do not exceed available
funding," said an aid
worker with an international development agency who
asked not to be named.
The official exchange rate is pegged at
Zim$250 to the US dollar, but on the
parallel market - on which real prices
are based - it is Zim$6,000 for a
greenback. Some nongovernmental
organisations (NGOs) have negotiated
preferential exchange rates with their
banks to stretch their limited
foreign currency.
"But not everyone is
that fortunate, not all the NGOs have the financial
muscle to negotiate
deals with the banks", pointed out an aid worker.
"Particularly the local
NGOs, who are small: they not only have to deal with
the unrealistic foreign
exchange but also the high inflation which keeps
pushing costs up every
month."
As a result even basic office equipment, like fax toner, can cost
several
thousand US dollars at the official exchange rate. "Everyone likes
to keep
their money dealings legitimate, so we are very reluctant to look
for deals
in the parallel market," commented an advocacy officer with a
local rights
NGO.
With inflation at around 1,600 percent, nearly 80
percent of Zimbabweans
unemployed, and the minimum wage no where near the
cost of a basket of basic
household items, NGOs are under tremendous
pressure to provide more
humanitarian assistance.
The NGOs in
Zimbabwe are caught "between a rock and a hard place", pointed
out John
Makumbe, a political analyst based in the capital, Harare.
"The NGOs are
operating in a war-like situation with high inflation and an
increased
demand for services related to health, social care and education
... as the
government structures have failed to provide for the shattered
public," said
Makumbe. "Yet the state prevents NGOs from reaching out to as
many people as
they can afford to as they have to use the official exchange
rate and abide
by other foreign exchange regulations, unlike in real war
situations."
In addition the government views NGOs with a degree of
caution, accusing
some of being fronts for Western powers hostile to
President Robert Mugabe
and his ruling ZANU-PF party.
According to
the United Nation's Children's Fund, Zimbabwe has the world's
highest
percentage of orphans - 1.6 million out of a population of about six
million
children. But an international development agency, trying to provide
care
and support to vulnerable children in the south of the country, has
been
forced to make difficult choices as a result of the economic
crisis.
Hyperinflation has eroded the traditional role of extended
families to take
in orphans.
"In many areas, we are the only support
system that people have, and it can
get quite tenuous when we have to reduce
the number of beneficiaries or the
portion of aid they receive," pointed out
an operations manager with the
agency.
"The bottom line is you have
to become very flexible, be prepared and ready
to keep changing your targets
and revising your programmes," commented
another aid
worker.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in recession since 2000, when the
government
embarked on a fast-track land redistribution exercise that sought
to give
land to thousands of people from impoverished communal areas by
removing
more than 4,000 white commercial farmers from their
estates.
The land reform programme disrupted agricultural production, the
country's
main foreign exchange earner. The government, however, blames the
economic
crisis on a series of droughts, and "sanctions" imposed by the
European
Union and United States in protest over elections they deemed
unfair.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations ]
Financial Gazette (Harare)
COLUMN
February 22,
2007
Posted to the web February 22, 2007
Bornwell
Chakaodza
Harare
THE Herald's interview last Thursday and the ZBC-TV
interview on Tuesday
night -- both with President Robert Mugabe -- left me
rather flabbergasted
and bewildered as to what the real intentions of the
two encounters were.
It was an opportunity lost -- a great opportunity
squandered. It is not
often that President Mugabe submits himself to being
interviewed by local
journalists. His 83rd birthday celebrations provided a
golden opportunity
for face-to-face interviews with editors of the
State-owned media.
Both interviews failed -- totally! Not because of
the President himself per
se but because of, among many other reasons, the
servile mentality and
unpreparedness of the interviewers. Very minimal
information of a serious
nature was elicited from President Mugabe. I felt,
as did most Zimbabweans,
severely short-changed by Pikirayi Deketeke of The
Herald and Tazzen
Mandizvidza of ZBC-TV.
Subjects skilled at being
interviewed can seem to give replies when actually
they are saying nothing
of substance. President Mugabe, as a skilled
political figure of many years
standing is often adept at this. At such
times, it behoves on the person
doing the interview to rephrase the question
or even say that the subject
has not addressed the question sufficiently.
Perhaps with the calibre of
both Deketeke and Mandizvidza, it is too much to
expect them to go that far.
At best, seasoned politicians need to be
interviewed by seasoned journalists
or at the very least by people with a
good knowledge of the issues and
capable of asking questions to put the
subject on its matter. Otherwise it
is a waste of newspaper space and a
waste of television time and viewers'
patience.
In the case of Tazzen Mandizvidza it is much worse. His jerky,
rush and gush
manner is hardly helped by an unfortunate voice. I do not want
to further
dramatise the issue but I must say that Tazzen's way is no way to
inform
what can only be described as an educated and highly discerning
Zimbabwean
population.
To Henry Muradzikwa, I want to implore him: Do
not take Zimbabweans for
granted. They might be a docile and uncomplaining
lot as indeed they are,
but they are generally smart.
During the
interviews, these two guys did a disservice to readers and
viewers by
failing to ferret out from the President real issues and possible
solutions.
The front page headline in the Saturday Herald was: "Zim, UK
talks off:
President". What talks and where were they held if I may ask?
Such
deliberate falsehoods are totally unacceptable. It was just a ploy to
divert
the Zimbabwean public's attention from real solutions to our crisis.
The
point must be made continually that the real problem facing us is not
between Zimbabwe and the UK. Ours is a home-grown problem. The political
leadership in this country is the author of our current crisis. It is a non-
question to ask whether there has been any talks between Zimbabwe and the
UK. Where were they held in the first place? I just laugh when I hear such
things.
In the same article, it was pointed out that Benjamin Mkapa
"was appointed
by President Mugabe last year to initiate dialogue between
the two countries
to iron out their differences, mainly over the land reform
programme."
I thought it took two to appoint a mediator in any given
conflict. How can
President Mugabe be a player and a referee at the same
time? Is this
feasible?
Accepted that Zimpapers and ZBC are
propaganda arms of the government but
can that be the reason for asking
non-questions? I can understand the
state-owned media doing public relations
work for government but it must be
intelligent and reasonable public
relations. Certainly, it is difficult for
the Mandizvidzas and Deketekes of
this world to bite the finger that feeds
them but they must also understand
and appreciate the public service
obligations of both ZBC and
Zimpapers.
I do think that it is worth putting these things into some
kind of
perspective. Many a time, censorship can just be something in the
minds of
these state editors. If the spirit of inquiry is lacking as it is
sadly the
case with journalists at the state broadcaster and at Zimpapers,
could that
be blamed on President Mugabe? Certainly not.
I do not
think that President Mugabe can fire an editor for introducing a
question
thus: "Mr. President, people are saying that . . . or people feel
that . . .
or so and so says (whatever) about you or Minister Nhingi, how do
you react
to that? But if you end the question by "do you care to comment?"
the
President may say no or ramble on and on.
Tazzen Mandizvidza squandered
an opportunity by failing to follow up with a
question such as: "Cde
President, can you name and shame these ministers and
members of the
politburo who are dealing in diamonds in Manicaland and
others involved in
corrupt activities in many other areas?" Indeed there
were a number of areas
where the President was carefully evasive to the
point where we leant
nothing but Tazzen remained a robot stuck in the mud.
For example, what
did the President mean by the Mandaza way? Names cannot
just be thrown
around like that and then remain hanging in mid-air. When
President Mugabe
said: "Some say, ah because the President wants to lengthen
his term, if I
wanted to lengthen, I can stand next year, what prevents me
from standing
and beating? I can stand and then have another six years for
that matter,
handiti?"
If I were in the shoes of Tazzen, I would have clearly asked
without my
position at ZBC being threatened: "Cde President, you are saying
if, if, but
are you going to stand in 2008 or not?" This is a
straightforward question
requiring a straightforward answer. Mandizvidza
failed dismally in this
regard. I doubt myself whether Tazzen understood all
the answers. Otherwise
he would have asked for further
explanations.
I think it is incredibly important that the interviewer
remains in charge of
the interview, bring the questions back on track if the
subject wanders into
irrelevant areas. I accept that remaining in charge is
not always easy when
questioning grand old men of African politics like
President Mugabe who have
gained authority over many years. But it can be
done.
I do not know now but when I used to chair Presidential press
conferences in
the 1990s involving all media from both public and private,
President Mugabe
used to respond positively and without rancour to informed
questions
whatever they might be.
In conclusion, I want to emphasise
the fact that information is light.
Therefore it is important that
Zimbabwean journalists, regardless of the
organisation they work for, do a
serious a job in a serious way. What is
lacking in most of our journalists
today is a spirit of inquiry. There is a
crying need therefore for the
emergence of a cadre of young and educated
journalists who are
independent-minded and highly professional and prepared
to put the
Zimbabwean journalism on its mettle.
UNICEF
By James Elder
HARARE, Zimbabwe, 22 February 2007 – In a
one-room hut with a torn blanket for a door, Miriam, 16, lives with her six
younger siblings.
Miriam welcomes us into their home as her half-dressed
brothers play ‘tsoro’, a local version of chequers, in the shade of the hut,
while her sisters help with the cooking. A bitter wind blows dust into their
plates and eyes.
Two hours east of Zimbabwe’s capital, Miriam and her
brothers and sisters live at the heart of Buhera, where maize is burnt dry and
HIV decimates communities. Although just a teenager, Miriam is head of her
household. Her father died in 1998, and her mother four years later.
“I
have just travelled more than four kilometres in search of water,” she says.
“Now it is time for cooking, bathing and cleaning.”
Programme of Support
announced
Enforced parenthood is an unreasonable burden to place on a
teenager, yet one that is repeated with terrifying regularity across Zimbabwe.
UNICEF estimates that 100,000 Zimbabwean children live in child-headed
households like Miriam’s.
HIV and AIDS have dramatically increased
children’s vulnerability in recent years, to the point where Zimbabwe now has
the highest percentage of orphaned children in the world.
However,
through the joint financial efforts of the UK Department for International
Development, New Zealand AID, the Swedish International Development Agency and
the German Government, Miriam and thousands like her will soon get essential
assistance.
The donor assistance, in the form of a Programme of Support
announced last week, means that Zimbabwe can scale up its National Action Plan
for orphans and vulnerable children to boost existing work and improve their
living conditions.
$70 million from donors
Under an agreement reached by
UNICEF, the government and 21 non-governmental organizations on 15 February,
funds from the Programme of Support will go towards:
Increased school
enrolment of orphans and vulnerable children
Family and community support
School nutrition programmes
Increased registration of children with
birth certificates
Improved access to food, health services, and water and
sanitation
Reducing the number of children living outside a family
environment
Preventing the physical abuse of orphans.
The programme –
backed by more than $70 million from donors over five years – enables the 21
NGOs to fund and support a further 150 community-based organizations.
“The
pressures on Zimbabweans are overwhelming,” says UNICEF’s Representative in
Zimbabwe, Dr. Festo Kavishe. Thousands of Zimbabweans die from HIV-related
illnesses every week, and over 1 million children have been orphaned, he adds.
“Anyone who has seen the hardships of these orphans and the resolve and
determination of struggling Zimbabweans to assist them must be moved to help,”
notes Dr. Kavishe. “We have a team of donors reaching out to orphans across the
country. I hope others will now join us.”
Reuters
22 Feb 2007
09:17:38 GMT
By Charles Mangwiro
MAPUTO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A
powerful tropical cyclone with winds of up to
230 km per hour (144 mph)
surged ashore in southern Mozambique on Thursday,
uprooting trees, knocking
over electric pylons and raising fears of new
floods.
Cyclone Favio,
the strongest to hit the southern African country, is heading
towards the
Zambezi River valley where it is likely to worsen floods which
have already
killed some 40 people and driven 120,000 from their homes.
Now rated a
category four storm, Cyclone Favio hit the tourist town of
Vilanculos early
on Thursday, destroying a number of houses built of flimsy
material,
officials said.
The National Meteorology Institute, INAM, said Favio's
strong winds and
rains were concentrated in the province of Inhambane but
were felt as far
away as Xai-Xai, the capital of nearby Gaza
province.
"The cyclone is now over land, hitting the tourist town of
Vilanculos, and
is likely to worsen in the next few hours," said INAM
spokesman Helder
Sueia.
"It's magnitude is stronger than that of the
Cyclone Eline, the worst to hit
Mozambique in 2000."
The cyclone has
caused widespread damage at the holiday resort of Tofo
Beach, uprooting palm
trees and destroying electric pylons around the area
which has become a
favourite of backpackers and scuba divers, Radio
Mozambique
said.
Sueia said the storm was moving northwards at an average speed of
50 km per
hour (31 mph), taking aim at the central Zambezi River valley
which is
already struggling with a serious flood disaster.
"It's
moving so fast and by tomorrow it will strike the central port city of
Beira
as it heads towards the already flood stricken region in Caia," Sueia
said.
"It's accompanied by torrential rains which may worsen the
flooding
situation along the Zambezi valley."
Mozambique's cyclone
early warning system said a storm of Favio's magnitude
could bring
widespread destruction of homes, buildings and industrial
structures
including power grids, as well as crops and trees.
Flooding in central
Mozambique has already displaced more than 120,000
people, with tens of
thousands of them in temporary shelters which officials
are already having
difficulty keeping supplied with food and fresh water.
"Our disaster
management team is currently busy responding to the floods,"
Mozambique Red
Cross General Secretary Fernanda Teixeira told national
television this
week.
"It will be a sad scenario for the people ... to be hit by a
cyclone at a
time when they are healing from the recent flooding," Teixeira
said.
Officials said the problems could multiply in the coming days as
Favio dumps
its rains in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, further swelling
tributaries which
feed the already-flooded Zambezi.
Mozambique's
worst disaster in recent memory occurred in 2000-2001 when a
series of
cyclones compounded widespread flooding in southern and central
parts of the
country, killing 700 people and driving close to half a million
from their
homes.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Sandra Nyaira
LONDON - The European
Union has called on President Robert Mugabe to step
down as soon as possible
saying this would be the largest single step
possible towards reviving the
Zimbabwean society, politics and the ailing
economy.
In its 19-point
resolution extending the targeted sanctions against Mugabe
and his top
lieutenants, the EU says Mugabe's departure from Zimbabwe House
would also
pave the way for the commencement of positive transitional
negotiations
between Zanu PF the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
parties and
other opposition movements in the country.
Mugabe, who intends to stay in
office until 2010, this week reiterated there
was no vacancy for the
country's presidency, warning ambitious government
colleagues to stop
jostling to succeed him.
In a defiant interview aired on national
television to mark his 83rd
birthday, Mugabe said: "Obviously there will
come a time when I will go." He
blames the United Kingdom in particular as
well as the EU and the United
States for sabotaging the Zimbabwean economy
to engineer his downfall
because of his controversial land
reforms.
They in turn accuse him of plunging the southern African state
into a severe
political and economic crisis through controversial policies
and holding on
to power through rigging elections resulting in the
introduction of the
targeted measures in 2002.
The EU this week
extended for another year the so-called targeted sanctions
against Mugabe
and top leaders within the Zanu PF and the government with
new additions
being made to the existing list. Still on the list are former
Finance
Minister Simba Makoni and Jonathan Moyo, the former minister of
information
and publicity who is now an independent legislator.
While expressing its
disappointment at the refusal by regional actors like
South Africa, the
African Union and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) to take
a more robust stance against Harare, the EU
condemned "the Mugabe
dictatorship for its relentless oppression of the
Zimbabwean
people".
The EU, which refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the new
Zimbabwe
Senate in which the Arthur Mutambara MDC participated, calls for
the
withdrawal of the Interception of Communications Bill, the Suppression
of
Terrorism Bill and the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill, all of which
tit
says are likely to be used as pretexts for even tougher crackdowns on
Mugabe's
opponents.
The European Union also "strongly insists that
the Mugabe regime must derive
absolutely no financial benefit or propaganda
value from either the run-up
to the 2010 World Cup or the tournament itself;
in this regard, calls on
South Africa, the host nation, and on FIFA, to
exclude Zimbabwe from
participating in pre-World Cup matches, holding
international friendly
games, or hosting national teams involved in the
event".
The resolution recognises that the EU's targeted sanctions
against both
Zimbabwe and certain individuals have failed to have the
desired impact on
those directly
responsible for the impoverishment of
Zimbabwe and the hardships endured by
its
people. It calls on the EU
Council to ensure that all Member States
rigorously applied existing
restrictive measures, including the arms embargo
and the travel ban, erring
on the side of exclusion rather than
permissiveness. The EU further calls on
countries like China to stop
supplying Zimbabwe with weaponry and join the
international community in its
efforts to bring about change in
Zimbabwe.
The resolution urges the United Nations Security Council to
report on the
human rights and political situation in Zimbabwe as a matter
of urgency and
it also reiterates its demand for SADC to close its regional
peacekeeping
training centre in
Harare and relocate it
elsewhere.
It Insists that all aid destined for Zimbabwe must be
delivered through
genuine nongovernmental organisations and must reach the
people for whom it
is intended, with the least possible involvement of the
government. It also
expresses unease about seven EU-funded projects in
Zimbabwe at a cost of EUR
70 million (2005), and further projects in 2006,
including EUR 3.7 million
through the EU Water Facility, and asks the
Commission to give its
assurances that none of the aid benefited the Mugabe
regime.
The EU welcomed the meeting between the two MDC factions in South
Africa
last August calls on all who are opposed "to the deplorable Mugabe
regime to
come together and to ensure that their activities provide the
people of
Zimbabwe with a firmly democratic, representative and united
opposition,
ready in all respects to assume the responsibilities of
government, and to
bring about political and economic change for the better
in Zimbabwe".
It also asks the Zimbabwe government to allow the planned
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions protests against appalling living
conditions and low wages
to proceed without police harassment as has been
seen with the recent
crackdown on opposition rallies.
Financial Gazette
(Harare)
COLUMN
February 22, 2007
Posted to the web February 22,
2007
Gondo Gushungo
Harare
IT'S panic stations. The economy is
bumping along the bottom and the nation,
which has been enjoying an
egg-shell veneer of stability, is falling apart.
The pin has already been
pulled from the grenade and it is just a matter of
time before the economy
implodes under its absurdities. The signs of
increasing civil unrest and the
deployment of riot police in potential
troublespots as a pre-emptive move
say it all.
Critical IMF balance of payments support has been on ice
for years now as
the Bretton Woods institution haggles with the government
over policy
issues. And of course, in an act of sheer bravado, the
government continues
to tell us that it can go it alone because it does not
accept some of the
IMF's outworn shibboleths. But the harsh reality whether
the government
likes it or not is that the IMF, which to all intents and
purposes has, even
though it does not admit it, slammed the door on
Zimbabwe, remains a key and
influential institution from which international
financiers and investors
take their cue.
True, the World Investment
Report last year said foreign direct investment
(FDI), which could turn the
tide for the country, had increased in 2005
(US$103 million compared to
South Africa's US$6.4 billion). Still the fact
remains: FDI is flowing in
dribs and drabs while other international
financiers continue to sit on the
fence mainly due to Zimbabwe's unstable
tenure policies that have tended to
scare off investors with the bogeyman of
uncertainty. This is hardly
surprising. Without the IMF's seal of approval,
no financier will twitch.
That Zimbabwe's total foreign debt has remained
stagnant at US$5 billion
over the past five years, is instructive.
Resultantly, there is no
infrastructural development, which could be a real
lifebelt, to talk of.
Instead, factories are closing down and redundancies
soaring. Public health
institutions no longer have medicines and equipment.
Thus people are
dropping like flies from incurable and operable ailments. An
estimated 80
percent of the population, a figure critics consider
conservative, lives
below the breadline.
And there is no little sunshine breaking through the
dark cloud yet. If
anything, it is seemingly getting worse. After
speculation swirled about an
imminent extension of the biting targeted
European Union sanctions against
the ruling ZANU PF's high echelon, the
economic bloc confirmed every
Zimbabwean's worst fears. It renewed the
sanctions on Monday this week.
As if that was not enough, an Australian
bank, Westpac Bank of Australia,
had the previous week severed all business
ties with Zimbabwean financial
institutions citing increased credit and
country risk as well as the
targeted Western sanctions. The issue of country
risk is particularly
important in that in the eyes of the Australians there
is a likelihood that
events in Zimbabwe will make it impossible for
companies operating in the
country to honour their obligations. This could
have a domino effect on
banks in other countries that have similar
relationships with banks in
Zimbabwe.
"What's the big deal?"
Zimbabwe's tragi-comic politicians from whom this
development has provoked a
muted response, are, in their articulate
ignorance, wont to say. And the
state propaganda machinery will go into
overdrive dismissing this as a
futile sinister move to tighten the screws on
the government to force it to
knuckle-down and abandon its radical land
reforms.
We will be told
that the move by the Australians and their Western allies,
who have been
bidding their time to effect regime change was entirely
predictable. With
runaway inflation, falling industrial production, rising
unemployment,
biting fuel and food shortages -- all caused by the West and
not misguided
government policies -- creating a fertile ground for general
disillusionment
among Zimbabweans frustrated by social deprivation, the
West, we will be
told, erroneously thinks that it can easily tap a rich mine
of
disenchantment to complete the critical encirclement around the
government.
But I will not pretend so as to mislead and raise false
hope, as would
politicians whom nobody seems to take seriously anymore, that
Zimbabwe's
socio-economic life will remain unshaken because nothing could be
further
from the truth. This is especially so given that the move by the
Australians
and the extension of the EU sanctions comes at a particularly
irksome moment
for the sickly economy. It is bad enough that the economy is
on its knees
and the country has already lost a raft of friends, credibility
and
prestige.
Instead, I and many other Zimbabweans have every reason
to be frightened.
Westpac Bank might be in far off Australia. But its
actions as regards
Zimbabwean banks send across a clear and unmistakeable
message. It is a
damning and ominous signal that Zimbabwe, which has had a
desperate need to
find an enemy, now has its needle well and truly stuck.
"Zimbabwe is a land
of contagion and don't touch it even with a 10 000 km
barge pole" -- that is
the message.
This presents Zimbabwe with a
terribly serious problem because it is a red
flag that will not be ignored
by foreign investors who have either turned
their back on the country or are
maintaining a wait-and-see attitude.
What is clear here is that Zimbabwe
faces a dilemma. Seeking recourse to the
international donor community is an
exercise in futility, given the
interlinkages that exist between the
lender/donor community and the
country's frosty relationship with the IMF.
The Shona have a saying for
that: Kuteya nzou neriva (trying to pave the
sea).
Under the circumstances, the country could only opt for bilateral
relations.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working either as can be
seen from the
government's much-vaunted Look East policy where all Zimbabwe
seems to be
getting from Malaysia and China are good words and nothing
else.
Yet the bottom line is that Zimbabwe cannot go it alone because the
reversibility of the accelerating economic decline depends, not only on the
severity of the damage to the economy but on international acceptance
too.
So what is the way forward? Admittedly, the chaotic and disruptive
land
reform, one of the major sticking points, is irreversible and the
international community should accept it as a fait accompli, so to speak.
But other than that one aspect, why doesn't Zimbabwe change its political
behaviour which the international community frowns on so that it can mend
fences before they irretrievably break down?
What aspects of its
politics does the country have to look at? Upholding the
rule of law,
improving its human rights record as well as nurturing
political pluralism,
all of which are points of bitter attacks by the West.
After all, the
politics of a country can have the most far-reaching
consequences of any
operating environment.
From The Daily Mirror, 22 February
Brian Mangwende
The Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede
jolted people from their seats this
week when he told a parliamentary
portfolio committee that his office was
not prepared for presidential
elections in 2008. He cited lack of resources
to update the voters' roll as
well as register new voters. His current
plight comes hot on the heels of a
shortage of material in his department to
process passports and national
identity cards. However, some political
analysts accused Mudede of pushing a
political agenda while others said he
was being genuine. Those suspicious of
his statement said it was an attempt
by Mudede to add his voice to
harmonising presidential and parliamentary
elections proposed for 2010. The
synchronisation of polls has widely been
construed as a way to lengthen
President Robert Mugabe's term in office.
However, the Head of State
recently said the move proposed for 2010 was not
meant to extend his term,
but bring about a single package of elections for
administrative
convenience.
According to the national news agency, New Ziana, Mudede
who appeared before
the House of Assembly's committee on Defence and Home
Affairs said: "That is
why we are battling to secure funding. We will not be
able to register those
that are turning 18 and will be eligible to vote
since issuing of the
national IDs is at a standstill." Mudede said he was,
however, able to deal
with the situation within a short period should
adequate funding in both
foreign and local currency be made available. The
department would embark on
a nationwide mobile registration, he said. The
news agency further quoted
Mudede saying: "At the moment we are not ready,"
and that he had already
notified the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
about his position. ZEC
runs the elections in the country while Mudede
registers voters and is the
custodian of the same. Speaking on national
television, President Mugabe
said the issue of harmonisation was being
misconstrued.
Said the President: "Now it would have been good to
harmonise, for really to
get just one election that is all encompassing, but
of course so many
reading have been put onto it. Some say, 'ah because the
President wants to
lengthen his term,' if want to lengthen my term, I can
stand next year, what
prevents me from standing.I can stand and then have
another six years for
that matter, handiti?..So it was not because the
president wants to have
another term; no, it was to be done to have a
package yema elections which
is one. In other words, we have presidential
elections, parliamentary
elections and local government elections." But
political analyst John
Makumbe said Mudede was taking it for granted that
the presidential and
parliamentary polls would be held in 2010. "He should
have resources for
2007 in preparation for 2008," Makumbe said. "He can't
get the resources in
2008 and expect to be ready for elections in March of
the same year. If
resources were not budgeted for, then he has to make sure
that he puts his
house in order. He has got plenty of time to update the
voter's roll before
2008.
"Where did he get the resources from in
2005 for the Senate elections?"
Makumbe questioned. "He is just adding his
voice to those who want to extend
President Mugabe's term. It doesn't wash.
There have always been
supplementary budgets and he should make his bid
now." Makumbe then went to
say that the 2005 Senate elections were not
budgeted for, but they took
place the same year. Another political observer
who preferred anonymity
said: "The situation is a reflection of a nation
failing to cope with costs
of democracy against the backdrop of economic
challenges. Mudede is simply
stating a position that he does not have
resources. It is good that the
country has since independence held frequent
elections, but the processes
are proving to be unsustainable. This is why
there is general consensus
revolving around harmonisation of polls
regardless of the timing."
Recently, the National Constitutional
Assembly chairperson, Lovemore
Madhuku, threw his weight behind the
harmonisation of polls, arguing that
everyone who supports synchronisation
should support a new constitution. He
said his organisation was not opposed
to postponing elections. Zimbabwe is
due to conduct presidential elections
in March next year unless Parliament
adopts a proposal by the ruling Zanu PF
to postpone them to 2010 and hold
them together with parliamentary
elections, which would be due then.
Delegates to the ruling party's 6th
Annual People's Conference held in
Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East,
last year proposed harmonising the
elections to reduce administrative costs.
The two opposition MDC factions
have, however, rejected the proposal,
alleging that it is a ploy by
President Mugabe to extend his stay in power.
Harmonisation of polls is not
a new phenomenon in the world. That is the
scenario in Zambia where
tripartite elections are held and have proved to be
cost effective.
The RG's Office stopped accepting new applications
for passports and
national IDs in December last year when it ran short of
consumables for the
production of the documents. Mudede told the committee
that when the process
was suspended, the department had a backlog of at
least 300 000 applications
for passports. He said since then, the department
had been issuing Emergency
Travel Documents (ETDs) while applications for
passports were being accepted
in very exceptional circumstances such as for
students that secure places to
study abroad or people wishing to go on
business trips to countries that do
not accept ETDs. Responding to
Mabvuku-Tafara lawmaker Timothy Mubhawu's
question on why mobile
registration could not be conducted to issue birth
certificates and
temporary IDs since these were made of local materials,
Mudede reiterated
that the department did not have the local currency to
fund such an
exercise. He said the Ministry of Finance rejected the
department's bids for
funds to carry out mobile registration in 2006 and in
2007.
On
why the department was not returning to issuing metal IDs, Mudede said
that
was not possible as material used in their production was also in short
supply while the machinery used was outdated. About three years ago, the
RG's
office replaced metal IDs with plastic ones, which it said were more
durable
and secure. "It is not possible to go back to metal," Mudede said.
On the
discourteous behaviour of some staff of his department, Mudede said
much of
it was to do with the way people were brought up, adding most of the
culprits were young people whose manners generally left a lot to be desired.
He, however, agreed with committee chairperson, Claudius Makova, that
congestion at his offices also contributed to the frustration of members of
staff, as they were overworked and uncomfortable. Mudede called on the
committee to assist his department to secure funding to enable it to
decentralise operations and reduce congestion at the main offices. Due to
shortage of funds, the department suspended the programme it had embarked on
to decentralise and computerise its operations in order to reduce numbers of
people that travelled to major cities to obtain documents.
Comment from The Daily Telegraph (UK), 22 February
To add insult to the injury of hearing the same old
speech from President
Robert Mugabe on the eve of his 83rd birthday on
Tuesday night, many
Zimbabweans were furious at missing a chunk of the first
leg of the
Champions League first knock out round. The single dreadful, TV
channel put
Mr Mugabe on instead of the match, and he droned on for a full
hour. Many
people, especially in Harare, believed correctly that Mr Mugabe
had
criticised his vice president Joyce Mujuru during the original
interview.
The people know that Mrs Mujuru and her husband, retired general
Solomon
want Mr Mugabe to retire ahead of the next presidential election in
March
2008 and she wants to stand as a candidate on the ruling Zanu PF
ticket. Mr
Mugabe, everyone knows, doesn't want to retire, he wants to
extend his term
of office for a further two years. So when football was
dumped in favour of
the president, people didn't complain hoping for
political fur to fly. An
hour later he had said nothing new and football
fans had missed much of the
game. The interview had been heavily edited to
delete his criticism of one
presidential hopeful to praise another, in
classic Mugabe divide-and-rule.
The security chiefs advised the state
broadcaster that there was already too
much political tension without Mr
Mugabe stoking any more fires in public
within squabbling Zanu PF.
Zimbabweans are fanatic British football fans.
Favourite teams seem to be
Liverpool and Manchester United. But they would
sacrifice watching football
any night of the week, or even every night of
the week, and endure the
president for hours on end, if he would only give
them an early date for his
retirement.
Cricinfo staff
February 22,
2007
Zimbabwe's World Cup squad have been forced into signing new
contracts, and
have been promised a bonus of $US17,000 depending on their
performance in
the Caribbean next month.
Cricinfo has learned the
players were summoned to a meeting yesterday by
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and
told that failure to sign the new two-year
contract would result in their
immediate eviction from the World Cup squad.
Unsurprisingly, all the players
signed.
ZC are concerned about a mass player exodus following the World
Cup, hence
the rush to tie the squad into new contracts, but they remain
hopeful that
the country's reintroduction to Test cricket in November will
provide a
further incentive for them to stay on.
The World Cup side
will face a newly formed Zimbabwe A team today and on
Friday.
©
Cricinfo
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1 - Ben Freeth
Dear JAG,
Earlier in the month we had Minister
Shamuyariras men try to take over our
house. The Ministers brother as well
as his nephew Peter Chamada, the lands
officer for Chegutu Mr. Kunonga, a
central committee politician by the name
of Mr. Jamaya as well as 3 [very
smart] cars full of youth [which were later
augmented by bussed in settlers]
were all here.
It was the usual intimidating and rather chaotic scene in
our garden with
everyone demanding that they stay in our house with us. I
tried to get
names but they would not give them. I tried to get papers
giving them the
legal authority to stay with us but they could not give
them. I tried to
give them legal papers to show that what they were doing
was illegal but
they would not accept them.
They had "land to the
people T-shirts" on but I think that the irony of such
a slogan has long been
appreciated by most. How can "land to the people" be
true when it is land to
the Minister; land to the chefs; land to just the
party faithfulls?
My
wife, Laura, took pictures of them. This spurred them into running
amok
through the house to eventually grab the camera and threaten our arrest
for
having taken photographs of the whole scene. In the middle of it all
our
oldest son Joshua who was born on the eve of the land invasions and is
now
seven, broke his arm, and not being able to leave the farm, we had to
splint
it and wait.
We told them that we were Christians and that even
if they decided to shoot
us our assurance in God was greater than anything
man could do to us. God
gave us His courage and His peace
throughout.
Many miracles happened that day. It culminated in the police
taking
everyone away 8 and a half hours after they had first arrived. The
next
morning police came back to get evidence of the mangos that the youth
had
stolen from the orchards and eaten in our garden. I do not know of such
a
case where the police have restored law and order in the land invasions
to
date.
Our case [known as the Campbell case after Mike Campbell P/L
who owns Mount
Carmel farm] in the supreme court comes up on the 22 March.
It is the first
case challenging key constitutional issues in the land
programme since the
Quinnel case that was launched in 2002. Our legal team
consists of David
Drury who has done so much for so many on the land, Jeremy
Gauntlett who is
chairman of the "General Council of the Bar of South Africa"
and Adrian de
Bourbon who is a previous chairman of the "Zimbabwe Bar
Association".
The main issues at stake are:
1. Our right to
protection of the law. In the acquisition process the right
to protection of
the law through a fair hearing was extinguished in
September 2005 through
amendment number 17 to the constitution. Such a
situation clearly allows
oppression to be able to proceed unchecked; and
that is wrong.
2. Our
right to fair compensation within a reasonable time. As we are all
aware
there has been no serious attempt to compensate those that have had
their
properties "acquired" and been removed illegally from them [I don't
know of
anyone who has been removed "legally" with an eviction order from
the court
to date in the entire land programme]. Without compensation the
taking of
private property is simply theft. Theft is wrong.
3. Our right to not
be discriminated against on the basis of the colour of
our skin. This fact
of the land invasions we have backed up with the
evidence. This injustice of
taking something from someone based on their
skin colour is wrong
too.
We would appreciate your prayers for what is going to be a land mark
case.
Yours faithfully,
Ben
Freeth.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Please send any job opportunities for publication in this newsletter to:
JAG
Job Opportunities; jag@mango.zw or justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Manager, a highly competent and professional PA is
required. Must have
computer experience in Word and Excel.
Vehicle Sales
Person
Responsible for all vehicle sales hence knowledge of vehicles and
good,
administrative skills required.
Workshop Manager
Responsible
for maintenance and running of company vehicles/transport and
construction
fleet. Must be able to manage general workshop requirements
and
staff.
Please forward C.V.s and contactable references to
email address :
auctions@yoafrica.com
For further
information please contact / refer to Glynis Wiley on :
751904/5/6 - 751498 -
751343
ABC Auctions, Hatfield House, Seke Road
Telephone 263 4 751904/906,
Fax 263 4
751904/906
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 25/01/07)
Breakfast Chef
Position available at a leading
Guest House in Somerset West, Cape Province,
RSA for a young Zimbabwean male
or female kitchen breakfast chef.
Please respond directly to email
address : info@ivoryheights.co.za
with all
relevant CV, reference, work experience
details.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad inserted 25/01/07)
Vacancy
A vacancy exists for a
couple to manage a caravan
park and small harbour at Lake Chivero,
Harare.
Required skills:
General management chores with a labour force
of 9 workers
Maintenance of showers, toilets, out houses
Maintaining water
and electrical reticulation systems already in place.
Liasing with
caravanners and guests taking care of the park gardens.
Overseeing general
harbour clearing and maintenance
running a small shop including daily stock
checks,
ordering supplies and banking takings.
A house and vehicle is
provided with reasonable remuneration.
This position would suit a retired
farming couple who are not afraid of
work. Driving licence essential.
The
park is quiet during the week. The shop opens all week and services
members,
staff and national park
employees.
Contact the advertiser with cv at
nella@comone.co.zw
or phone
04-305721/2 (work) or 091200030
(anytime)
----------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 25/01/07)
Personal Assistant - Mornings only
MORNINGS
ONLY PERSONAL ASSISTANT TO THE MD REQUIRED TO COMMENCE IMMEDIATELY.
Mature
and experienced person, capable of working without supervision,
shorthand
advantageous, reasonable computer literacy and accurate typing
skills
essential.
Please apply in writing to with a copy of your CV,
to:
General Manager, P.O. Box 2432,
Harare.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 8 February 2007)
FINANCIAL MANAGER (ACCOUNTANT OR SENIOR
BOOKKEEPER)
Experience essential with sound knowledge of computerized
accounting
practices to balance sheet.
Incumbent to head a department of 3
subordinates in a long established
family business in graniteside
harare
Telephone - Glynis 751904/6 or cell 011 630164
Email: auctions@yoafrica.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 8 February 2007)
MANAGER
Experienced manager wanted for
an expanding banana / tomato / crocodile farm
in southern
Mozambique.
Previous experience in the above fields, although not an
absolute
requirement, will be given preferential consideration.
The
incumbent must be healthy, have plenty of energy, be able to make
decisions
and handle a large Portuguese speaking labour workforce.
Mechanical and
electrical knowledge and hands on capability would be
an
advantage.
Persons without children will be given priority
attention.
Send CV to tapson@tdm.co.mz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 8 February 2007)
PIGGERY MANAGER
Looking for a manager
for a highly productive pig unit on a Marondera Farm.
Few hundred sows. Will
be up to slaughter level. Person must be self
motivated, dedicated, have good
labour relations and have record and
administration skills. Phone early
mornings
091295736
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 15 February 2007)
Senior Accounts Person
Mornings only /
Flexitime. Suitable person with integrity and
professionalism
essential.
Knowledge of Trust Accounts and Money Markets, an advantage.
Package
commensurate with experience and includes company vehicle and full
medical
aid.
To commence 1st April 2007 or soon there
after.
Contact Gabriel Real Estate P/L 708564,
882221
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMPLOYMENT
REQUIRED
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad inserted 25/01/07)
Mature Lady aged 32
Position
sought : credit control/debt
collector
Experience : 10+
years
Qualifications : Bookkeeping and accounts, SAAA
(former
ZAAT) 2ND PART
Computer packages : sage 2000, Accpac,
chameleon, windows, excel &
powerpoint
For more information call
091745939
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 15 February 2007)
Employment Wanted
Been self-employed
for 17 years, in Zimbabwe, specializing in the service,
spares, and sales of
tractors but due to the change of the economy it has
become almost impossible
to make self-employment worthwhile at present.
Due to this, I am looking
for a consultancy, management, supervisory work,
willing to do hands on work
only when necessary, related to the above, our
first preference being Zambia,
second Mozambique. My wife is computer
literate with ICDL certificate and
office experience and certificates and
would be able to handle the
administration side if a position were
available. Our preference would be
something along the lines of servicing,
managing, repairing a fleet of
tractors belonging to a large farming
operation or a syndicate of farmers in
close proximity of each other. With
33 years experience in the above type of
work, specializing particularly in
Fiat, Ford and MF, I would request an
attractive package including
accommodation, vehicle and salary which would
make my efforts worth while.
I wish to stress that regular work hours are not
a necessity and that if my
services were required I would be fully committed
to whatever contract I
agree to. My wife is computer literate and would be
able to handle
administration work.
My wife and I would like to do
this together and would need to travel back
to Zimbabwe fairly regularly to
spend time with our children as they are all
being schooled
locally.
For CV and/or interviews, please contact us on 263-68-22463 /
263-11212545 /
tracspray@zol.co.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 22 February 2007)
Employment
Sought
Position Accounts Clerk / Assistant
Accountant
Experience 4
years
Qualifications S.A.A.A Diploma in
Accountancy
Computer Packages Microsoft word, excel and
(S.A.P)
For more information an Curriculum Vitae madziwanacollins@yahoo.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 22 February 2007)
Employment Sought
Been self-employed
for 17 years, in Zimbabwe, specializing in the service,
spares, and sales of
tractors but due to the change of the economy it has
become almost impossible
to make self-employment worthwhile at present.
Due to this, I am looking
for a consultancy, management, supervisory work,
willing to do hands on work
only when necessary, related to the above, our
first preference being Zambia,
second mocambique. My wife is computer
literate with ICDL certificate and
office experience and certificates and
would be able to handle the
administration side if a position were
available. Our preference would be
something along the lines of servicing,
managing, repairing a fleet of
tractors belonging to a large farming
operation or a syndicate of farmers in
close proximity of each other. With
33 years experience in the above type of
work, specializing particularly in
Fiat, Ford and MF, I would request an
attractive package including
accommodation, vehicle and salary which would
make my efforts worth while.
I wish to stress that regular work hours are not
a necessity and that if my
services were required I would be fully committed
to whatever contract I
agree to. My wife is computer literate and would be
able to handle
administration work.
My wife and I would like to do
this together and would need to travel back
to Zimbabwe fairly regularly to
spend time with our children as they are all
being schooled
locally.
For CV and/or interviews, please contact us on 263-68-22463 /
263-11212545 /
tracspray@zol.co.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
For
the latest listings of accommodation available for farmers, contact
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
(updated 22 February 2007)