VOA
Signs of Discontent Within Zimbabwe's ZANU PF Growing More
Public
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
27 Feb 2003, 17:59 UTC
Signs
of discontent within Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party seem to be
growing more
public. Former finance minister Simba Makoni is emerging as a
party favorite
to, someday, replace President Robert Mugabe.
Though he is a long time
member of Zanu PF, Simba Makoni has never had a
large political profile in
the party, but that may be changing. Earlier this
week he gave an interview
to the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent
daily newspaper, in which he
spelled out how he believed a national
government should work.
He
spoke about a time when a national government would function alongside
a
loyal opposition. While the two sides might have different ideologies,
he
said, they would converge on matters of national
interest.
Political observers say that Mr. Makoni's statement is
significant because
of its implicit criticism of the way the Mugabe
government operates now. The
interview is also likely to add to the
speculation about looming political
change in Zimbabwe.
AP
Robert Mugabe
Andrew Nongogo, a respected political commentator
in Harare, said this week
that about 90 percent of the leaders within Zanu PF
now believe an honorable
exit had to be fashioned for President
Mugabe.
One camp supports the present speaker of the house of parliament,
and former
liberation fighter, Emerson Mnungagwa, who failed to win his
parliamentary
seat in the general elections of 2000. The other, more liberal,
camp has
settled on Mr. Makoni, a technocrat who has opposed the often
violent
tactics of Zanu PF.
Most observers believe that Nigeria and
South Africa will be the
facilitators for arranging for the change in power.
They say both countries
would prefer to see Mr. Makoni emerging as leader of
a reformed Zanu PF.
But both Nigeria and South Africa want Zimbabwe's
opposition, Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party to stop its legal
challenge to President
Mugabe's win at the presidential poll last
year.
Political observers say the opposition's legal challenge, due to be
heard in
the High Court in April, is the MDC's best bargaining
chip.
This means that the party's legal challenge will most likely not be
dropped
until guarantees are in place leading to a transitional authority
and
internationally supervised presidential elections in Zimbabwe.
In
the meantime, human rights monitors say violence is rising ahead of
two
parliamentary by-elections next month within the Harare area.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe families lurch through country's hard times, quietly
criticize
government
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MABVUKU, Zimbabwe, Feb.
27 - It's the end of another long, hungry day. Chipo
Riusika woke before dawn
for a job that no longer pays the bills, and her
four children - out of
school for lack of money - stood in bread lines for
hours under a fiery
sun.
In Riusika's blue-collar neighborhood outside Harare,
supplies are so
scarce and expensive that shoppers at the grocery buy cooking
oil in minibar
bottles, rice by the handful and one egg at a time.
The disintegrating economy has sent black market prices soaring.
There are
shortages of everything from basic foods to cooking oil to
detergent. Lines
for gasoline wrap in thick rows around city blocks and can
last for
days.
At night, Riusika and the youngsters huddle in the darkness of
their
cramped cinderblock house at the end of a barren yard. The electricity
was
turned off months ago, when the economic crisis first came home for
the
Riusika family.
In the afternoon shade, conversations among the
women are punctuated
by bitter complaints about President Robert Mugabe and
his government. Anger
simmers but is kept in check by fear of roving gangs of
youths organized by
the government to silence dissent violently.
''I have such pain,'' says 38-year-old Riusika, clutching her chest.
''My
heart feels the pain. Others are going to school but my children are
not. I
want them to make good livings, to be doctors, teachers.''
Riusika
complains her salary as a security guard hasn't risen with
inflation - which
the government pegs at 195 percent but most economists
agree is closer to 400
percent - and says she can no longer afford her
children's school
fees.
At the average black market rate, the real gauge of buying
power,
Riusika's monthly pay is worth about $6.50, and a semester's tuition
for her
four children runs about $6.
Zimbabwe's vast corn and wheat
fields once fed the region, and its pl
entiful tobacco crops brought in
foreign capital. But agriculture has
crumbled in the wake of erratic rains
and Mugabe's often violent land reform
program, and hunger threatens more
than half the population of about 13
million.
Thousands of
white-owned commercial farms have been seized since 2000
for redistribution
to landless blacks, ruling party officials and their
relatives. Fields now
lie fallow and support only subsistence crops.
Even when Riusika
scrapes the money together for a complete meal,
there is often nothing
available to buy. Sometimes she cannot get to work
because the bus is out of
gas.
The family often gets by on one meal a day: a few vegetables
and
rice. The children say they miss sadza, Zimbabwe's staple of cornmeal
mush.
The price of a 22-pound bag of cornmeal is fixed at about 50
U.S.
cents - but is usually only available on the black market at 10 times
that
amount.
The grocer is talkative, but refuses to give his name,
saying he is
afraid of the government's young enforcers. In an adjacent room
his
1-year-old daughter is crying. She has malaria, but he says he can't
afford
to send her to the hospital.
The anger toward Mugabe
overcomes others' fear as the afternoon wears
on.
''We are tired of
the government, we are tired of him. They are
causing the food shortage and
we are starving,'' says Fungayi Katema, 39, a
bone-thin mother of three in a
threadbare green dress.
She rails against the government's excuses.
''You cannot blame the
drought. It is because the government chased away the
commercial farmers and
gave away the land to people ill-equipped to
farm.''
Some of her neighbors, wary of beatings and harassment for
such blunt
talk, send disapproving glances, but Katema continues boldly:
''It's not a
secret life is tough in Zimbabwe. Everyone is talking about
it.''
Sitting next to her, a 5-year-old boy writes in the dirt with a
stick
the letters MDC - which stands for Movement for Democratic Change, the
main
opposition party, whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is on trial on
treason
charges.
And while the flame from a kerosene-soaked rag
softens the darkness
of her sparse home, Riusika speaks of the faith she
still tries to put in
prayer and song.
''I pray to God for a better
life, for food, and for my family,'' she
says, then begins to sway and
sing.
''Every burden becomes a blessing ...'' she sings, her
whispery,
lilting voice trailing off. She shakes her head in frustration.
MSNBC
Food shortages worsen in crisis-hit Zimbabwe
ASSOCIATED
PRESS
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb. 27 - Food shortages in Zimbabwe have rapidly
worsened
and regular supplies not provided by aid agencies remained
''grossly
inadequate,'' the World Food Program said Thursday.
While
about 7.2 million people -- more than half the population --
now need
emergency food aid, donor food only reached 4.5 million Zimbabweans
this
month, the agency said.
Since September the number of people needing
food has risen by half a
million as a result of shortfalls in government food
imports and yields.
Kevin Farrell, WFP country director for Zimbabwe,
said the agency and
its 12 partner charities expected to provide food
assistance to 5 million
people in March.
Increasing numbers of
vulnerable poor in urban areas were not
included in assistance programs, he
said.
''Between the beginning of the year and the next harvest in
April and
May is an extremely critical period with hunger at its worst,''
Farrell
said.
According to its own figures, the government imported
about 680,000
tons of food in the past year.
''Food available from
non-humanitarian sources is grossly inadequate.
We are concerned it is simply
not sufficient'' to meet the needs of people
not receiving aid handouts,
Farrell said.
The government estimates the new harvest will yield
about 600,000
tons of staple grains this year, down from about 2.1 million
tons produced
in 2000 when Zimbabwe was a net food exporter.
Even
if food was readily available for sale, rural and urban poor
have no money to
pay for it, Farrell said.
Donors have provided 83 percent of funds
needed for the year- long
WFP relief effort that will be renewed in
June.
According to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has one of
the
world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection - about 25 percent of
the
population - and the food and nutrition crisis has hastened deaths from
AIDS
and related illnesses.
Zimbabwe's food shortages have been
blamed on erratic rains and the
government's chaotic and often violent
program to nationalize thousands of
white-owned farms since February
2000.
Only about 500 white farmers, out of some 4,000 three years
ago,
remain on their land. Farrell said many blacks resettled on former
white
farms had not grown enough food for themselves and are suffering the
effects
of malnutrition.
The WFP, in its latest briefing paper,
said a combination of drought,
government price controls, the state monopoly
on grain imports, AIDS and the
drop in commercial corn production has
stripped Zimbabwe of its ''former
status as southern Africa's
breadbasket.''
11 house robberies
were reported to the Borrowdale Police this morning, Wednesday 26th Feb.
These robbers are looking for the contents of
safes, weapons, decoders, TV's, jewellery etc etc.. Please make a plan if you
keep documents, money, etc in a safe at home, this is obviously not a "safe"
place anymore.
If you are about to employ builders, painters, or
tree cutters etc, check their ID's with your local police station, and DO NOT
employ anyone until their details have been checked out.
If you have an electric fence, is it working? and
does the siren work?
If you have alarms in the house, does the panic
button work and have you tested the alarm recently?
Who has keys
to your doors? and how many of you keep car keys, door keys in a cupboard in the
kitchen???????
We urge you to sit down as a family and work out
how to make yourselves more secure and where you can keep things which you never
want to lose.
I'm not trying to scare
anyone and I'm definitely NOT paranoid, we get these reports we check them out
and we pass them on to you so be warned.
Mary van Heerden - Anti Hijack Trust.
News24
New farmers among the hungry
27/02/2003 21:09 -
(SA)
Harare - New black farmers resettled on formerly white-owned
land are among
Zimbabweans in need of food aid, the UN food agency revealed
on Thursday.
"Many of these of people do not have sufficient food at this
stage," said
Kevin Farrell, World Food Programme (WFP) director in the
southern African
country.
"There is concern that many of these people
for whatever reason have not
been able to harvest very much... certainly in
part because of the drought,"
he said.
The other reasons the new
farmers were unable to harvest much were shortages
of input and equipment to
cultivate the fields.
Zimbabwe embarked on a controverial land reform
scheme in 2000 during which
about 11m hectares of land have been compulsorily
acquired from white
farmers.
Former farm workers
volnerable
Farrell said former farm workers and some urban poor were
vulnerable to
hunger which is affecting more than seven million people in the
country.
"The combination of drought, price controls, the government
monopoly on
cereal imports and the drop in commercial maize production due to
the land
reforms programme and HIV/Aids has stripped Zimbabwe of its former
status as
southern Africa's breadbasket," the WFP said in its 2003
brief.
Farrell spoke at a ceremony where the British government gave an
additional
$8.5m to WFP for its emergency operations in
Zimbabwe.
Crisis 'almost beyond comprehension
Famine Early Warning
Systems Network (FewsNet), a US-funded agency, recently
said that up to a
million former workers on formerly white-owned commercial
farms have been
adversely affected by the resettlement programme.
At least 7.2 million
people, more than half of the country's population of
11.6 million, face
hunger.
"The humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe is deteriorating at a
dangerously rapid
pace," said WFP.
WFP director James Morris this week
told US lawmakers that the humanitarian
crisis in Zimbabwe is "almost beyond
comprehension".
Britain's latest donation is expected to feed about 4.5
million Zimbabweans
until the middle of this year. - Sapa-AFP
The Zim Independent
44 Karoi farmers evicted
Augustine
Mukaro
GOVERNMENT intensified its purge of white commercial farmers from
their
properties this week after more than 40 farmers in the Karoi-Tengwe
area
were served with Section 8 notices.Section 8 notices demand the farmer
to
cease operations and vacate the property within 90 days.
The
latest move flies in the face of recent assurances given by President
Robert
Mugabe to a South African fact-finding mission that farm invasions
had ended
last August.
Ian Gibson of Kiplingcotes Farm was handed a section 8
notice on February 21
ordering him to quit his farm in 90 days, just when his
crop was approaching
maturity, according to farmers in the Karoi
area.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) director, Olivier Hendrik,
confirmed to the
Zimbabwe Independent that the union had received reports
from Karoi.
"We have received the initial reports but we are trying
to get details of
developments in the area before we can comment on the
matter," Hendrik said.
Justice for Agriculture (JAG) chairman David
Connolly confirmed the service
of the Section 8 notices Karoi-Tengwe
farmers.
"As of yesterday night (Wednesday) 16 farmers had actually
been served with
notices," Connolly said.
"We are informed however
that more farmers would be served with the notices
in the next few day," he
said.
Connolly said government had always misrepresented the
situation on the
ground to the international community to build up its
image.
"The land reform programme is not over as government has been
claiming since
August last year. Some of our members are still being evicted.
Jag will
challenge the notices in court," he said.
The Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
ONCE again government has
launched an economic programme which, if the
state-controlled media is to be
believed, will miraculously uplift Zimbabwe'
s distressed economy and create
a platform for economic growth. Last week
the Minister of Finance and
Economic Development announced the forthcoming
National Economic Revival
Programme (NERP), although with remarkably little
detail, but with vague
promises of further positive and constructive
measures to be announced and
implemented.
Whatsoever may be the merits of the elements of NERP as yet
announced, they
cannot conceivably succeed unless they are parts of a
comprehensive,
integrated programme addressing all major economic factors,
and unless there
are simultaneous policy changes necessary to create an
environment conducive
to economic recovery. There has been some guarded
approbation of the
minister's initial announcement from various economic
sector
representatives, but almost all of them have qualified their
expressions of
approval by stating that the potential efficacy or otherwise
of the
proposals can only be judged upon full details of those proposals and
their
implementation becoming public, and can only be effective if there
are
concurrent other critically required policies and measures. To
those
qualifications must be added that no economic programme can succeed,
no
matter how sound it may be, unless it is implemented by government,
private
sector enterprise and labour with unreserved commitment.
The
full details of NERP have yet to be released, although the minister
disclosed
that they are substantially founded upon proposals deliberated
upon by the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), which body comprises
representation from
private sector enterprise, labour and government. That
those players are
collaborating in endeavours to formulate policies to
extricate Zimbabwe from
the economic morass into which government has driven
it is commendable. But
to suggest (as does the state media) that that
assures the success of the
policies is ludicrous. After all, the Economic
Structural Adjustment
Programme (Esap) of a little more than a decade ago
was also crafted by
government after extensive consultation with the private
sector and others,
and it failed to achieve many of its objectives during
its initial years.
That failure was primarily attributable to a piecemeal,
selective
implementation of only those portions of the programme as
government deemed
to be acceptable, irrespective of the need for, or merits
of, the other
portions of what was to have been an integrated programme, and
that failure
was compounded by the lack of commitment of government to
the
programme.
NERP's launch regrettably bears all the hallmarks of a
government stance in
no manner dissimilar to those which characterised the
first years of Esap.
First of all, its announcement was not accompanied by
any extensive detail,
save for a statement that the programme would shortly
be made public in
detail by way of a document to be released.
Instead,
the launch statement centred upon:
l The Prices and Incomes Stabilisation
Protocol (PISP) which was negotiated
by the TNF about a month ago, and which
is to become of force and effect
today. The PISP is essentially a social
contract wherein any revisions of
prices or incomes until the end of June
must be agreed by the parties. Such
a contract has considerable merit as a
vehicle towards containing inflation,
but only if entered and carried out
with utmost good faith. There must be
doubt as to whether that necessary
element exists when it is borne in mind
that government unilaterally imposed
price controls more than a year ago and
extended them with an almost total
price freeze on November 15 2002, but
nevertheless increased its taxes with
effect from January 1, 2003 (as, by
way of example, the increase in carbon
tax and in the taxable deeded value
of employee motoring benefits). Moreover,
it allowed its parastatals to
pre-empt PISP by increasing charges and prices
very substantially. In
addition, almost all wages and salaries nationwide
were reviewed from the
beginning of the year. So, by government dictate, only
enterprise is an
effective compliant to PISP.
lA partial devaluation
of the Zimbabwe dollar (even though government's
Minister for Information and
Publicity had categorically stated, only a week
earlier, that there was no
possibility whatsoever of a devaluation, and that
such an action was not even
under consideration! When he said that, most
were convinced that devaluation
was imminent!). Regrettably, however, on the
limited information made
available, for a Reserve Bank statement was not yet
forthcoming as this
column was being penned, the exchange rate adjustment to
$800:US$1 will
apply, in the main, to any foreign currency surrendered by
exporters to the
Reserve Bank in excess of the mandatory surrender of 50% of
export proceeds.
The benefit to most exporters will be minimal.
lAfter surrendering half
their export proceeds at an unrealistic exchange
rate, the majority of
exporters will require most, if not all, of the
remaining proceeds to fund
their import needs and service external
commitments, and cannot then benefit
from the enhanced exchange rate. A dual
or multi-tiered exchange rate cannot
succeed, and is nothing but a spurious
tampering with fundamentals of
economics. Currency exchange rates should be
realistically reflective of the
real value (purchasing power) of the
currency. To be effective, the
NERP-based devaluation to $800:US$1 should
apply to all foreign currency
transactions as a mid-rate subject to regular
reviews (which have been hinted
at by the Minister of Finance).
l Proposals to support exporters,
industry and other vital economic sectors
by provision of a $100 billion
low-cost finance facility as compared to a
presently available facility of
$25 billion. Of the $100 billion, the
private sector is expected to make half
available.
In Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary environment, an equitably
applied PISP is
most desirable; that some environment dictates an absolute
need for
realistic exchange rate alignment and constructive export and
productivity
incentivisation. Therefore, all three elements of NERP made
known in the
minister's statement are, in principle, most desirable but do
not suffice.
Over and above the duplicity of stance on issues of prices and
incomes
stabilisation, the half-hearted approach to devaluation is bad, and
no
reference has yet been made which is suggestive of NERP containing
the
numerous other economic measures which must go hand-in-hand with the
few
addressed.
In particular, there has so far been a deafening
silence as to how
government intends to restore agriculture to its rightful
role. To do so
requires the courage to admit to the failures and injustices
of the land
reform programme, a restructuring of the programme to reverse,
insofar as
possible, those failures and injustices and to assure success
of
constructive reforms. There is an equal silence as to intents
towards
re-establishment of law and order and of democracy, which are
prerequisites
of economic recovery for, without them, investment cannot and
will not be
forthcoming.
Similarly, if NERP is to succeed, there must
be great emphasis upon fiscal
probity and discipline, including stringent
measures to contain corruption.
And NERP must contain all those policies and
actions which will be required
to restore harmonious relations with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the World Bank, the European Union, donor
states and all those others whose
support, trade and investments are
essential for a virile Zimbabwean
economy.
If each of these are not
addressed in NERP and, if thereafter, the programme
is not wholeheartedly
pursued by all sectors of Zimbabwean society, NERP
will be nothing but a damp
squib, and the decline of the economy a
continuing one, with consequential
ever-greater hardships and misery for
almost all
Zimbabweans.
Furthermore, they must all be so addressed without delay,
for the plight of
the economy is so severe that every day lost in setting it
upon a recovery
path renders such a recovery more difficult. Government has
taken the first
step of recognising that severe economic ills afflict
Zimbabwe. The second
step is to recognise that which is necessary for
transformation. The third
step is to implement the necessary. That must be
the basis of NERP, if it is
to succeed.
The Zim Independent
Mugabe's diplomatic victory against Britain
hollow
Vincent Kahiya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's rare appearance in
Europe to attend the
Franco-African summit last week provided host France
with an opportunity to
increase its influence among Anglophone African
countries.
President Mugabe, who has been banned from setting foot in
Europe under the
European Union targeted sanctions regime, interpreted the
French invitation
to Paris as a diplomatic victory against the
British.
But at the end of the day, victory was for French President
Jacques Chirac
who only invited Mugabe to France to avoid an African boycott
of the summit,
although he received a serious backlash from his detractors
who accused him
of colluding with African dictators.
African countries
have in the past refused to attend meetings in Europe
unless Mugabe was
invited. The success of the meeting thus depended on
Mugabe being rolled a
red carpet and being received on European soil as a
statesman.
This
did not compare with the hostile reception he received from civic
activists
who wanted the African leader arrested for crimes
against
humanity.
Chirac argued that preventing Mugabe from the Paris
meeting would isolate
Zimbabwe further and prevent possible dialogue on human
rights. But it can
be argued that President Mugabe is far from being isolated
as he has backing
from fellow leaders on the continent.
France rolled
out the Red carpet for Mugabe and managed to bring together 45
African
leaders to the table to lecture them on French expectations on
governance,
human rights and possible areas of co-operation.
President Mugabe, an ace
in the pack for Chirac's diplomatic coup against
the British, was conspicuous
by his insignificance during the talks. The
Zimbabwean story was never raised
in the deliberations. But Chirac could not
chastise Mugabe in public for the
obvious reason that other African leaders
would immediately jump to his
defence and wreck the summit.
Attempts to bar Zimbabwean representatives
from attending the EU-ACP summit
in Brussels last November resulted in the
collapse of the meeting. Another
EU-African summit scheduled for Lisbon in
April has been postponed
indefinitely after it became clear that African
countries would not attend
if Mugabe was excluded from the talks while other
European leaders such as
Tony Blair of Britain don't want to meet
Mugabe.
The government media was in celebratory mode on the visit to
France,
describing it as a victory against British influence in the
Zimbabwe/EU
relationship. And that was as far as the "victory" went because
there is
nothing at the moment to show any rapprochement between Europe and
Zimbabwe.
The British would also stand tall and claim victory as
President Mugabe's
visit to Europe was a concession by France for the renewal
of targeted
sanctions against the Zimbabwean leader and senior government
officials.
But French diplomacy is currently considered to be
confrontational towards
the British after Chirac's refusal to back a new UN
resolution approving
military action against Iraqi strongman, Saddam
Hussein.
France also sent 3 000 troops to quell unrest in the Ivory Coast
in what
analysts said was a foreign policy shift towards Africa.
"By
driving the pace of humanitarian intervention in Third World trouble
spots,
Britain was 'punching above its weight' in the international ring,
while
France was looking like a non-contender," said James Heartfield,
writing for
the British online publication Spiked.
But France would like to be a real
contender that packs a powerful
diplomatic punch, especially in sub-Saharan
Africa where it is using the
Nepad project to broaden French influence on the
continent.
France will host the G8 summit in Evian in June where it would
try to
influence other rich countries to support the project, which to a
large
extent depends on African countries' acceptance of democratic
values.
"There has been a real evolution, a real modernisation in
relations between
Africa and France," Chirac told reporters at the end of the
summit. "We have
an approach that is completely new compared to past years -
not that I
criticise the past years, but we must adapt to new times," said
Chirac.
The success of last week's summit was thus crucial in getting
African
leaders' commitment to Nepad. France also took the opportunity to
warn
leaders who threatened to sabotage the Nepad project through
undemocratic
practices.
Chirac told reporters the problem of African
leaders securing and keeping
power through violence and intimidation could no
longer be tolerated.
"It's true the problem exists, nobody contests it,"
Chirac acknowledged.
"And I can say it was part of the concerns during a
large section of the
summit and by its participants. It's part of the
requirements of a real
democracy - that regimes be founded on the respect of
others."
But Chirac said he believed "step by step ... this progress will
be
assured". Analysts have pointed out that Mugabe would continue to be
an
influential player in European/African relations although this would
not
translate into any benefit for Zimbabwe.
"He (Mugabe) will
continue to be projected as a useful component on the
continent as long as
his colleagues keep their stand that they would boycott
meetings in Europe as
long as the old man is not invited," said a Western
diplomat.
"But as
long as the sanctions regime against the country continues to hold,
Mugabe
can traverse Europe as many times as life will permit but his
presence would
be merely ceremonial with no real benefit to his countrymen,"
the diplomat
said.
He said as long as President Mugabe remained hostile to reform,
Zimbabwe
would be excluded from the Nepad project and other
international
co-operation agreements with Europe. "Mugabe will not suddenly
become an
angel because of a visit to Europe. It only gives him a false sense
of
security and legitimacy," he said.
French newspapers last week said
Chirac should not have heeded threats by
African states to boycott the summit
if Mugabe was not invited.
"It is this indulgence and collusion between
African presidents which France
should be held accountable for. The Mugabe
case is an example of the kind of
cosy relations whose time has passed," said
Le Monde, the newspaper that has
been mostly supportive of Chirac's forcible
diplomatic efforts over Iraq and
the Ivory Coast.
The Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Give peace a chance
Joram
Nyathi
THE Herald last Saturday and on Wednesday this week ran comments
urging
constituents in Kuwadzana and Highfield townships to campaign and
vote
peacefully. Voters "want to be able to make up their own minds about
whom to
vote for, and not have to suffer someone stuffing a choice down
their
throat", it said.
There was also an announcement by the
police on Tuesday banning the carrying
of what they described as traditional
weapons before, during and after the
by-elections scheduled for March 29 and
30.
For the Herald, perhaps the wish was father to the thought while
the police
are ducking issues. Both are pointing their fingers at the wrong
target.
The Herald has made it its duty to fan violence by reporting
victims of
violence as the perpetrators. It has even attacked NGOs such as
Amani Trust
for taking care of victims of violence, claiming they were all of
them MDC
hooligans. In the mind of the ordinary person the impression is
created that
the MDC is not a legal opposition party registered in Zimbabwe.
They have
taken a cue from politicians that the MDC and its supporters are
terrorists
and pretend that when people are attacked for their perceived
sympathy for
the opposition, it is a legitimate fight against terrorism. One
only needs
to look at their news columns to see what we are talking
about.
The Sunday Mail is beyond redemption.
It is not as
if people living in townships are mindless savages prone to
violence. Most of
them want to live in peace and make their democratic
choices
freely.
Many people are not interested in politics, however, because
they derive
very little from it after the vote is done. It is the politicians
who should
be warned against abusing voters to gain higher office. As the
Herald
rightly pointed out, politics is "not a matter of life and death.
Winners
and losers will continue to live next door to each other after
the
election".
The winning politician will be moving to
"civilised" suburbs up North - kuma
Dale Dale - away from noise. The cliché
that politics is a dirty game is
being stretched beyond limits in Zimbabwe.
Let's demonstrate for once that
it is possible to be a politician and a moral
person at the same time,
strange though that may seem.
The
criminal elements in our politics are the politicians who see themselves
as
more human than the rest of us. Why should violence be used every time as
a
key component of a campaign strategy? Because Africans don't understand
the
language of persuasion, we presume. They are lower creatures to be used
to
make politicians live a better life, it seems.
It appears it is
easier for politicians to listen when President Olusegun
Obasanjo flies into
Harare at night and declares there is no violence in
Zimbabwe than to believe
those directly affected.
The absurdity can be extended further: if
Tony Blair flew over Zimbabwe by
night and landed at Lusaka Airport and
declared he had not observed any
violence in Zimbabwe, that would make huge
headlines in the state media. Is
it not the duty of all the people with a
conscience to stand up for the
rights of the downtrodden, whether Zanu PF or
MDC or the non-political? I
personally hate to see people abused, deceived
and demeaned in their land of
birth just to make selfish politicians
rich.
The police, for their part, need to have a neutral,
peace-keeping presence
on the ground. It is not as if the so-called
traditional weapons have not
always been there. It is because there are
people who believe so long as
they have not been arrested it means they have
not committed a crime - even
if they have. The police need to revisit their
Service Charter and restore
people's faith in their impartiality. When they
claim to be investigating an
issue, let them be seen to be doing so and have
the result. People need to
trust the police while the latter must build
credibility. French philosopher
Voltaire once wrote that the only way to stop
people speaking evil about us
is to stop practising it. That does apply to
the way the police are
perceived here.
It is no secret that both
the state media and the armed forces are under
pressure from politicians and
that they have families to feed. But that is
the challenge of professionalism
and personal integrity. A journalist, a
soldier and a policeman all have
lives outside the political madhouse.
That should be uppermost in our
minds as we execute our duties. We do
sincerely hope peace will be given a
chance as politicians campaign in
Kuwadzana and Highfield. People want to
know what those seeking to be
elected are doing for them. What are the issues
at stake and how do these
politicians plan to solve them and by when? People
should demand clear
projects and targets. Promises are not credit in
politics.
And all parties, both ruling and opposition, should be
allowed to campaign
freely and openly, so long as they do not impinge on the
rights of others.
The police should behave as the responsible guardians of
the rights of all
our citizens. It would be wonderful to be able to say that
democracy
flourished in the by-elections. We all long to say nice things
about our
state institutions.
ZIMBABWE: Mixed reaction to fuel price increase
JOHANNESBURG, 27 February
(IRIN) - While consumers and trade unions slammed the Zimbabwe government's
government's decision to double the price of fuel, the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI) welcomed the move and said it could even have been
higher.
"We think it is a good move because it reduces the amount of
[government] subsidies on the fuel price," Bernard Mafute, manager of economic
research at CZI explained.
"The last price increase was almost two years
ago and given inflation and the depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar on the
parallel market, we believe that the increase should have been more than 100
percent to bring the price to a more realistic level.
"It will be an
adjustment though, a tightening of belts and could require a review of
salaries," he added.
Zimbabwe's January inflation figure reached 208
percent and the country has been battling through critical fuel shortages
exacerbated by foreign currency shortages for the past few months.
Mafute
said that although the move would have an adverse inflationary effect on
businesses forced to use formal markets, it would not have much of an impact on
larger businesses who were already sourcing fuel and foreign exchange at vastly
increased parallel market rates and had already built the increased costs into
their price structure.
The CZI, representing about 700 industries,
including the manufacturing, retail and banking sectors, is part of the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) comprising government, labour and business
established last year to formulate an economic rescue plan for the country. The
first measures included price freezes and the devaluation earlier this month of
the Zimbabwe dollar for exporters to ZD $800 per US $1.
However, the
ZCI's enthusiasm for the fuel price increase is not shared by TNF partner the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions which says it is "surprised and disgusted" by
the move.
It said that while the ZCTU understood the general need for a
price review, it was disturbed by the "utter disregard and disrespect" of the
social partners and agreed processes and principles at the TNF.
"It is
ZCTU's belief that the issue of the price of fuel is still a subject of
discussion and agreement by the responsible TNF Technical Committee, which is
examining among other things the pricing, procurement of fuel and energy sector
reforms.
"Only on Monday 24 February, the technical committee on fuel at
TNF agreed that the issue of a fuel price review should be dealt with on the
basis of the recommendations of the relevant technical sub
committee."
Meanwhile, news reports said that weary commuters had already
resigned themselves to the higher transport
charges.
[ENDS]
IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11
447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za
The Zim Independent
Comment
Foreign policy thrust needs new
focus
THE question has often been asked whether Zimbabwe has a discernible
foreign
policy or not, and if yes, what is the premise of its foreign
relations? It
has also been asked whether the country benefits from President
Robert
Mugabe's trips abroad. Answers to these pressing questions are more
critical
now than at any other time in the past when we had many friends
ready to
invest in the country.
To answer the first question, Zimbabwe
is politically socialist and
economically capitalist. Because of its history
in the liberation struggle,
the government wanted to show gratitude to those
who trained its guerilla
forces and supplied it with both material and moral
support. That was the
basis of the government's socialist leanings and
brotherhood with countries
of the Eastern bloc. But the country had strong
trade links with the
capitalist West.
This resulted in serious
contradictions where we had the president declaring
himself to be "a
socialist at heart" while pursuing economic reforms
sponsored by the IMF and
World Bank. While there was more politics than
economics at the national
level, the ruling party was unable to enforce its
own Leadership Code on
wealth accumulation by the leadership. Our foreign
policy has therefore been
a muddle of hypocrisy where we are friends with
the political East while
seeking economic survival from the "evil"
capitalists.
The answer to
the second question follows on from the first, especially so
since the launch
of government's land redistribution programme. President
Mugabe's trips
abroad have not been in the best interests of the nation. The
sole benefit is
that such trips have been few and far between because of
European and
American sanctions imposed on the president and senior
government officials
before the March election last year.
Even before these sanctions,
Zimbabwe had already lost its lines of credit
with the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. There was little
foreign direct investment
coming in. Donors were no longer willing to help
the country pay its foreign
debt which was already in arrears. Clearly, a
foreign policy change was long
overdue. The country cannot continue to
entrench this isolation for much
longer and hope for an immediate economic
recovery.
When national
leaders visit foreign countries the expectation is that they
are creating
friends for the country, creating business opportunities and
courting
investors. President Mugabe has made headlines in foreign media for
all the
wrong reasons. If initially the issue was to explain land reform,
the message
has been heard more than a thousand times.
It might make him feel good to
play big on the world stage, attacking Tony
Blair, John Howard and George W
Bush without fear. It makes for good
headlines in newspapers but a shrinking
economy back home. The countries
that applaud and egg Mugabe on are able to
feed their own people.
We have scuttled the EU-ACP Summit in Brussels,
shifted the venue of the
EU-Sadc meeting from Brussels to Maputo, prompted
the postponement of the
EU-Africa summit in Lisbon and divided the
Commonwealth into black and
white. But none of that solves our problems. It
is banal to say it is easier
to destroy than to build.
The president's
grandstanding and brinksmanship at various international
fora make the job of
our trade attaches abroad all the more difficult when
there are so many
countries jockeying for investors. Instead of answering
questions about trade
opportunities back home, one imagines that they spend
more than half their
time defending Mugabe, parrying questions about attacks
on the media, the
judiciary and opposition supporters and the security
situation in the
country. Surely that is not an economic way of using a
nation's scarce
resources!
Wrongs have been committed in the land reform and a number of
white
commercial farmers have lost all their life's work. That was bound to
happen
in any project of this magnitude but it is not something to be proud
of.
Faults have to be acknowledged and corrective measures taken. That is a
mark
of statesmanship. Compensation has to be paid where it is due and we
forge
ahead.
If the whole process had been carried out in a spirit of
amity and the
majority benefited, John Stuart Mill would say it was the
greatest good for
the greatest number of people.
Our greatest
challenges are simple and stark - the breakdown of law and
order,
unemployment, food, fuel and power shortages. Our task should be to
win
international goodwill and make land reform work, create jobs and
restore the
rule of law. We need resources on the farms to restore
agricultural
productivity. We need investors, both local and foreign, to get
our economy
back on its feet. We need to build confidence on the security
front to lure
our children back to rebuild the country. In short, we need
all the goodwill
we can get.
That should be the backbone of our foreign policy and the
president's focus
on his trips abroad. So far he has been trying to play
international
ambassador of the Third World while bringing very few benefits
to Zimbabwe.
We cannot afford to choose who we want to be our friends in the
current dire
political and economic crisis. Our so-called friends in the East
are
themselves heading West.
The Zim Independent
Wankie, govt clash
Dumisani Muleya
THE
government is on a collision course with Wankie Colliery Com-pany's
board of
directors over theappointment of a new managing director. This
follows the
departure of Kudzai Bwerinofa more than four months ago.
The Wankie
Colliery board last year appointed former managing director of
Circle Cement
Ltd, Jabulani Mavimba, as the new managing director.
However
government - the largest single shareholder at Wankie with a 39,89%
stake -
rejected Mavimba's appointment, saying someone with a mining
background was
needed to head the company.
Mines minister Edward Chindori-Chininga
said this week government wanted
someone with relevant qualifications and
experience.
"The appointment of a managing director for Wankie is a
very clear issue,"
he said. "We are not looking for a chartered accountant
but for someone with
a mining background."
Mavimba, a chartered
accountant by profession, was unanimously appointed
ahead of Godfrey
Dzinomwa, a senior manager at Wankie.
Defending the board's decision,
Wankie chairman Ngoni Kudenga said in a
letter to shareholders that all board
members, including government's own
representative, had agreed on Mavimba's
appointment.
"Its (board's) decision was unanimous because the
preferred candidate had
the necessary competence to confront the challenges
at WCC," said Kude-nga,
himself a chartered accountant.
Mavimba,
who is also a senior executive at Trans Zambezi Industries, holds a
Bachelor
of Accountancy degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Masters
in
Management Studies. He is also a non-executive director of Trust
Holdings
Ltd.
Chindori-Chininga said government was worried about
developments at Wankie
and would want to restore order there
immediately.
"As the largest shareholder, we are concerned with the
way things are going
at Wankie," he said. "We are losing confidence in the
board because they are
not following their advert for the job. We can't have
people who are
prepared to change established rules as and when it suits
them."
The minister said government would "do something about the
Wankie situation
as soon as possible".
The troubled coal mining
firm said recently it was able to operate at only
50% of capacity because of
crippling foreign currency shortages.
The Zim Independent
Mbeki hamstrung on Zimbabwe
Dumisani
Muleya
SOUTH Africa lacks the political courage and tenacity to confront
the
Zimbabwean crisis head-on, says a leading South African political
analyst.
Aubrey Matshiqi, an independent analyst who often writes on the
Zimbabwe
situation, said Pretoria did not have the "Washington-like attitude"
to
tackle the Zimbabwean emergency.
"South Africa lacks the
petulance and hard power of the (United States
President George) Bush
administration and so is unlikely to call for a
regime change anywhere in
Africa," he wrote in Business Day.
"Added to this is Mugabe's
influence on and support from the leaders of
Africa."
Matshiqi
also said the opposi-tion MDC "must realise its greatest challenges
are
inside and not outside Zimbabwe". He said unless there was
sufficient
internal pressure against the government, international
initiatives to
unravel the situation would not be
effective.
Matshiqi said this combination of factors made Zimbabwe a
conundrum for
South African President Thabo Mbeki.
"The choices
Mbeki faces are very complex indeed if African Union (AU) unity
on the issue
is to be maintained," he said. "It seems Mbeki is careful not
to risk
continental backing for Nepad (the New Partnership for Africa's
Development)
and may be more nervous about a risk to AU unity at a time when
a lot of
institutional work on the AU still has to be done."
Matshiqi said
Pretoria "seems to have very little choice but to work with
the rest of the
continent".
However, he said a collective approach carried its own
political costs for
his country.
"The problem with this
multilateral approach," he said, "is that it may
undermine South Africa's
moral standing if Africa's despots are able to find
shelter under Pretoria's
multi-lateralist agenda."
Matshiqi said while Pretoria's "quiet
diplomacy" appears to be offering
Mugabe more shelf life, Mbeki should not
lose patience and give up because
not everybody in South Africa wanted him to
push for a regime change in
Harare.
"He must be open to the
possibility that his government has not communicated
effectively on this
issue and take steps to ensure he takes the country with
him even if not all
South Africans agree with him," Matshiqi said.
"More importantly,
government has to address the perception that it is
anti-MDC (opposition
Movement for Democratic Change) to win back the
confidence it has
lost."
He also said the independent media in Zimbabwe should closely
examine MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership credentials.
He
asked, "Can Tsvangirai lead Zimbabwe back to the path of democracy, peace
and
prosperity?"
The Zim Independent
Mugabe ready to go
Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe has become a prisoner of his simmering succession
battle and is
anxious to find a safe exit plan, sources said yesterday.
Sources said
Mugabe was reaching out to opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai with the help of close associate,
Catholic cleric
Father Fidelis Mukonori, to find a secure exit plan.
Tsvangirai's
spokesman William Bango yesterday confirmed Mukonori was seeing
his boss
"from time to time but their talks are confidential".
Father Mukonori
was not available for comment as he was said to be in the
United
States.
It is understood Zanu PF heavyweights have intensified their
jockeying to
succeed Mugabe. Sources said party movers and shakers were
consolidating
their factions for a final assault.
Sources said
Mugabe's succession debate involved a complex web of Zanu PF,
MDC and South
African individuals anxious to unravel the convoluted
issue.
Information gleaned from intelligence sources and a
comprehensive report on
the subject compiled by prominent South African
journalist Allistar Sparks,
who recently spent a week investigating the
issue, show efforts to dig
Mugabe out of the political rut.
A
series of talks between Zanu PF and MDC emissaries seem to have brought
the
succession struggle to a head.
Events accelerated in November last
year after Mukonori - a Mugabe
confidant - called on Tsvangirai to say
President Mugabe wanted to meet him
outside the country. Mukonori is reported
to have hinted Mugabe wanted to
retire.
After the Mukonori
contact, events gathered pace. A former Rhodesian soldier
now living in South
Africa, Graham Wilson, who knows Tsvangirai, called the
MDC leader saying a
former Zimbabwe National Army officer, Colonel Lionel
Dyck, wanted to meet
him.
Subsequently, Tsvangirai met Wilson and Dyck at his Harare home
on December
13. Dyck told Tsvangirai he had been sent by Zanu PF secretary
for
administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Forces
commander
Vitalis Zvinavashe to propose a power-sharing deal to ease Mugabe
out of
power.
Dyck was introduced to Mnangagwa, who is also the
Speaker of Parliament, by
Zvinavashe. Sources said the three had been meeting
since July last year.
On December 16, Dyck phoned Tsvangirai to say
Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe were
happy with his feedback. Tsvangirai had
basically said the MDC was prepared
for a transitional mechanism leading to
fresh elections after two years.
In between Mukonori's initiative and
Tsvangirai's meeting with Dyck and
Wilson, MDC secretary for legal affairs
and MP David Coltart had been
involved in a different initiative in South
Africa.
Coltart received a call on December 6 from somebody
identified only as
Taylor asking him to fly to Johannesburg the following
day. Coltart agreed
and on December 8 Taylor introduced him to a businessman
named Patrick
Moseke who purportedly was a ruling African National Congress
MP.
Moseke told Coltart that Mnangagwa was in South Africa with a
Zanu PF
delegation for talks with government and was staying at a hotel. He
asked
Coltart to spell out the MDC position on the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Moseke also tabled a report saying it was produced by ANC
legislators and
intelligence operatives and had been accepted by President
Thabo Mbeki.
Moseke then shuttled between Coltart and Mnangagwa's group.
On December 9,
he told Coltart he had spent the previous night talking to
Mnangagwa's
delegation.
Moseke said Zanu PF wanted to work with
the MDC but was opposed to early
elections. Several succession scenarios were
then floated. One was that
Mugabe should be allowed to serve out his current
term. The other was that
he could become a ceremonial president with
Mnangagwa serving as Prime
Minister.
Moseke said Mnangagwa was
prepared to give the MDC two cabinet posts, which
could be increased to five
and several deputy ministerial posts.
When Coltart dithered, Moseke
resorted to blackmail. If the MDC refused his
package, he said, Mnangagwa
would crush it.
Sensing danger, Coltart withdrew from the talks and
came back home. On
December 12 he submitted a report to Tsvangirai on his
Johannesburg mission.
After that, events moved fast, leading to
Tsvangirai's first revelation of
the "Mugabe exit plan" on December 18,
subsequent press reports and then a
torrent of official
denials.
Yesterday Tsvangirai and Coltart said this account was
basically accurate.
The Zim Independent
Times hard for formal sector - Jumbe
Barnabas
Thondhlana
DOING business in Zimbabwe is getting more and more difficult,
especially
for those in the formal sector, Philbert Jumbe, the chairman of
Powerspeed
Electrical has said.
Jumbe said businesses were operating
in a declining economy where consumer
demand for products - both manufactured
and traded - was reducing, while
simultaneously, a variety of obstacles were
lined up on the road ahead.
He said there was no improvement in
trading conditions in the 12-month
period to September 30, and increases in
figures were primarily as a result
of the decline in the value of the
Zimbabwean dollar. There had been no
growth in
volumes.
Powerspeed's turnover of $3,2 billion was 149% above that of
the previous
year and gross margins improved slightly.
Overheads
increased by $300 million, especially in employment costs, motor
vehicle
expenses and utilities while interest expense increased by
$42
million.
"The rate of increase of prices and value of turnover
has made the
management of working capital extremely difficult," Jumbe
said.
"This problem has been exacerbated by the inability to fund any
significant
portion of this from creditors as our major suppliers are foreign
and not
willing to give credit even if we were prepared to or risk taking
it.
"Local creditors are limited and in any case, are generally not
able to
provide any extended credit," he said.
The group's borrowings
in the period under review increased to $256 million.
Some of the borrowings
were at fixed interest rates for an extended period
while the balance of the
borrowings could be reduced in a reasonably short
period, "such that the
group would not be too exposed to a sudden increase
in interest rates", he
said.
Capital expenditure was again limited to necessary items, with
expenditure
for the year amounting to $73 million.
At the AGM held
on January 31, 2001, shareholders approved a share buy-back
scheme, whereby
the company was authorised to purchase up to seven million
of its own shares
to rationalise the share register.
"Some progress has been made on
this with the number of shareholders having
been reduced from 1 221 to 860 by
September 30, 2002, he said.
"Unfortunately, the disadvantages of
inheriting a replica of the Mashonaland
Holdings Ltd shareholders register
have become apparent, as there are a
large number of shareholders, holding
less than 100 shares, but who are
either deceased or untraceable.
The Zim Independent
Muckraker
Nhara exposes hypocrisy of
pan-Africanist hype
SUNDAY Mail columnist William Nhara this week vented his
anger against
government's critics by attacking prominent cricketers Henry
Olonga and Andy
Flower. In an article which exposed Nhara's rabid xenophobia,
ethnic bigotry
and racism, Olonga and Flower were described as "traitors,
mercenaries and
schizoids" for protesting against poor governance in
Zimbabwe.
"The two traitors, a mercenary of Kenyan origin, Henry Olonga,
and a white
supremacist, Andy Flower, finally felt they could no longer hold
the
pressure and, as had been dictated to them by MDC and the British, they
came
out with a scathing attack on anything Zimbabwean," Nhara
wrote.
"There are civilised ways of dealing with the likes of Henry and
he should
learn that he is only here because of the hospitality of the same
people he
castigates," he said.
The only crime Olonga and Flower
committed was that they recently wore black
armbands during the ongoing
Cricket World Cup matches to protest against the
"death of democracy in
Zimbabwe".
Nhara's comments reveal deep-rooted intolerance which Zimbabwe
can
ill-afford. In Nhara's warped logic, Zimbabweans of foreign descent have
no
right to comment on political issues that affect them.
Is Nhara
aware that there are millions of Zimbabweans of Malawian, Zambian
and
Mozambican descent? Does this mean they cannot discuss issues
concerning
Zimbabwe just because their parents or grandparents came from
elsewhere?
Most Zimbabweans are appalled by Nhara's narrow-minded ethnic
innuendoes,
which smack of crude xenophobia.
"We have our sisters,
once married to Kenyans, who have failed to live in
Kenya," mourned Nhara.
How is that Olonga's problem? How does that fit into
our much-touted
pan-Africanist values? And the Sunday Mail is a
state-owned
paper!
Muckraker wants to know why Mugabe's workers are
prone to stealing?
Recently Mugabe's gardener, Mark Kandara, allegedly
stole goods worth $1,5
million from a neighbour in Borrowdale Brooke,
according to local reports.
The goods included three bicycles, a washing
machine, groceries, pressing
irons and a whole range of expensive
clothing.
A few years ago one of Mugabe's workers stole his shirts and
ties. Who
selects these people for the First Family? Do they steal because
they are
poorly paid or they want to constitute a sub-plot to the main
political
theatre of unaccountability?
Last week the Speaker of
Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa placed one of a few
newspaper adverts
congratulating President Mugabe on his 79th birthday. We
all wish him good
health, it being a gift from God. The end of the message
was, however, less
salutary. "We wish you many more years so that you can
lead the country to an
era of peace, stability and prosperity."
At 79 Muckraker would definitely
not wish to hear those words from his son.
They reveal someone who is timid
and has not learnt anything from what I
have done so that he can take charge
over family affairs while I,
grizzle-haired and in the twilight of my sojourn
on earth, contemplate my
encounter with my Creator.
Mnangagwa still
wants to be led by his 79-year old tutor! How would you feel
if you were the
tutor and at 79 your students still have no clue as to how
to survive on
their own? And if you were a father, your children still
expect you to
provide for them? What ingratitude! Offer advice from a chair
yes, but to
still be expected to do all the running and planning for the
family, that's
utterly depressing.
Mnangagwa praised Mugabe for his "inspiration" as a
"fearless nationalist
and freedom fighter". Fine and good. But those same
qualities apparently don
't qualify him to be a good manager judging by the
state of our economy
since Mugabe assumed power 23 years ago.
Nor does
Muckraker agree with claims that Mugabe is "a campaigner for
reconciliation
and unity". Has anyone heard Mugabe use the word
"reconciliation" since
losing the constitutional referendum of 2000? Or
after his controversial
re-election last year?
A principled leader interested in hearing the
unadulterated truth would
object to such colourless flattery. Muckraker is
indebted to Trust Holdings
for this pithy quote of the day on this point
although we couldn't establish
who first made it: "I don't want any yes-men
around me. I want everyone to
tell me the truth, even if it costs them their
job." Something for Mugabe to
ponder!
Speaking on the same subject,
Zanu PF secretary for information and
publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira, said
celebrations to mark Mugabe's birthday
would be low-key this year because of
drought. "We are leaving it to civil
bodies and individuals to show their joy
and happiness," he said. "We do not
want to feast when there is a
drought."
We are even surprised that the party does pretend to care about
the welfare
of the people when its policies are partly to blame for our
current crisis.
But Mugabe himself had already made preparations to celebrate
his birthday
uninhibited in far away France.
The scrimping the party
was thinking of was for the poor who already don't
have anything to eat. In
any case, why should Mugabe's birthday cause other
people's "joy and
happiness" when it's a family and very personal thing?
Does this in any way
reflect a hangover from the Juche Idea of the Great
Leader
mentality?
What was Innocent Gore of the Herald doing in France and
Malaysia? We
thought he was covering President Mugabe's trip and his
discussions with
other leaders. In "his" story on Saturday, Innocent was
quoting Reuters, AFP
and Radio France Internationale. Was it not his duty to
give us first hand
news about the president's itinerary? "We've had
tremendous hospitality, we
felt at home. We leave with a very good impression
of France," Gore quoted
RFI as quoting the president.
But surely
Innocent could easily have found out that for himself. Unless we
are to
assume Mugabe was speaking in French. Partly because of Innocent's
obvious
delinquency, we were unable to get details of Mugabe's meeting with
French
president Jacques Chirac.
Last week, the First Lady Grace Mugabe
reportedly went on a shopping spree
soon after arriving in Paris where she
was accompanying her husband to the
Franco-African summit.
Reports say
our own Marie Antoinette, who was staying at the opulent
Plaza-Athenee Hotel
which is decorated in Louis XVI and Regency style, swept
like a whirlwind
through the French equivalent of her favourite Harrods in
London, Gareries
Lafayette and other Parisian departmental stores, picking
everything she
could lay her hands on.
Reports say she was seen in swank shops cashing
up glitzy and extravagantly
ornamented clothes and other vogue
items.
We wonder what Grace would have said if asked what Zimbabweans
should eat in
the absence of basic food commodities. Muckraker remembers what
Grace's
heroine from the 18th century - the real Marie Antoinette - said
about bread
marches on Versailles Palace during the French Revolution. She
simply said:
"Let them eat cake!" Perhaps Grace would have said: "Let them
eat Kenya!"
Meanwhile, did Mugabe see the monument to the Bastille during
his stay in
France? Indeed, it does seem that history repeats
itself.
What does Information minister Jonathan Moyo have to say about
government
media peddling falsehoods about school results? The Sunday Mail on
February
16 ran a story under the headline "Top schools toppled in A-level
results
rankings", claiming Mzingwane High School and Bonda Girls High School
had
outperformed traditional log leaders in A-level pass rankings.
The
paper claimed to have got its information from a document issued by
the
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec), the authority that
oversees
the marking of examinations in the country.
Now it turns out
that the Sunday Mail's rankings were not only false but
that the reporters,
Phyllis Kachere and Morris Mkwate, never tried to
confirm their concocted
story with Zimsec. In a press statement published in
the Herald on Monday,
Zimsec said "management wishes to completely and
unequivocally dissociate
itself from anything to do with the supply of the
said rankings of the top
100 schools".
They said there was no way "we could have supplied such
rankings which are,
in essence, so out of tune with the best practice in the
field of
assessment".
Where did the Sunday Mail reporters obtain their
rankings from, Zimsec
management wants to know. We are also curious to know.
Zimsec said the
dreamed up Sunday Mail rankings were "seriously flawed" as to
amount to an
attempt "to undermine the localisation of the A-level
examinations" and want
the paper to apologise for "this outrageous piece of
misinformation".
We hope the Sunday Mail will do the honest thing and
apologise while Moyo
and head of the Media and Information Commission
Tafataona Mahoso will be
equally eager to see the law take its course. No
double standards please.
That does not excuse Zimsec's own foul ups and
blunders. The Minister of
Education, Aeneas Chigwedere, has been trying to
accuse everybody else but
himself for the mix up of results, and in some
cases sending people who
never sat for some subjects result slips. This puts
the integrity of the
whole examinations process into serious
question.
Those responsible should make sure heads roll. It is not enough
for
Chigwedere to blame everything on corruption. What is he planning to do
now
that he knows?
Vice-president Simon Muzenda thinks Zimbabwe is a
nation still fully in
charge of its affairs. He told youths at a national
service pass-out parade
in Dadaya on Saturday not to despair in the face of
the hardships the
country was going through because these were "nothing more
than the birth
pangs of a truly liberated politically sovereign Zimbabwean
nation that is
fully in charge of its economic and God-given
resources".
These are the illusions of a leader who has not once slept on
an empty
stomach. How can we have hope under a government that cannot feed
its own
people? How can we be fully in charge of our economic affairs and
still
depend so much on well-wishers to avert massive
starvation?
Muzenda should come down to earth and share in people's
miseries. And what
national service are the youths performing apart from
beating up hungry
people who are trying to free themselves from the
oppressive Zanu PF yoke?
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad must
have touched a few raw nerves
when he attacked corruption as one of the major
causes of poverty in the
Third World and praised democracy as the "best"
political system for
developing countries, according to an AFP
report.
He told a business forum ahead of the opening of the Non-Aligned
Movement
meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that Nam must fight the twin
evils of
"political instability and corruption" to beat poverty and
attract
investment.
"Political instability and corruption are the two
most important
obstructions to business and wealth creation," said Mahathir.
"We of the
south must overcome these weaknesses if we want to see business
activities
prosper in our countries," he said.
He also made clear
democracy offered the best political system for
developing nations, although
he did warn "it is the practitioners of the
system" not the system per se
that counts. We hope he did whisper the same
message to the club of mainly
Third World countries, some run by the
fiercest opponents of democracy and
the poorest.
The number of letters from Nigerian fraudsters, apart from
the one recently
addressed to John Howard, has become a deluge with e-mail
systems flooded by
these importunate scam-artists.
Over the past few
weeks, Muckraker has been pestered by people claiming to
be Dr Godwin
Aderemi, a senior Nigerian government official who says he has
US$30,5
million to dispose of as a result of over-invoicing by parastatals;
Edward
Kunde, the son of a former Sierra Leonean finance minister with $45
million;
James Adisa of the United Bank of Africa with $48 million; Edos
Afen, a
senior employee of the "Central Bank of Zimbabwe" with $26 million
from
"inflated payments for election materials"; Col Kuku Johnson, a close
aide to
Laurent Kabila with $20 million; and Mrs Mariam Sese Seko with
$18
million.
Two weeks ago, senior South African police intelligence
officers were
telling the world how safe Zimbabwe was for cricket. But
neither they nor
the Nigerian authorities appear to be doing anything about
Nigerian
fraudsters attempting to extract millions of dollars from business
people in
the region.
Many are based in Sandton.
What happened
to Sarpcco, or does it just exist to express solidarity with
Augustine
Chihuri?
The Zim Independent
Civic groups invited to Hague
Mthulisi
Mathuthu
THE Netherlands government and the coalition for the International
Criminal
Court have invited local civic groups to attend next month's
inauguration of
the ICC at the Hague. The government has not been
invited.
It emerged this week that the 18 judges of the ICC, who were
elected in New
York last week, would be sworn in at the court's inaugural
session to be
attended by human rights activists from all over the world on
March 11.
A spokesperson for Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaap
de Hoop Scheffer,
told the Zimbabwe Independent last week that as host, the
Netherlands had
the obligation to invite those who had shown commitment to
the establishment
of the ICC.
"We will invite a few civic groups
from all over the world. I am told there
are at least two in Zimbabwe to whom
we will send invitations because they
have supported the court despite the
fact that Zimbabwe has yet to ratify
the court," she
said.
Although she couldn't name the organisations, the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human
Rights and Transparency International are amongst groups
that have been in
touch with the ICC. Although they were yet to receive the
invitations, the
human rights groups this week said they were ready to attend
the
inauguration.
The spokesperson said the Zimbabwean government
had not been invited to the
occasion which will be graced by UN
secretary-general, Kofi Annan, and the
president of the ICC Assembly of
States, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
from Jordan.
Last year
the government snubbed a call by the ICC to ratify the court, with
Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa saying it was not a priority. The ICC
said the
political turmoil in Zimbabwe was at the centre of Harare's refusal
to ratify
the court agreement. Human rights activists suggest that the
government does
not want to sign up to the international court for fear that
its officials
will be charged with human rights abuses.
Afghanistan was the most
recent country to ratify the agreement last week
and became the 89th country
to do so. The Rome Statute of the ICC came into
force in July last year when
the number of countries ratifying the court
passed the requisite
60.
The court is empowered to try cases of genocide, crimes against
humanity and
war crimes. The ICC' s first prosecutor will be elected at the
Assembly of
States in April.
Letters - Zim Indep
More farms being seized
ON the afternoon of Friday
February 21, Ian Gibson of Kiplingcotes Farm in Karoi was the first to be handed
a section 8 notice requiring him to quit his farm in 90 days, just when his
crops are approaching maturity.
The official from the
Karoi DA's office showed Gibson a list of plus/minus 40 other farmers on whom he
was going to serve notices in the next few days.
It appears to be all the remaining white farmers Karoi. I do not know if
there is a similar pattern elsewhere in the country. This is yet another major
shock to the remaining Karoi white commercial farmers, needless to say their
bank managers.
This suggests that all white farmers must now go regardless of criteria.
Many of the 44 are those who had two farms and had given up one.
Prior to March 2000, there were about 176 farmers in this community. By
planting time in November 2002, the number was 44, these having made the
necessarycompliance gesture to "share" their farms with others.
Moreover, these "positive" 44 farmers all planted tobacco and increased the
maize crop in the national interest "to help feed the nation".
But from Monday February 24, all were about to have yet another dramatic
disturbance and this time lose their homes and only livelihood.
This is the thanks they get for their patriotism. It coincides with the
recent Franco-African summit in Paris and flies in the face of recent assurances
given by the president to the just departed SA fact-finding mission sent by
Mbeki that farm invasions were over.
Perhaps it results directly from his deemed Paris approval and support or
punishment for England's cricket boycott? Or perhaps it is being done in haste
by his officials to steal more land because they know he is about to make
another announcement declaring the "land-grab" over?
South African Farmer,
Karoi.
Letters - Zim Indep
Only Zimbabweans can solve their problems
I FEEL it is time we
Zimbabweans look to ourselves to solve our own problems.
African leaders in the
so-called Commonwealth troika have shown us that they are not at all concerned.
The South African and Nigerian presidents have shown us that they are
unwilling to do anything. If anything, they would rather support the status quo.
Whether this is because they do not understand the problem, which is very
likely, or simply because birds of the same feather flock together, they know
better.
I will never again wonder why there are so many plagues of poverty, war
etecetra in Africa.
Recently it was reported that African leaders attending the Franco-African
summit in Paris had threatened to boycott the meeting if their fellow friend,
President Mugabe, was not invited.
Without good governance there is no prosperity. Without democracy there is no
development. Without putting the people first, there cannot be any meaningful
progress.
Leaders across the whole African continent see nothing wrong with the way
Zimbabwe is being governed. Do we need Europeans or Americans to tell us why we
are always suffering in Africa? It has little to do with post-colonial
imbalances. It's all about governance. It has nothing to do with drought, no!
At the end of all this we Zimbabweans must come up with a form of democracy
which we shall use to help solve problems in South Africa and Nigeria.
Herbert Nyamakope,
Ireland.
Letters - Zim Indep
Wake up call to Zimbabweans
THE public furore against
the pro-democratic forces and, in particular, the opposition's perceived failure
to influence change is understandable. People have over the years endured a life
of misery as starvation and death took their toll.
Their humanity and rights
have been emasculated so much that our country has been reduced to a pariah
state.
What worsens the situation is that those who have assumed the illegitimate
reins of power are bankrupt of practical programmes to rescue the country from
total ruin.
Without the so-called imperialist world of the EU bloc's aid, it is
counter-productive to continue confining Zimbabwe to its self-inflicted
isolation, hence government's current attempts to conjure up an agreement with
white commercial farmers.
The dictates of modernisation which we are averse to demand that we all
become active players in this global village and play a give and take game of
partnership with strict adherence to the rules and demands of democracy.
Such rules have been violated with impunity in our country and we, the
ordinary men and women, have to pay the ultimate price of foreign currency
shortages and high inflation rates.
Hence the scarcity or non-availability of basic commodities too numerous to
mention while those in the corridors of power can afford the luxury to cross
into neighbouring countries and feast.
The despair-stricken people have thus looked to the opposition to find
respite from this political and economic malaise threatening to tear the country
apart. They have every reason to.
However, in their quest to usher in change, some have allowed their emotions
to cloud their logic. No insult is intended here.
Revolutions the world over gain respectability and a modicum of legitimacy if
they are executed by no one else but the people themselves. It was the people
themselves who crossed crocodile-infested rivers into Zambia and Mozambique
risking their lives to ready themselves for battle against the oppressive regime
of the old order.
They were not bona fide members of the guerilla movements and some at the
time did not even know the persons of their leaders. Logistical support was
readily available from those countries who also had colonialism to confront.
Today, pro-democratic forces operate in a very different and difficult
environment as they attempt to confront their own kinsmen who are ironically not
prepared to shed a tear or lose their sleep when blood is spilled by trigger
happy organs of state.
The passing of autocratic legislation, especially the dreaded Public Order
and Security Act (Posa) has crippled political activism.
Scores of agents of democracy have been arrested under spurious and
suspicious circumstances and the people, the custodians of revolutions, have
stayed aloof.
How many times has Dr Lovemore Madhuku been dragged to court and people have
done nothing? The leader of the opposition (Morgan Tsvangirai) is appearing
before the courts for an alleged crime of treason which carries a death
sentence. Even when their leader faces the possibility of being hanged, the same
people who are looking to him to act as their foot soldier cannot move an inch
of their bodies in protest.
Mass action has been touted as one of the options to confront this government
by forces within and outside political movements. I submit that it can alter the
course of events. But someone must convince me that it must be executed by the
opposition.
One precious commodity we must cherish and protect jealously is life.
Any action against the government must not be planned and executed by the
opposition. It must be spontaneous and catch its targets off guard.
My observations should not be misconstrued as a call to the opponents of
tyranny to sleep on duty, but rather as a wake up call for them to remain
vigilant. Like-minded democratic forces should join ranks or at least forge a
memorandum of understanding extolling a common vision.
It is also prudent that they should not lull themselves in the illusion that
the present dispensation is changing its spots and is prepared to cede power.
Not in a thousand years!
Promoters of democracy and change should always remember to keep in touch
with the grassroots and either swim or die with them.
Concerned Citizen,
Bulawayo.