Zim Online
Fri 3 February
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
about 10
officials of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party were
early on
Thursday morning deported from Zambia where they had gone to attend
meetings, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told ZimOnline.
Chamisa
said the Zimbabwean opposition politicians had been in Zambian
town of
Livingstone for two days conducting "party business", whose nature
he would
not disclose, when a combined force of about 50 intelligence,
police and
army officers rounded them up from their hotel rooms at around
1am and told
them to leave the country because they were a "security
threat".
The Zambian security forces who, according to Chamisa
were "armed to
the teeth", bundled the MDC politicians onto cars and drove
them to the
border in a convoy of about eight
vehicles.
Tsvangirai and his group were dropped off on
the Zambian side and had
to walk from there to Victoria Falls town just
across on the Zimbabwean
side.
"We were deported from Zambia
after we had already spent two days in
that country. We were told that we
were a security threat," said Chamisa.
He said the Zambian security
agents did not explain what sort of
security threat Tsvangirai and his group
posed.
Chamisa said the MDC was in the process of trying to
establish from
the Zambian government why its leader and his delegation were
deported,
adding that the opposition party would still want to return to
Livingstone
to complete their business.
It was not possible to
get comment from the Zambian Foreign Affairs
Ministry in Lusaka or from the
country's embassy in Harare. Tsvangirai, one
of Africa's most powerful
opposition political leaders, has in the past
visited several southern
African countries imploring them to help pressure
President Robert Mugabe to
uphold democracy.
In keeping with the tradition of politics in
Africa, no government in
the region or on the continent has ever publicly
expressed support for
Tsvangirai in his efforts to push Mugabe out of power
but they have
generally treated him with a modicum of respect, an obvious
acknowledgement
that he could assume power one day.
A former
trade unionist, ironically like most of Zambia's ruling
politicians today,
Tsvangirai founded the MDC in 1999, building it over six
years to become the
biggest threat to Mugabe's stranglehold on power.
But the MDC's
political fortunes have taken a dip after splitting into
two rival camps
following disagreements between Tsvangirai and other top
leaders over
whether to contest a controversial senate election last
November. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri
3 February 2006
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Electricity Authority (ZESA),
which this week
began rationing power to cities and towns, says it cannot
guarantee future
supplies of electricity because it does not have hard cash
to pay foreign
suppliers, while its ageing generators could pack up
anytime.
In a confidential document prepared by ZESA management for
Energy
Minister Mike Nyambuya and a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline on
Thursday, the wholly state-owned power company said because of the hard cash
crunch, it had defaulted on all foreign loans.
Foreign
suppliers who contribute 40 percent of Zimbabwe's total power
consumption
now regard ZESA as not creditworthy and were demanding cash
upfront - cash
which the Zimbabwe power utility dies not have, according to
the
document.
ZESA, which owes local lenders Z$26 trillion, owes
foreign financial
institutions more than US$9 million.
The ZESA
document reads in part: "The debt has ballooned to levels
where finance
institutions are no longer in a position to lend to the
utilities (ZESA's
power generating and distributing firms) because they are
no longer credit
worthy. The utilities have also been defaulting on all
foreign
loans.
The document says as a result "dependable and reliable
supply of the
electricity service is compromised and industry cannot be
guaranteed of the
availability of electricity for production
purposes."
According to the document, the state energy utility's
power generation
machines had overrun the maintenance cycle and could break
down anytime with
a real possibility ZESA might not be able to put them back
to operation
because there is no hard cash to import spares.
"Electricity generation machines have overrun maintenance cycles and
can
break down any time and it takes much longer to bring them back into
production. A real possibility is failure to repair them at all," the
document reads.
Nyambuya could not be reached for comment on
the matter while ZESA
executive chairman, who sanctioned the document,
Sydney Gata, refused to
discuss the matter when approached by ZimOnline
yesterday.
Zimbabweans will however be little surprised by the
contents of the
ZESA document, used as they are to shortages of not only
electricity but
almost every basic survival commodity as the southern
African nation
grapples an acute economic crisis, described by the World
Bank as unseen in
a country not at war.
Food, fuel, essential
medical drugs, chemicals to treat drinking water
for city residents are some
of the key commodities in critical short supply
in Zimbabwe because there is
no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.
For example, business last
week came to a standstill in Harare and in
the second largest city of
Bulawayo for about four hours because of a power
failure that ZESA officials
said was a result of equipment breakdown and
failure by South Africa to
maintain supplies to Zimbabwe.
But the unprecedented energy crisis
forecast in the ZESA document is
one of the clearest indications of how
major systems and infrastructure are
collapsing in Zimbabwe after six years
of economic decline. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 3 February
2006
HARARE - The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government is planning to
splash
more than US$1 million, enough to buy a million litres of fuel which
is in
short supply in the country, during President Robert Mugabe's birthday
celebrations.
Mugabe turns 82 on February 21.
Ruling ZANU PF chairman for youths in the eastern Manicaland province
where
the celebrations are set to be held, Enock Porusingazi, told ZimOnline
on
Thursday that they party was going all out to raise the needed
funds.
"Our budget is running into millions of American dollars. In
fact, we
are expecting to use between US$1 million and $2 million to
celebrate our
president's 82nd birthday.
"We are going to do
everything possible to raise this money to ensure
that the celebrations are
successful," he said.
Zimbabwe is in its sixth year of a bitter
economic recession which has
seen the country fail to import necessary
products like fuel, essential
medicines and food because there is no hard
cash to import the commodities.
The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party and major
Western governments accuse Mugabe of
ruining what was once one of Africa's
strongest economies south of the
Sahara.
But Mugabe denies ruining the country blaming the crisis on
sabotage
by Britain and Western governments whom he says are punishing his
government
for seizing white-owned farms for redistribution to landless
blacks six
years ago. - ZimOnline
SABC
February 02,
2006, 19:45
Herbert Murerwa, Zimbabwe's finance minister, has asked an
SABC News crew to
leave a press briefing in Harare where he discussed the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to the country. Murerwa accused
the SABC of
being hostile to Zimbabwe.
After briefing the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation, Murerwa recalled the
SABC crew, saying only that
the IMF had expressed concern about spiralling
inflation, property rights
and continued low production in the agriculture
sector.
Earlier, the
IMF demanded Zimbabwe make good on a government pledge to stop
farm
invasions which had crippled commercial agriculture. An IMF team held a
meeting with senior government officials and the central bank in Harare
before heading to Washington. They will report back to the IMF board of
governors who will decide the country's future membership of the body next
month
Reuters
Thu Feb 2, 2006 1:22 PM GMT
By
MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has
demanded Zimbabwe
make good on a government pledge to stop farm invasions
which have crippled
commercial agriculture amid worsening food shortages,
local media reported
on Thursday.
An IMF team ended a weeklong visit
to Zimbabwe on Wednesday and will now
present a report to the Fund's
executive board which is scheduled to meet in
March to decide the southern
African country's future with the body.
The IMF team held a meeting with
officials from President Robert Mugabe's
government and the central bank on
Wednesday before heading to Washington.
"At that meeting, government
officials agreed to end all new farm
occupations and respect property rights
in order to restore investor
confidence," the privately owned weekly
Financial Gazette said.
Central bank and government officials were not
available for comment on
Thursday.
Mugabe's government, which in the
past has supported the land invasions, has
seized large tracts of
white-owned commercial farms for landless blacks
under an occasionally
violent policy that was launched in 2000.
Last week, central bank
Governor Gideon Gono said the government had finally
pledged to end
continuing farm invasions by ruling party supporters which
critics say have
contributed to a 50 percent decline in farm output over the
last six
years.
But some of Zimbabwe's dwindling number of commercial farmers
remain
concerned that the government will not halt the seizures, which have
helped
boost its political support among the rural black
majority.
The IMF assessment visit to Zimbabwe comes as the country faces
a March
deadline to clear millions of dollars in arrears to the Fund or face
expulsion.
The IMF team was also looking at structural issues in
Zimbabwe's economy,
which is now in its fifth year of a punishing crisis
seen in shortages of
food, foreign exchange and fuel, triple digit inflation
and rocketing
unemployment.
REFORMS AGREED
The Financial
Gazette said the IMF was concerned that a lot of budgetary
burdens have been
shouldered by the RBZ following its intervention in
support of agriculture,
state-controlled corporations and local authorities.
The Fund criticised
a recent move by the central bank to limit movements in
Zimbabwe's currency
in line with actual volumes of foreign exchange traded
on its fledgling
interbank market, with daily movements limited to a maximum
of two percent
in either direction.
The Zimbabwe dollar has not moved against the
greenback since Jan 24, while
rates on the black market have soared to above
145,000 compared to 99,201 on
the interbank market.
The IMF was
satisfied with the source of Zimbabwe's $120 million (68 million
pounds)
payment made to the Fund last September, the Financial Gazette said.
RBZ
officials insist the payments were made from export earnings, inflows
from
expatriate Zimbabweans and locals working for foreign-owned
organisations
who are paid in foreign currency. But some economic observers
had raised
questions about the payment, suggesting the country did not have
enough cash
itself to pay its arrears.
SABC
February 02, 2006,
16:45
The Zimbabwean government has given the United Nations access to
distribute
food in the country. The organisation says four million people
have been
targeted for food aid.
James Morris, the UN secretary
general's special envoy for humanitarian
needs in Southern Africa, says the
UN World Food Programme needs US$63
million to provide food for about 10
million people in Southern Africa.
Morris was briefing the media in
Johannesburg after a two-day visit to
Mozambique.
Morris says the
situation in the Southern African region is being
exacerbated by the high
prevalence of HIV and Aids, which renders people
unproductive and leaves
millions of orphans to feed. The UN has identified
seven needy countries
including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi,
Lesotho, Swaziland and
Namibia.
The envoy will be looking at the situation in Malawi over the
next two days.
Greetings Colleen,
I am off to
Zim again at the end of February to take food hampers and medicine to
pensioners in Masvingo, Chivu, Gweru, Shurugwe,
Kadoma, Bulawayo, Esigodini and Zvishavane. A bulk donation will also be made to S.O.A.P in Bulawayo .This is the first of four
trips planned for this year.The other trips will take place at the end of May, August and November.
Colleen please could you pass this email onto
your mail list as the Zimbabwe Pensioners Support Fund is in need of some funds. The cost of a trip is in the region of
R45,000. My normal donors are starting to feel "punchdrunk" as I now go up every three months and I don't want to "kill the
goose that lays the golden egg" . Foodhampers are
given to approximately 250 pensioners, and that excludes the donation to
S.O.A.P. The fund therefore has to expand its
donor base .What would be ideal is monthly donations of R100 or R200 into the
fund from contributors, as that would be a steady
income and we can then budget accordingly .At the present time it is "crisis
budget"and we often have to decide which home has
to have some item left out of its hamper.The prescription medicine alone costs R5448.
The funds banking details are,
ZIMBABWE PENSIONERS SUPPORT
FUND
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
MALELANE
CHEQUE
ACCOUNT
BRANCH CODE
270952
A\C NUMBER
62058668230
Should anyone like to know more about
the fund's work in Zimbabwe please contact me at the following
cell 0845893221
landline 013- 7900934
email bothah@tsb.co.za
Colleen please pass this appeal on and ask those you pass it onto, to pass it on again. Remember these pensioners built Rhodesia and are now on hard times through no fault of their own.
Thanks for your support,
HANNES
BOTHA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last
year an internet start-up called Mukuru.com launched a call
card
initiative
that enabled the Zimbabwean diaspora to buy call vouchers
enabling Zim
relatives to trigger prepaid calls internationally.
The
service was quite technical and didn't adopt all too well but what
it
did do though is reveal the power of SMS as a means to deliver
Vouchers
and Value to someone in Zim.
Building on that model the team have
restructured Mukuru.com over the last 6
months to offer a range of goods and
services (that will nodoubt grow
in 2006) available to YOU the diaspora to
buy, and send in real-time in
the form of Mukuru Vouchers to a recipient in
Zim. These vouchers,
sent via SMS and email are redeemable at the Mukuru
'Agent' on the
ground in Zimbabwe.
Though remarkably simple, the site
enables the diaspora to provide key
products and services to their friends
and relatives at the click of a
button. Wire Transfer, Cheque, PayPal and
Credit Card offer the Buyer
a range of payment options where upon payment
clearing, Mukuru.com
send a Voucher email and SMS to your intended
recipient.
So what's for sale?
FUEL !!!: Diesel and petrol, with a
collection depot in Harare,
Birmingham Rd Station.
TRAVEL : Coach tickets
for between Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo and Johannesburg
COMMUNICATION :
BackChat Vouchers - prepaid international call PINs
useable in
Zimbabwe
What's coming up ahead?
The Mukuru team are confident about
the real-time attraction of the
site and insist that they will be listening
closely to consumer wishes
about what YOU would like to see on the site.
They will be pursuing a
range of products and services including sugar, DSTV
subscription,
buddy cards, airtime, tyres and more.
Mukuru.com
launched yesterday 1st Feb on
www.mukuru.com create a Mukuru Account, log in
and send a Voucher
home today.
The Herald
(Harare)
February 2, 2006
Posted to the web February 2,
2006
New Ziana
Harare
ZIMBABWE will assume chairmanship of a
key regional anti-corruption body in
August this year, a Cabinet minister
said yesterday.
State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and Anti-Corruption
Minister Mr Paul
Mangwana said the country would lead the Eastern and
Southern African Money
Laundering Group (ESALG) for one year, taking over
from incumbent chair,
Zambia.
The group was set up to spearhead the
fight against corruption on a region
scale through, among other ways,
co-ordinating and harmonising
anti-corruption laws.
Mr Mangwana said
Zimbabwe's elevation to ESALG chair was in recognition of
the country's
anti-corruption crusade, which has seen a number of
high-profile
arrests.
Among these is former Finance Minister Mr Chris Kuruneri, who is
facing
charges of illegally externalising foreign currencies, and several
top
banking executives.
Mr Mangwana said the country would strongly
push the anti-corruption agenda
during its chairmanship, and focus on
curbing money-laundering in
particular.
"We want to create stronger
mechanisms of collaboration in the region as a
whole. We want to stop the
situation where one steals in Zimbabwe and safely
invests in Mozambique or
vice versa, for example," he said.
On the local front, he said corruption
levels were still high but shortly
"there will be more corruption arrests
and prosecutions than new cases of
corruption".
He said graft was
declining in the parastatal sector, where the
anti-corruption net has been
focused in the last few years.
The Government set up the anti-corruption
ministry and commission a few
years ago to fight growing graft, estimated to
cost the economy hundreds of
billions of dollars annually.
The
Herald (Harare)
February 2, 2006
Posted to the web February 2,
2006
Jeffrey Gogo
Harare
AFTER September 2006, a very thin line
could separate stable and rocky
commercial banks. A line so thin but thick
enough to avert a return to the
2004 crisis of confidence or, worse still,
produce an entire repeat of
history.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's
new law on commercial banks' minimum capital
requirements has certainly sent
waves of discomfort within the industry.
Last October, RBZ announced that
commercial banks needed to beef up their
capital to a minimum of $100
billion then (or US$10 million) by September
this year. No big feat, so it
seems!
But then after September, banks would be required to link the
US$10 million
(about Z$1 trillion) to the ruling exchange rate as their
minimum liquid
capital.
Although the measure is meant to guard
against bank failure, this could mark
an incisive turning point in the
history of the sector. The new regulations
might represent a watershed for
the development of the industry or could
point to a shift of events
altogether in the war for survival.
Well, some giant banks, such as CBZ,
Barclays, StanChart and Stanbic, could
comfortably still be sitting on huge
cash resources given strong earnings
achieved in the prior year, it is
certainly a worrying thought to smaller
banks, at least as measured by last
year's profits.
Financial analysts say the post-September capital decrees
could paint
pictures of gloom in the industry, particularly for small
players who have
struggled to grow market share and profits.
As an
urgent matter, analysts believe the only way banks could survive is by
adopting stricter policies that minimise costs while simultaneously
bolstering revenue.
This could manifest in the form of mergers,
consolidation and/or
acquisitions -- transactions largely expected to take
centre stage in the
industry this year.
A recent Kingdom Stockbrokers
economic report noted: "An issue that may
bring hard times to the financial
sector is that of minimum capital
requirements.
"In coming up with
the figures, the (Reserve) Bank considered the bare
minimum outlays required
to start up these types of institutions, as well as
the need to maintain the
public's confidence in the banking sector.
"Although a couple of banks
had complied with the $100 billion limit by
December 2005, having US$10
million at the ruling exchange rate in the
post-September period would be a
very difficult task for a lot of banks, a
development that should see
another round of banking crises."
Although in 2005, the Reserve Bank
declared the financial segment
"financially sound and stable", there has
been a lot of pressure on
commercial banks to meet the new statutory
requirements.
From last year, it can be noted that there was a deliberate
policy of
increasing market share, as banks jostled to attract an
unsatisfied and
hugely disgruntled public that appeared to have regarded the
demise of some
banking firms last year as a "great betrayal".
CBZ
Bank benefited most, as it increased its market share to 17 percent in
line
with Barclays, whose share of the market actually declined to this
figure.
StanChart remained tops with a 21 percent market share (all
statistics dated
as at October 31, 2005). All other banks were below 10
percent with Met Bank
commanding a market share of slightly above 1 percent
being the
least.
Others, such as Kingdom Bank and NMB Bank, appeared to have been
significantly undercapitalised, and were, as a result, forced to ask
shareholders for additional working capital.
Subsequent to this,
Kingdom issued a $100 billion rights offer while NMB
came to the market with
a $64 billion rights issue, which were both
adequately supported. These were
the only two among institutions that had
been suffocated by the hazards of
the previous year which managed to turn
the tables to their
advantage.
"A crisis in the banking industry would be something the
recovering economy
would love to see last," said an economist with a Harare
bank, who cannot be
named.
"There is need for stability in the
sector. Institutions that would not be
in a position to meet the new
requirements would be better advised to merge
with technically stronger
partners or seek additional capital injection."
However, Zimbabwe's
capital requirements might not be the toughest on the
continent. Nigeria
recently announced its minimum capital levels for
commercial banks at US$100
million, and promptly liquidated about 15 banks
that failed to satisfy the
laws.
News24
02/02/2006 08:42 -
(SA)
Neels Jackson, Beeld
Johannesburg - Should South Africa
disconnect Zimbabwe's electricity supply,
it could bring the Zim government
to its senses.
President Thabo Mbeki, however, feels inferior to
Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe and supports him rather than put pressure
on him.
This is the opinion of Pius Ncube, outspoken Roman Catholic
archbishop of
Bulawayo, expressed in an interview in Pretoria where he
attended the
meeting of the conference of the Southern African Catholic
Bishops'
Conference (SACBC) and strongly attacked Mbeki regarding his
handling of the
Zimbabwean question.
He had expected the South
African government to exert pressure on the Mugabe
regime but instead Mbeki
supported Mugabe, he said. "Mbeki kneels before
Mugabe," Ncube
said.
Asked if the disruption of the power supply would not be a drastic
measure,
Ncube said anything that would help in bringing the Zimbabwean
government to
its knees should be done.
He said it should be
remembered that Mugabe has been in power for 26 years
and this gives him a
feeling of superiority over younger heads of state such
as Mbeki. The result
is that he pays no attention to them.
Children will not go back to
school
"He [Mugabe] would never have done this with former president
(Nelson)
Mandela. He was afraid of Mandela because Mandela was of a moral
giant,"
Ncube said.
Ncube said things are very bad in
Zimbabwe.
Half of the country's school-going children will not go back to
school
because they simply don't have to money to do so.
With an
inflation rate of 800% people were finding it extremely difficult
just to
survive. "Where one South African rand was worth Z$13 000 in
December, it
now equals Z$22 000.
"Fuel is scarce and dealers even dilute it with
water and other substances
to make it go further at the pump," Ncube
said.
There is no talk of civil resistance because the Mugabe regime has
a very
active espionage system in place.
Ncube said it is estimated
that one out of every five people in the cities
are spies. This includes
teachers, other civil servants, policemen and
soldiers. They even spy on
each other.
"Everybody is afraid of saying anything because it can land
them in serious
trouble. The result is that there is a deafening silence.
There is no
leadership."
SA Presidency spokesperson Murphy Morobe
said nothing said by Archbishop
Ncube was new.
SA's position on
Zimbabwe is well known and there is nothing further to add.
Cardinal
Wilfrid Napier, president of the SACBC, said they received feedback
from
Ncube regarding the Zimbabwe situation and will arrange a meeting with
the
Zimbabwean Catholic bishops' council to establish how they might be able
to
alleviate the situation.
VOA
By Howard Lesser
Washington,DC
02 February
2006
Television programs originating in Africa are beginning to
make their way
into American homes, thanks to a new network called the
Africa Channel,
which has been making its debut in various US markets since
September of
last year. The station is headquartered in Los Angeles,
California, and is
financed by an executive board that includes
African-American civic leaders
like former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and
former Alabama senator Donald
Stewart, as well as professional basketball
players Dikembe Mutombo and Theo
Ratliffe.
One of the private
company's main objectives is to demystify Africa for
American viewers and
change common North American perceptions from images of
hunger, poverty,
jungles, and natural disasters to those that celebrate
Africa's rich and
diverse cultures.
The outlet's Zimbabwe-born chief executive officer,
James Makawa, tells
English to Africa reporter Howard Lesser, "First and
foremost, we are an
entertainment network that is designed to inform and
entertain. And we are
also very well positioned on the Internet. There are
some exciting things
that we've got planned that will tie in directly to
what we are doing on the
television channel. So the idea here is to showcase
Africa in a way that
people are going to be surprised, engaged, and will see
a whole new way of
living and life that they're not used to
seeing."
Most of the programs running on the Africa Channel originate in
Africa,
particularly in South Africa. The content ranges from "Africa
Music," a kind
of MTV musical experience, to the contestant program "Big
Brother Africa,"
to "Carte Blanche Africa," a fast-paced news magazine show,
to a daily dose
of the African soap operas "Generations," and "Isidingo,"
which have never
before been carried on stations in US media
markets.
CEO Makawa says he's hopeful that Africa Channel is about to
sign a
distribution deal with a major American cable carrier that will
greatly
expand its penetration of US cities. The goal is to eventually have
its
lively program lineup also carried on stations in Europe and
Africa.
Last September the network made a rather extraordinary debut in
its first US
market in the southern state of Louisiana. It went on the air
in the city of
New Orleans the same week that Hurricane Katrina wreaked
unprecedented
devastation across the Mississippi Delta
region.
Despite the widespread loss of electricity and means of
communication, James
Makawa says, "People in the middle of the hurricane
were sending emails and
information saying this is the most colorful channel
they had ever seen.
They couldn't believe the fashion that they were seeing.
They couldn't
believe the music they were hearing. And so the initial
feedback we have
received from those specific markets has been absolutely
tremendous."
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2006-Feb-02
THE
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) continues to experience problems in
implementing its monetary policy due to lack of support for its paper on the
back of the continued volatile economic environment and pricing issues, a
local financial firm has said.
Kingdom Stockbrokers Pvt Ltd said in its
report ended January 27 that given
the continued high inflation situation,
banks expected higher returns on the
Treasury bills tendered yet the RBZ, in
a bid to maintain cost to government
low, often rejected such high interest
rate bids.
"This situation resulted in excess liquidity on the money market,
thereby
depressing interest rates and weakening monetary policy despite the
existence of high accommodation rates," the firm said.
"Furthermore, the
volatile economic environment has seen investors adopting
a short-term
investment view of around 30 days yet the RBZ, in a bid to
assist in the
government's domestic debt restructuring exercise, has been
issuing
longer-dated paper. This mismatch obviously has meant low take-up
of
government and RBZ paper, a situation that has again resulted in excess
liquidity on the money market, lower interest rates and weak monetary
policy."
In view of this, the central bank had decided drop the "willing
buyer,
willing seller" approach when conducting its Treasury bill tenders
but to
make sure that all banks participate fully in the tenders so as
ensure 100
percent take-up.
According to the Fourth Quarter Monetary
Policy Statement presented on
January 24, 2006, this involves licensing all
primary dealership with effect
from April 3, 2006. The license will only
be renewed if the primary
dealers adhere to certain laid down rules.
"We
are of the view that if this primary scheme works and proves effective
then
the current equity market bubble will burst as the resultant money
market
shortages will see a permanent re-establishment of positive real
interest
rates which will bring the long-lost glitter back to the money
market. It
is only then that monetary policy can become effective," Kingdom
said.
Since October 24, 2005 when banks held a meeting and pegged the
exchange
rate at $60 000 per US dollar, the Zimbabwe dollar had depreciated
by 39.5
percent to $99 202 by January 27, 2006 on the interbank market,
Kingdom
said.
The movement to $60 000 represented a 56,7 percent
depreciation in the
local unit from $26 004,5 to the US dollar.
These
depreciations of the local unit had alarmed the authorities who had
then
decided to link any future movement in the exchange rate to the amount
of
foreign currency inflows.million are received.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2006-Feb-02
THE
incessant rains and erratic supply of materials have affected the
filling up
of potholes and general maintenance of roads in the capital,
Harare City
Council spokesperson Madenyika Magwenjere said yesterday.
Besides the roads,
Magwenjere added that power cuts and mechanical faults
were affecting the
smooth functioning of traffic lights.
Most of Harare roads are littered with
potholes making life difficult for
motorists and the situation has been
worsened by the constant breakdown of
traffic lights.
"The city is aware
that the roads are so bad and that some of the robots are
not functioning
well. We have engaged temporary labour to fill potholes but
we have been
affected by the shortages of bitumen on some occasions and we
have had to
fill them with earth. The rains have also made it difficult by
washing away
some filled potholes and widening them in the process,"
Magwenjere
said.
He said the power cuts by Zesa were affecting the programming of the
traffic
lights and added that as a result council had tasked the director of
works
to come up with daily updates on the state of the roads.
Magwenjere
added that as a long term solution to the problem, council would
be
installing solar powered traffic lights this year.The city installed the
initial solar powered traffic light last year.
Meanwhile, council
yesterday met with church leaders to brief them on the
turnaround strategy
being embarked on by the city.
Town clerk Nomutsa Chideya said Harare had
been affected greatly by
withdrawal of support from the World Bank and other
international financers
since 2000.
"Service delivery in the city has not
been offered to acceptable levels. The
major challenge is that of funding
for infrastructural development that used
to come from the World Bank and
the African Development Bank before
sanctions were imposed in 2000," he
said.
The town clerk said Harare had been prejudiced of funds by charging
sub-economic tariffs and the overwhelming increase in population currently
estimated to be 3 million.
Chideya said it was necessary for the Church
to enlighten their
congregations on their civic responsibilities.
"There
are also instances where some people have deliberately sabotaged
council
infrastructure and we have discovered foetuses in the drains on some
occasions," the town clerk added.
Harare has been conducting meetings
with various stakeholders on the
turnaround strategy adopted in 2004 and
will next week meet with business
leaders.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:2006-Feb-02
MASHONALAND East governor and resident minister Ray Kaukonde
has lambasted
some newly resettled farmers and Agricultural Research and
Extension
Services (Arex) officials for allegedly abusing farming inputs
they access
at subsidised prices from the government.
Most of the inputs,
namely fuel, fertiliser and seed, have found their way
on the black market
where they are sold at exorbitant prices.
Addressing councillors and
government officials at Mutawatawa Shopping
Centre recently, Kaukonde said
such level of corruption must be exposed.
"Arex officials are giving inputs
to undeserving people. Some are even
giving them to their girlfriends who
operate hair saloons, I do not
understand whether these women use the diesel
to shampoo their clients'
hair," Kaukonde said.
"You think we are fools
who are not aware of your sinister activities.
Arex officials are now on the
fore front of abusing inputs, this is really
a very serious issue."
He
said turning around the country's economy would not succeed if corruption
was not exposed at all levels.
"The economy can only turnaround when we
are all committed and do not
condone corruption," he said.
VOA
By Jessica Berman
Washington
02 February
2006
For the first time since the start of the AIDS epidemic,
researchers are
reporting a decline in the percentage of men and women
infected with HIV in
southern Africa. The findings are from a study
conducted in eastern
Zimbabwe, where researchers speculate the AIDS
prevention message is
starting to have an effect.
The study was
conducted in Zimbabwe's eastern province of Manicaland, and
involved 10,000
men and women between the ages of 15 and 54.
At the beginning of the
study in 1998, the HIV prevalence, or percentage of
people in the region
living with the AIDS virus, stood at 23.5 percent. At
the study's
conclusion, the overall prevalence had dropped to 20 percent.
The
steepest decline was among young women between the ages of 15 and 24.
The
percentage of women who were infected with the AIDS virus dropped from
16
percent to 8 percent, a 50 percent reduction.
There was also a 23
percent drop in HIV prevalence among young men between
the ages of 17 and
19.
The results of the study are published in the February 2 issue of the
journal Science.
The study's lead author, Simon Gregson of the
Imperial College in London,
believes the AIDS prevention message finally got
through to young people on
a personal level.
"It got to the point
where almost everyone in these communities already
knows somebody who has
gotten very ill with AIDS or died from AIDS," he
said. "So, the whole thing
has become very real to people. And people
realize that this is not
something which only happens to those involved in
prostitution or people who
are very promiscuous. It is something that can
happen to everybody. So,
unless they are very careful themselves, there is a
chance they will get
infected."
Gregson says factors that contributed to the decline in
Zimbabwe's HIV
prevalence include information on how to prevent the spread
of the virus to
pregnant women, the widespread availability of AIDS
counseling, HIV testing
programs, and inexpensive condoms.
Gregson is
hopeful the downward trend will continue.
"If those people can manage to
sustain their sexual behaviors as they get
older, then that should gradually
spread through the population over time,"
he said. "And the overall level of
HIV rates will come down. That is
certainly hoped that that would be the
case. But it's certainly early days
at the moment."
To experts, the
Zimbabwe experience proves the importance and success of
prevention
strategies in countries in southern Africa where HIV prevalence
has remained
stubbornly high.
Writing in Science, Richard Hayes of the London School
of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine says despite the lure of anti-viral drugs,
prevention
measures must remain a top priority for international public
health.
"Otherwise, we are going to have an ever-increasing number of
infected
people and it is going to be very difficult to sustain treatment
for all
those people," he said.
Cricinfo staff
February 2,
2006
Zimbabwe's professional cricketers, who ended their strike three
weeks ago
on the understanding that Zimbabwe Cricket would address contract
and
payment issues, have announced that they will not be available for
selection
after collective talks with the board broke down.
In a
letter delivered to ZC offices in Harare, they said that no contracted
player would now be available for any kind of international, regional or
domestic match other than for their clubs. But ZC reacted swiftly by saying
that it refused to recognise Clive Field, the players' representative, and
that it would speak to each player individually with a contract offer. This
was described by the players as a "divide and conquer" approach to
negotiations. "They want to pick people off one-by-one rather than deal with
them en masse," Field said. "Zimbabwe Cricket has really had it now. The
players relented from a similar position to give ZC a further three weeks
until the end of the month to pay the large sums of money owed them. They
are now simply walking away."
The issue was supposed to have been
resolved by January 31, and it is now
likely that the lawyer acting for the
players will issue a summons against
ZC for almost $200,000 owed in backpay.
Given that the board is widely
reported to be almost broke, it is hard to
see how it could settle the debt.
Field said that it was unlikely
that players would accept the contracts
unless the issue of outstanding
monies was also settled, but he urged them
to see what ZC was prepared to
offer. ZC officials were likely to speak to
all 25 players in line to be
offered contracts today, and those involved are
likely to meet again to
review their collective position.
Given that only yesterday Roger
Brathwaite, the chief executive of the West
Indies Cricket Board, told
Cricinfo that he was monitoring the likely
strength of the tour squad before
deciding whether to cancel the proposed
visit by Zimbabwe, this could lead
to a decision being made sooner rather
than later.
The strike
will also mean that the Fairweather provincial one-day
tournament, which
started this week and is due to resume tomorrow, could be
postponed or
scrapped as the five provinces are likely to struggle to be
able to field
sides.
© Cricinfo
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn
2006-02-02 02:43:12
HARARE, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- A two-day
bilateral meeting between
the Zimbabwean and Namibian ministries of Labor
and Social Welfare is
expected to culminate in the signing of an amended
Memorandum of
Understanding that will see the countries cooperate on all
labor and social
welfare issues.
A nine-member Namibian
delegation of labor and social welfare
experts, headed by the minister,
Alpheus Naruseb, arrived in the country
this week ahead of next week's 32nd
African Regional Labor Administration
Center (ARLAC) Governing Council
Meeting for Ministers.
The meeting for ministers will run
concurrently with a high level
symposium on the role of labor administration
in promoting social security
for sustainable development.
The bi-lateral discussions, which started on Thursday, are
expected to
culminate in the signing of an amended, all inclusive Memorandum
of
Understanding on Friday, replacing the existing document which was signed
in
2003 when the Namibian ministry only dealt with labor issues.
Former ministers July Moyo of Zimbabwe and Marco Hausiku signed
the
understanding within the framework of the Permanent Joint Commission
that
was established in 1992.
Forms of cooperation include labor
relations, labor law reform,
labor market information, social security,
labor dimensions of land reform
and occupational health and
safety.
The ARLAC governing council meeting for ministers on
Thursday is
set to discuss the issues. Twenty-five English-speaking African
countries
form the membership of ARLAC. Enditem
By Tichaona Sibanda
02
February 2006
There are reports that soldiers attached to the
government's
controversial housing programme Garikai are involved in a sex
for stands
scandal in Bulawayo's Cowdray park.
Our
correspondent in Bulawayo Themba Nkosi said three women confirmed
that the
practice is rampant among those desperate to acquire stands for
their
families.
'The women are being told that there is nothing for
nothing in
Zimbabwe today and if they want a stand they have to sleep with
the
soldiers,' said Nkosi.
Some desperate women in the city,
whose families were made homeless by
government's controversial Operation
Murambatsvina, are allegedly giving in
to the soldiers' demands and end up
sleeping with them.
The majority of residents who were affected by
Murambatsvina
in Bulawayo are still trying tofind alternative
accommodation. Most
have either moved in with relatives or are still living
rough in the city.
Bulawayo is also facing a severe shortage of
mealie-meal. Retailers
and shop owners last had supplies of the commodity
some weeks back.
'People are having to queue for long hours to buy
mealie-meal which is
in short supply here,' said
Nkosi.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 1:13 AM
Subject: BTH: Can the students help
in healing the MDC rift?
Can the students help in healing the MDC
rift?
The President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Washington
Katema,
speaks to Lance Guma about the organisations efforts in trying to
heal the
rift within the MDC. He gives details of their meetings with both
MDC
president Morgan Tsvangirai and officials from the pro-senate faction of
the
party led by Gibson Sibanda. What are the major sticking points? What
did
they, as a national students union, suggest as a way forward? In the
event
of a total break down of talks, what will be their position regarding
a
strategic partnership with either of the two camps?
Lance
Guma
Producer/Presenter
SW Radio Africa
+44-777-855-7615
www.swradioafrica.com
Behind The
Headlines
Thursday 5:15 to 5:30pm (GMT) live on the internet at www.swradioafrica.com
Friday 5:15
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Also available on internet
archives after broadcasts at
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SW
Radio Africa is Zimbabwe's only independent radio station broadcasting
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the United Kingdom. The station is staffed by exiled Zimbabwean
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who because of harsh media laws cannot broadcast from home.
Full
broadcast on Medium Wave -1197KHZ between 5-7am (Zimbabwean time) and
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hours on the internet at www.swradioafrica.com.