Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 12:17 PM Subject: Zimbabwe: More murders -
Couple brutally murdered in Karoi
Couple brutally
murdered 2/7/2003 12:17:59 AM (GMT +2) By Brian Mangwende Chief
Reporter
AN elderly couple, Vim and Freda Pottermans, was brutally
murdered on Wednesday afternoon by unknown assailants at their home in
Karoi.
The double murder came two weeks after the couple’s house had been
broken into and property worth thousands of dollars stolen.
According to
Andrew Herbst, a family friend who was at the crime scene, the couple’s bodies
were discovered in a pool of blood in a passage in the house.
Herbst
said: “Vim was about 72 and a retired mechanic while Freda, his wife, was 63.
“They were beaten to death. Their faces were bludgeoned and there was blood
everywhere. It was a horrible sight. When we got to the house, Vim was still
alive, but fighting for his life. Unfortunately, he died as soon as the
ambulance arrived.”
He said their bodies were taken to Chinhoyi for an
autopsy. He said: “There were blood trails from the lounge, suggesting they
could have been beaten there and then dragged into the corridor. Freda still had
a tie around her neck, suggesting she was strangled. This is really terrible.”
He said the couple had been living in Zimbabwe for the past 36 years.
The murder came at a time when the government has assured the international
community that Zimbabwe remains a safe destination for tourists ahead of the
World Cup Cricket matches next week.
Zimbabwe is co-hosting the event
with South Africa and Kenya.
Inspector Khumalo at Karoi Police Station
confirmed the gruesome murder, saying he had sent a report on the incident to
Police General Headquarters in Harare.
But Wayne Bvudzijena, the chief
police spokesperson, declined to comment. Fearing for their safety, Karoi
residents called for a meeting with the police. Never Gasho, a former
councillor for Ward 8, said Karoi residents were shocked at the rise of crime in
the small town.
“We have called for a meeting with the police because we
are no longer safe,” he said. “The level of crime has risen in Karoi and the
police are not reacting positively to this. “Imagine a murder taking place
in broad daylight. We are saddened by this unfortunate incident. The law must
take its course before anyone else gets hurt or killed.”
Meanwhile,
siblings Elizabeth, 76, and David Phelps, 68, were brutally murdered this week
by suspected robbers who stole property from their home in Harare’s Avondale
West suburb.
Neighbours said the assailants broke a window through which
they gained entry into the house.
The
temptation to label it "the most comical event of the news", the gathering in
Bulawayo last week of the country's elite club of pampered geriatrics - the
most distinguished among them being President Mugabe himself - was
great.
But, thank God, The Mole had enough sense to resist the
temptation. Because it simply wasn't a laughing matter for those old men,
supposedly the fathers of all the nation's fathers, to spend three days and
three nights with their snouts firmly planted in the feeding trough while the
rest of us, their children, all over the country were starving.
No, it wasn't at all a comical event. Instead, I have found a
more appropriate adjective to describe it: obscene! It was the most obscene
event of the new year involving the aged leaders of this
country.
Just how could they dare gather in the most upmarket of
all hotels in Bulawayo, allowing themselves to be feted by a bankrupt
government, which is bleeding to death through insanely high taxation on the
few people still in employment when all around them was a picture of want,
misery and abject poverty?
The dimwits among the chiefs - who
are by far the majority - will, no doubt, have lapped up the puerile line in
the government-controlled fiction houses that one of the reasons for their
being put up in that expensive hotel was that Zanu PF was thanking them for
sniffing out MDC supporters among their subjects and then assisting the
ruling party's thugs to beat everyone of those subjects into blindly voting
Zanu PF.
Which is what must have inspired one of the blockheads
among the puppets to merrily shout (with the fatal innocence of the deranged)
during a pause in Mugabe's address: "Takakukohwerai mavhoti, Shefu!" (We
harvested the votes for you, Sir!)
But then, of course, the fact
could not be lost on the ordinary Zimbabwean that Mugabe and the chiefs, who
have become his puppets, were drawn together by one thing: fear of a future
in which the balance of power will have shifted monstrously against
them.
So they they found themselves having to meet to reassure each
other - Mugabe on the one hand and the chiefs on the other - that the
inevitable day of reckoning would never come; that inexorable fate could
somehow be stopped in its tracks and that they would live happily ever after,
damn the masses.
This was clearly reflected in the two sides' firm
but mutually deceptive expressions of reciprocal support. On his part, Mugabe
assured the chiefs, who were earning more than senior teachers before this
month's salary adjustments and had their homes electrified as part of the
government 's bribe for them to support Zanu PF:
"There shall be
a need to review your allowances as even factory workers' welfare is being
taken care of." (The Mole begs to interrupt His Excellency here and ask: By
whom, Sir? By Chinotimba?) Mugabe continued: "We have not put a full-stop to
the increase in your allowances - a comma, maybe." If you can read between
the lines, the last bit says it all.
To Mugabe's forked tongue
promise, the chiefs, so we were told by The Herald, begged Mugabe not to
retire saying that "stepping down now would be a betrayal of the people".
Betrayal of the people? Which people, unless they were referring only to
their small gathering of old men.
It is no secret that the chiefs
are not exactly politically sophisticated but, simple-minded as they may be,
they would know better that such talk is palpable nonsense as each one of
them know fully well that the people would only be too happy to see Mugabe
go.
It is not altogether malicious to take note of the fact that,
based on the frequency with which its stories have been denied over the past
few weeks, The Herald doesn't seem to be anywhere near running out of steam
when it comes to fabricating stories and putting words into people's
mouths.
But the prize for the most asinine of all those bootlickers
must surely go to the idiot who was reported to have told the
gathering: "VaMugabe vanofanira kutonga kusvikira madhongi amera
nyanga"
(Mr Mugabe should rule until donkeys grow
horns.)
The Mole is tempted to wonder which donkeys he was
referring to - his kind or real ones? The chiefs have sold their souls and
their people for money.
- The event of the moment is no doubt
the Morgan Tsvangirai treason trial which many people have dubbed the trial
of the decade, not just because of its frighteningly far-reaching
consequences in the event of Tsvangirai being convicted, but also because of
the drama it has already provided and is likely to continue to provide for as
long as the clownish Ari Ben-Menashe, the prosecution's key witness,
continues to take to the witness box.
The Mole understands that
Ben-Menashe's request to the court on Wednesday, for example, for the court
to "limit" his presence (appearance?) there because he needed to attend to
"very serious" commitments, was met with hilarious laughter from the packed
courtroom.
No one is surprised by the laughter. For all his famed
intelligence work in Israel's Mossad, Ben-Menashe ought to know better than
think that Zanu PF, with its notoriety for ruthlessly dealing with anybody
who crosses its path, would have used millions of State money to bring him
here to do his own business. Or that he would be allowed out of the country
that easily before the case is concluded as he seems to think. That is what
made the people in the court laugh.
They could see he was taking
the whole case to be one big joke. He is probably hoping that sooner rather
than later, he will slip quietly out of the country - quietly and never come
back again.
If that's what he thinks, then it is safe to say that
Zanu PF credited the man with far more intelligence than he deserves. In any
case, he is in for a big surprise because he hadn't reckoned with the
tenacity and efficiency of Zimbabwe's own intelligence service, the
CIO.
Someone should whisper into his ear that Zanu PF is utterly
ruthless with those who lead it up the garden path or simply refuse to play
ball halfway through the game, and that he will either deliver on his promise
or he might one day, not very long to come, be history.
PRESIDENT Mugabe should retire so that the country can deal with the current
crisis, while the opposition MDC should continue to participate in elections
despite the violent and flawed nature of the process, a survey conducted by
the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) has revealed.
The survey,
released on Wednesday, also disclosed a desire for a change of government
once Mugabe retires.
MPOI is led by Professor Masipula Sithole, a
political science lecturer in the Faculty of Social Studies at the University
of Zimbabwe.
"Most Zimbabweans feel that the President should now
retire so that we can have new leaders who can facilitate our acceptability
to and re-engaging the international community," the survey
said.
The survey, carried out last December in all the country's
10 provinces, showed that most Zimbabweans were increasingly becoming
restive and may now see mass action as the way forward.
A total
of 1 362 people were randomly selected for their opinions, which meant that
every Zimbabwean had an equal chance of being selected regardless of their
political affiliation.
Of this sample, 762 or 55,9 percent were
rural respondents, while 600 or 41,1 percent were urban. Gender-wise, 792 or
58,1 percent were women respondents with 570 or 41,9 percent
men.
A structured close-ended questionnaire with five questions
was administered countrywide over a period of 17 days.
The
survey found that most Zimbabweans would want the re-engagement
of international financial institutions once Mugabe retired.
The
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, two of the world's biggest
financial institutions, stopped supporting the government from 1999 after it
failed to meet their conditions.
A majority, 54,3 percent of the
sample interviewed, wanted the opposition to continue to contest
elections.
In Harare, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South, where the
MDC enjoys widespread support, 67,8 percent, 75 percent and 66 percent of
the respondents respectively wanted it to continue participating in
elections despite allegations of rampant electoral fraud.
"The
MDC is viewed as necessary in Zimbabwe's fledgling search for democracy. The
people feel that the continued participation of the MDC in a flawed electoral
process exposes the imperfections of our electoral process and the need to
change it. Further, it raises the cost of maintaining authoritarian
structures," Charles Mangongera, the head of research, said in an explanatory
note.
The call for mass action is, however, supported by 31,5
percent of the respondents, while 25 percent said the opposition should push
for a new constitution.
Mangongera said: "The persistence of
economic hardships and frustrations with the blocked transition to democratic
governance are taking their toll on the people's patience, a patience which
could be running out against both the government and the
opposition."
The survey pointed out that unless the economy
improved, the support for mass action was likely to increase.
afrol News, 6 February - "Enough is
enough" or "Zvakwana Sokwanele" is the clear message from the Zimbabwean
movement with the same name. In the streets of Harare, this underground group
is starting to organise the mass action against the Mugabe regime eagerly
awaited by the opposition.
The leader of Zvakwana is not stating his
name. Neither will he display the name of any other member: "This would
result in imminent arrest under false charges and likely torture," he tells
afrol News.
Even if nobody has ever seen Zvakwana - the Harare-based
movement does not have any address or offices in fear of being attacked by
militants organised by the ruling ZANU-PF party - when the evening goes over
to night, it is not possible not to hear them in the streets of
Harare.
The group is following the Argentinean example, organising its
"Make a noise for freedom" campaign. Every night at 8 pm supporters in parts
of Harare come out onto the streets to whistle and bang their pots protesting
against the hunger they are suffering as a result of the Mugabe regime. "By
doing this at 8 pm it also means that they are boycotting the ZBC's
Propaganda News Hour," Zvakwana explains.
- Our campaign is gathering
momentum, says the Zvakwana leader. "That said, the deployment of militant
youth and overbearing police in high density suburbs makes this simple
exercise a dangerous one in these areas," he adds.
Nevertheless,
participation to this nightly, noisy protest is growing. "This initiative is
expected to grow steadily over time as we build a culture of solidarity and
commitment to sustainable change within our communities," he optimistically
adds.
The movement also has other forms of actionism. Several Zvakwana
members actively resisted as Zimbabwe police were hindering the public from
entering the supposedly open hearing in the treason trial against opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai. They have participated in demonstrations and
rallies against the upcoming disputed international cricket event on
Zimbabwean soil. Other protests are planned.
Asked whether Zvakwana
designs its campaigns to be within the current legal framework of Zimbabwe,
the anonymous leader becomes ambiguous. "All our actions will fall within the
framework of the constitution and in general the laws of the country. There
are however certain draconian, unconstitutional laws that have been
introduced in recent years. These will be defied."
The Zvakwana leader
however quickly adds that these actions not are to create yet more victims in
the country. "At all times our movement will strive to uphold the norms of
society and respect for human and individuals' rights," he
assures.
However, it is increasingly difficult to organise these peaceful
mass actions against the Mugabe regime. The Zvakwana task force meetings need
to be held at different locations, in deep secrecy.
The group
obviously is not being paranoid. Several members of Zvakwana had already
"been arrested whilst engaging in acts of civil disobedience and acts of
defiance of unconstitutional laws and controls, so to this extent the regime
are attempting to take action against us as a movement," he
says.
Zvakwana only has existed for a few months, but it cannot be
overheard. While the MDC opposition party is struggling to maintain its
actions within the limits of the law, Zimbabweans are searching leaders that
can head their mass actions to cause the downfall of the regime.
The
group therefore also has several "MDC cadres" within its membership,
the Zvakwana leader claims. The group however "not formally linked to the
MDC," he emphasises, but "a totally autonomous network of activists who cut
across many sectors of the community." He names local churches, civil
servants and others.
The group admits the inspiration of their
campaigns comes from abroad, "following in-depth research into successful
cases of civil defiance elsewhere in the world." Nevertheless, all training,
leadership and financing is purely Zimbabwean, he informs, and re-disappears
into the dark.
Mythology and fabrication
rampant ZANU PF's sympathisers have recently been propagating a number of
myths in the letters pages of the state media that need firm rebuttal. We
had somebody this week claiming in the Herald that the British and
American press would never be able to ridicule their leaders in the way that
Zimbabwe 's independent press does - in particular the Zimbabwe
Independent.
This was followed by the pernicious call for Posa and Aippa
to be applied against this newspaper.
It was "unthinkable", Herald
correspondent DP Mhlanga said, that any section of the US press would refer
to their president as a "rogue leader" or a dictator. He claimed British and
American papers back their government when it comes to foreign policy
issues.
It is quite evident the writer has no experience at all of the
British or US press.
Any scrutiny of the Guardian or Observer would
show firm opposition to Tony Blair's policy on Iraq. American papers and
radio stations are merciless in their treatment of George Bush. Indeed, their
commentaries and cartoons go a great deal further than ours.
One
cartoonist regularly portrays the US president as a monkey.
It is
difficult to believe that the Herald writer has never seen a British Tory
tabloid whose comments on Blair would make the "Blair toilet" epithet seem
distinctly mild.
DP Mhlanga needs to grow up. We have every right to call
Mugabe a dictator. That is precisely what he is - and a particularly vicious
one at that. Letters to the Herald describing critical or satirical items as
"false information" and calling for the application of Aippa would appear to
form part of a campaign designed to produce "complaints" that the
government's media commission can then hold up as evidence of public
dissatisfaction with the independent press.
Nobody is going to be
fooled by this. We all know where these letters are coming from. The same
place as everything else appearing in the Herald!
Muckraker owes the
Japanese ambassador an apology. He was recently quoted in the Herald as
condemning Morgan Tsvangirai for taking an isolationist stance. We said that
was an inappropriate statement for a foreign envoy.
In fact the
ambassador, Tsuneshige Iiyama, did not even mention Tsvangirai in his remarks
after his meeting with Information minister Jonathan Moyo. If anything, his
comments that "we need to have some positive development on the ground; no
country can live in isolation," appeared to be directed towards
government.
Not only was he misquoted, he complained that "parts of the
article are totally fabricated".
This "false information" will, we can
safely predict, be ignored by the Mahoso commission. But let's hope Misa is
keeping a record so any attempt to pillory the independent press is exposed
as partisan. Meanwhile, it has now become impossible to rely on any report in
the government media even when they are "quoting" a foreign
diplomat.
It is also of course impossible to rely on the accuracy of
anything written by "Dr" David Nyekorach-Matsanga who heads a one-man
research agency whose funding can only be guessed at given his frothing
defence of President Mugabe's regime. He was staying at the Sheraton this
week.
Matsanga believes he can best defend Mugabe by pointing to a
"gay-gangster" network conspiring to discredit the president. As Jonathan
Moyo was saying exactly the same thing in the Sunday Mail last weekend, it is
immediately evident where Matsanga is getting his gangsta rap from. But we
would have expected somebody claiming to be a serious academic to at least
get some of his facts right.
In addition to the Independent's editor,
he throws dirt at one of this paper 's writers, Mthulisi Mathuthu who, among
other things, is accused of "counting dead bodies in one of the city
mortuaries in London where he used to work".
In fact Mathuthu has
never been to London. Perhaps Matsanga was thinking of another journalist by
the same name? And who is "Ronit Loewestem" conjured out of nowhere by
Matsanga. Was this perhaps a reference to Dr René Loewenson, the prominent
consultant on health and labour issues who would be very surprised to hear of
her involvement in the matters cited!
Then there is the accusation that
the Independent has written to the Zimbabwe High Commission's visa section in
London recommending various "undercover journalists" who come to Zimbabwe to
write "distorted" stories about the country. Needless to say, Matsanga offers
no proof - largely because there isn't any.
Does he really think a
letter from the Independent would be seen as a recommendation by Zimbabwe's
diplomats?
We have also been defending the High Commission "at the
expense of President Mugabe's name", Matsanga alleges. Again, we are not
aware of having defended the Zimbabwe High Commission in London, an unlikely
project if ever there was one!
The sloppy Ugandan researcher, who
claims he is addressed as "Mr Future President" in Britain and Uganda, ended
his tirade with a threat. He accused us of having "hunted" him and Jonathan
Moyo "because we hit where it hurts". He then threatened to "hit back and
expose more".
With Moyo's help no doubt. The two appear to be an
item.
"You should ask the former assistant editor of the Financial
Gazette Mr Masunda what happens to journalists who try to bring Matsanga down
and tell lies," Matsanga warned, evidently unaware that hotel-room antics are
no longer confined to editors.
But what we found a little queer in all
this was why the Ugandan fugitive should say he hoped we would print his
remarks in our paper when he had already placed them in the Daily Mirror. He
had to pay the Mirror for the privilege as well. His article was headed
"advertorial".
The Mirror, evidently intent on getting back at the
Independent for scuppering its murky funding plans, seems prepared to accept
payment for scurrilous copy appearing as an advertisement while declining to
accept the same material for its editorial pages.
The editor could
hardly have objected on grounds of poor literacy. He has been getting the ANC
secretary-general's name wrong for weeks and doesn't know the difference
between a scum and a scam!
Perhaps it's all proving too much like "had
work", as Matsanga put it in his clumsy contribution. We have a question for
"Mr Future President": Who funds Africa Strategy, who pays for his stay at
the Sheraton, and who picks up the tab for his full-page ads in the Daily
Mirror?
Around Christmas, one of I Mpofu's cartoon-strip
characters, Farai, was complaining that nobody would give him a Christmas
box. We can see why. Mpofu's depiction of journalists and diplomats forcing
their way into the High Court was at complete variance with footage shown on
SABC and BBC of thuggish riot policemen pushing journalists around with more
than minimum force. This behaviour will have done nothing for Zimbabwe's
reputation ahead of the World Cup where the same police force will be
providing "security" to players and spectators.
While one or two of
Mpofu's journalists and diplomats were faintly recognisable, Peta Thornycroft
must be wondering how she came to be portrayed as a young boy in high heels.
Is this part of the official spin? Or does Mpofu have no clue as to who she
is?
Meanwhile, we note Supa Mandiwanzira's hiring by SABC following his
purchase of the Mighty Movies operation. This is exactly the connection
the Department of Information sought when it reportedly backed the
recent takeover.
But what are the implications for public confidence
in SABC's reporting from Harare? During his tenure at ZBC Mandiwanzira
cultivated a reputation as a slavish disciple of the current regime. Are we
now to believe he has reinvented himself?
While General Vitalis
Zvinava-she may have acknowledged the severity of the current economic
crisis, his colleague Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has not said a
word about it. But a picture tells a thousand words, it is said, and last
week's photo in the Herald of a policeman carrying an accused to court on the
back of his bicycle said it all.
Last month the Herald reported that the
fuel crisis had hit operations at the Harare Magistrates Courts after the
Zimbabwe Prison Services failed to bring suspects to court for their
hearings. The paper went on to say only a few suspects on "fast-track trials"
were brought to court.
The picture last Saturday showed a policeman with
a handcuffed suspect perched on the back of his bicycle as he took him to the
Epworth police post. The crisis has indeed affected many Zimbabweans and
Muckraker is wondering if in the near future the presidential motorcade will
not be reduced to bicycles too.
We look forward to seeing the leading
cyclist peddling away while his colleague at the back imitates a siren.
Behind them will follow the pedal-driven presidential tuk-tuk with Bob
slinking in the corner and Grace frantically hanging on to her hat!
Queue shortages a thing of the
past THE Ministry of Fiction, Fable and Myth on Monday released a press
statement saying the government had attained a dramatic socio-economic
achievement which will have a long-lasting, beneficial impact upon all
Zimbabweans. The press statement records the implementation of a complex,
dynamic and innovative programme of a magnitude which is greater than any
other pursued by government since Independence in 1980. So dramatic is the
programme and its already very evident successes that the press statement is
reproduced below in its entirety:
"The Minister of Fiction, Fable and
Myth, speaking on behalf of all ministers in the cabinet, proudly announces
that government has successfully eliminated the formerly prolonged shortage
of queues. Whilst government's many enemies will undoubtedly resort to
numerous, endless endeavours to belittle the programme and the tremendous
resultant benefits already being enjoyed by all Zimbabweans, the facts are
evident for all to see and cannot be denied.
"The imperialists and
colonialists will inevitably refute the realities of the programme and will
attack it in their continuing campaign of demonisation of the government of
Zimbabwe, but the programme has such great benefits for all that it can be
taken for granted that they will secretly launch similar programmes in their
own countries, modified only to an extent as will disguise their
plagiarisation of Zimbabwe's unique project which is fast transforming the
wellbeing of all Zimbabweans (as with the new land acquisition laws in
Scotland, which have little similarity to those in Zimbabwe, but are now an
essential element of Zimbabwean propaganda to justify its unjust and
calamitous land reform programme).
"The essence of the programme, which
was devised by government unaided (other than unsolicited, but nevertheless
valuable, advice of its loyal, devoted friends, the inspired leaders of those
few states that have been so strong-willed as not to succumb to the venomous
pressures of Zimbabwe's enemies) has been to ensure that there cease, for all
time, to be any scarcity of queues in Zimbabwe. To achieve that objective,
government has had to apply a diverse range of ingenious strategies which
include creation of a massive shortage of foreign currencies.
"By
ensuring that very little foreign exchange flows into Zimbabwe, government
has been able to obstruct the procurement of petrol, diesel and paraffin. As
a result, all those Zimbabweans too lazy to walk or unwilling to resort to
animal-drawn transport have been compelled to queue for many days and nights
in the almost vain hope of ultimately purchasing some fuel. Measures to limit
forex availability have included destruction of export viability and
alienation of international monetary bodies and donor states.
"The
insufficiency of foreign currencies has also hindered the Reserve Bank' s
ability to purchase the very special qualities of imported paper required to
produce counterfeit-proof bank notes. This has caused a very great scarcity
of $500 notes, which are the foundation of ATM operations, and that has
created lengthy queues at every ATM in the country.
"Production of many
products containing imported raw materials and other inputs has become very
limited, due to the inability of manufacturers to source necessary foreign
currency. In order to access limited quantities of those products
periodically available, endless queues develop at the premises of outlets
that sell those scarce products.
"Imaginative measures to destroy
Zimbabwean agriculture have also been used. These have been so successful
that there are nation-wide shortages of maize and wheat. Moreover, the effect
of the land reform programme has included that many displaced commercial
farmers had no alternative but to put their livestock to slaughter, thereby
creating immense shortages of beef, chicken, and of milk. To have an
opportunity to obtain any small supplies as still flow into the market, long
queues form outside each and every sales outlet.
"Reinforcing these
exceptionally effective actions to cause shortages and therefore to bring
queues into being, government very brilliantly introduced price controls and,
thereafter, imposed a price freeze. These measures were carefully structured
to ensure that many producers, wholesalers and retailers would sustain
pronounced losses if they continued operations to supply the goods subjected
to the pricing constraints. Most were not able or willing to bear those
losses, and therefore curtailed or ceased dealings in those commodities, and
thereby stimulated numerous queues of many Zimbabweans hoping to obtain the
little that flowed into the market.
"Despite the tremendous success of
all these outstanding instruments of queue creation, government has
energetically sought other ways to render certain that all Zimbabweans,
without exception, should queue (other, of course, of the government's
hierarchy, for they necessarily cannot queue, being full-time engaged in
assuring a need for all others to do so, and therefore magnanimously
forfeiting the benefits of queuing). To achieve this, procedures have been
put in place to ensure that any matter to be processed by any arm of
government requires a minimum of six visits by each member of the public in
need of a passport, birth certificate, ministerial authorisation or the like.
This has brought into being many more queues, and especially so in Zimbabwe's
major cities.
"Cynics, sceptics and critics of government may well query
the vast benefits that are generated by converting Zimbabwe into a nation of
queuers. That they do so is evidence of their short-sightedness, or that they
allow their bigoted hatred for Zimbabwe and its government to blind them from
seeing the enormous positive transformation that queues are yielding to life
in Zimbabwe. First and foremost, queues have brought about a sense of
unity amongst all Zimbabweans, for they now collectively enjoy a
continuing, although new, common way of life with almost total
equality.
"Secondly, that sense of unity is given a solidity which is
spectacular, for Zimbabweans are now enabled to network together
continuously. They have the opportunity of extensive social interaction,
setting-up tables, umbrellas, portable grills and other amenities to assist
them while away the many hours in the queues, sharing their food and drink
(whenever they are fortunate enough to have any) with new-found friends,
spreading rumours, speculating upon when there may be any movement in the
queue, and passing on excessively used and repeated jokes: ("Zimbabweans have
the highest IQ in the world: I queue for bread, I queue for petrol, I queue
for flour, I queue for milk, etc,", or "Zimbabwe is heaven - I heaven got
bread, I heaven got petrol, I heaven got flour, I heaven got milk, etc,", or
"Zimbabwe's new name is Kuwait - first you queue and then you
wait").
"Yet another major benefit accruing to Zimbabwe from queuing is
that with so many in queues, and with so little fuel available, the extent of
traffic on Zimbabwe's roads has very considerably reduced, which has
correspondingly reduced the number of motor accidents that had been exacting
a heavy toll on Zimbabwe's motorists. Not only has there been a sharp
reduction in the numbers of injured and of fatalities, but that circumstance
has eased the strain upon Zimbabwe's understaffed, ill-equipped, and
inadequately supplied health delivery system.
"The understaffing has
been achieved by the 'brain drain' from Zimbabwe motivated by government's
carefully crafted disregard for law and order, and its skilful and creative
machinations to stimulate progressively greater hyperinflation. The
inadequacy of equipment and of supplies has been a by-product of the measures
which have so very successfully caused the massive shortages of foreign
exchange. Of course, with government's usual thoroughness and attentiveness,
that by-product was not fortuitous but astutely foreshadowed, thereby further
encouraging government to resort to methodologies of alienating foreign
exchange inflows.
"All government's actions are carefully considered
before being embarked upon, but government believes that its queue endlessly
doctrine (QED) ranks amongst its most constructive ever. As Minister of
Fiction, Fable and Myth, I am proud to be associated with it."
No change of attitude by Zim
government THE plot is now clear. The Zimbabwe authorities have agreed to
make cosmetic changes to a number of laws and go through the motions of
engaging commercial farmers in a dialogue in order for South Africa and
Nigeria's leaders to argue in world capitals that they have secured reforms
from President Mugabe that will make further sanctions unnecessary.
We
know President Thabo Mbeki trotted out this line in his talks with Tony Blair
at Chequers last weekend because he alluded to what they had discussed in a
subsequent press conference. He told journalists that Mugabe would announce
legislative changes in the next few weeks that would increase freedom of
political activity and soften media laws. He linked these changes to his
opposition to further sanctions.
Amendments to the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act have already been tabled. These will mean the
attorney-general will, among other things, have to prove a greater degree of
intent when prosecuting papers for falsehoods in future.
But anybody
supposing the government has undergone a change of heart should note
Information minister Jonathan Moyo's remarks last weekend that, far from
being liberalised, the Act will be purged to remove protection of privacy in
certain cases.
The amendments government isproposing have been drawn up
without any consultation with the media, and a commitment made at the time
the Bill was going through parliament in January last year that members of
the media would be represented on the media commission has been
dropped.
Regional heads of state including Mbeki stressed during their
visit in late 2001 the importance of government consulting civil society
before drafting legislation. They now appear unconcerned that no such
consultation took place.
Nor is it likely to take place over any
amendments to Posa which Mbeki alluded to at his post-Chequers press
conference. Mbeki told Blair that South African cabinet ministers who have
visited Zimbabwe in recent weeks had been informed of the proposed easing of
political restrictions.
This is all entirely fictional of course and
conveniently lets the South Africans and Nigerians off the hook of
international responsibility. The riot police provided their version of
easing political restrictions when they used their batons to push journalists
and diplomats around outside the High Court on Monday. They also made a
number of political remarks which subsequently became the subject of
diplomatic protests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There has been
no change of attitude in Harare. To pretend there has reflects more the
anxieties of Zimbabwe's friends to be rid of an inconvenient burden than any
realities on the ground.
Evidence of political recidivism is everywhere
manifest. Minister Sithembiso Nyoni made government's views on business
recovery clear last Friday when she told a Bulawayo seminar that people who
did not benefit from land redistribution should seize factories "abandoned by
displaced whites".
Joseph Made has meanwhile been giving the impression
that he is close to reaching an understanding with the CFU, thus fulfilling
another requirement of Pretoria and Abuja that order and productivity be
restored on commercial farms. But CFU president Colin Cloete has made it
clear that contrary to reports of agreement in the government media, there
has been no progress because government remains inflexible and
insincere.
Suddenly we are seeing commercial farmers being invited to
apply for farms under the A2 scheme while well-placed opportunists continue
to occupy properties which are the subject of legal appeals. The government
has in its unproductive iron grip 11 million hectares, as distinct from the
five million it originally said it would take. And the Japanese
ambassador, reproaching the state media for misquoting him last week, pointed
out that reports of land invasions and irregularities on the ground
persisted.
The "dossier of concrete evide-nce" which the state media
assured us had been handed over to Blair by Mbeki turned out to be a wish
list. The only significant gain the South Africans and Nigerians have secured
is the evacuation of Zimbabwean forces from the Congo and that was probably
going to happen anyway given the views of the DRC government on
Zimbabwe's continued presence there.
Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo are
in a bit of a fix over Mugabe. They can do the right thing and earn kudos for
upholding the Commonwealth's Harare Declaration and Africa's Nepad
initiative, which will in turn see them alienated from the majority of
African/Asian countries that would rather not be asked to abandon Mugabe in
quite such an explicit way. The South Africans have never forgotten how
Nelson Mandela went out on a limb over sanctions against Nigeria at the
Commonwealth's New Zealand summit in 1995 only to be abandoned by his fellow
African rulers.
Or they can fudge.
John Howard won't accept that.
Nor will Britain, the two North American powers and most of Europe who,
unlike the complicit African ambassadors and high commissioners who last week
announced Zimbabwe was a perfectly safe venue for cricket, are only too aware
of the deteriorating situation.
So while Mugabe will be able to claim a
racial divide of sorts (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal give the lie to
that claim), the countries upon whose goodwill Zimbabwe ultimately depends
will refuse to indulge increasingly naked misrule.
It's a no-win
situation for the people of Zimbabwe. International solidarity is in fact
growing at the grassroots and civil-society levels. But governments unwilling
to do the right thing - mainly in Africa - remain the central problem. Until
that structural failure involving the African Union, Sadc, and the
Commonwealth is resolved, grand plans for investment and trade remain a pipe
dream.
ZRP not able to conduct professional crowd
control Vincent Kahiya
DURING the apartheid era the creation of a
specialised riot-control function within South Africa's policing agencies was
essentially a reaction to the political unrest associated with resistance to
a segregated system of governance.
The major role of the riot police
at the time essentially remained the same - the enforcement of apartheid
laws, the suppression of political protest and the prevention of
unrest-related crimes.
Since the nature of their task was inherently
public, the police units tasked with riot control played a prominent role as
frontline "enforcers" of apartheid policies, and were viewed with a mixture
of fear and loathing by the communities in which they
served.
Apartheid paramilitary units would provoke peaceful marchers,
create mayhem and then pummel demonstrators. They operated within a policy
paradigm that accepted and supported the lethal use of force. This, combined
with the authorities' intolerance of protest action, meant the use of maximum
force had government's blessings.
Policing experts say the conduct of
paramilitary police in controlling crowds reflects upon government's attitude
towards civic activism. This has been aptly demonstrated in Zimbabwe where
there are parallels between the apartheid police's suppression of protests in
the late 1960s up to the late 1980s and the brutal attacks on civil society
here. Paramilitary police in Zimbabwe have become an instrument of political
entrenchment of the ruling order.
When Zimbabwe hosts Cricket World
Cup matches next week in the face of impending civil disobedience, the
comportment and competency of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) in crowd
control will be under scrutiny.
Civic protesters calling themselves
Organised Resistance have said they will disrupt the World Cup by staging
demonstrations.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri last month promised
to "deal ruthlessly" with any group attempting to disrupt public peace,
by demonstrating during the staging of the Cricket World
Cup.
Chihuri's threats put into perspective the police's perception of
crowd control - that any dissent must be crushed if it poses a challenge to
its political masters.
Observers say the essence of crowd control in
the psyche of the ZRP is teargassing, swinging truncheons and arrests. It is
certainly not aimed at facilitating protest, maintaining public peace or
protecting property. The professional policeman has virtually disappeared
from the ranks of law enforcers since the emergence of the MDC as the
opposition political party. Even peaceful gatherings of people buying scarce
basic commodities such as mealie meal or bread are immediately confronted by
baton-wielding riot police or Zanu PF Green Bombers whose only language is
violence.
The enactment of the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) last
year - effectively banning public demonstrations - has heightened
government's brutal methods under the pretence of maintaining public order.
Last week an attempt by the executive mayor of Harare, Engineer Elias
Mudzuri, to hold a consultative meeting with residents was violently crushed
by the police, who fired teargas to disperse residents and indiscriminately
sjamboked passers-by.
The introduction of troops to quell unrest
during the 1998 food riots was a key moment in the history of crowd control
in Zimbabwe, signalling a military approach to public protest. The deployment
of troops to quell unrest provided a context for more heavy-handed policing
in the townships and enabled the police to follow in the more repressive
footsteps of the army. The army has few options in its range of tactics other
than the use of lethal force, whereas the police should have an extensive
range of alternatives.
American researcher and scholar in crowd
control, Clark McPhail, says there are two modes of response available to
police when confronting crowds: "escalated force" and "negotiated
management".
"As its name indicates," Mcphail argues, "the escalated
force style of protest policing is oftentimes characterised by the use of
force as a standard way of dealing with demonstrations.
"Police
confront demonstrators with a dramatic show of force and followed with a
progressively escalated use of force if demonstrators failed to abide by
police instructions to limit or stop their activities."
Under the
negotiated management model, McPhail says police do not try to prevent
demonstrations, but attempt to limit the amount of disruption they cause. He
says police would attempt to steer demonstrations to times and places where
disruption will be minimised.
"Under negotiated management, arrests are
used only as a last resort, and only used against individuals who have
clearly violated the law," he says.
"Force, likewise, is kept to a
minimum. Rather than trying to disperse the crowd, the police plan so as to
contain it."
With this management model, police focus on preventing a
disturbance, rather than responding to one. They do this by negotiating with
protest organisers, by reaching agreements on elements such as the route of
the march, by regulating demonstrations through a system of permits, and by
encouraging organisers to provide their own marshals and exercise discipline
over the group as a whole.
McPhail's latter model of crowd control,
which has become a key component of modern policing, is in sharp contrast to
the Zimbabwean scenario where heavy-handedness has become the hallmark of the
ZRP.
This however is counterproductive as has been proven in a number
of incidents in which the police have generally displayed a lack
of alternatives in dealing with large crowds. In July 2000 during
an international soccer match between Zimbabwe and South Africa at the
National Sports Stadium, police fired teargas into the stands to deal with
hooligans who had started to throw missles onto the pitch. The stampede that
followed resulted in the death of 13 spectators. The teargas also hit players
who the police were meant to protect and resulted in the abandonment of the
match.
Measures being put in place to deal with any crowd problems at the
Cricket World Cup matches point towards the confrontational approach. The
police have already deployed paramilitary details branding AK-47 assault
rifles at Harare Sports Club. The police have also promised to mount
roadblocks on roads leading to the venue and deploy plainclothes policeman in
the city centre.
Organised Resistance claims the police dress
rehearsal of the security arrangements at the World Cup during the tour of
Pakistan last month provided a glimpse of how perceived security threats
would be dealt with.
The group said the ZRP allegedly brutalised
activists involved in non-violent activities such as raising of banners and
the blowing of whistles.
"Whilst it might be understandable for
activists to be ejected from the venue, it is both abhorrent and deplorable
that they are then tortured," the group said.
This week Eddison
Mukwasi, the MDC youth chairman for Harare province, died from internal
wounds which the MDC alleges were inflicted by police after he was arrested
together with five other people while watching a Zimbabwe Pakistan cricket
match. He was accused of allegedly distributing offensive material to incite
violence. After the arrest Mukwasi was reportedly tortured and assaulted by
police during interrogation.
In the last four weeks Zimbabweans have
experienced an upsurge of violence and intimidation involving the police.
This has included the detention of the mayor of Harare, the detention and
assault on civic activists, the arrest and torture of an MDC member of
parliament, and the torture of a human rights lawyer.
'Mugabe finished' Dumisani Muleya PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe is "politically finished" and is bereft of ideas to resolve Zimbabwe's
current economic crisis, the Movement for Democratic Change economic
secretary Eddie Cross said this week.
Cross said Mugabe was now
precariously hanging on to power "by his finger nails" and predicted it was
just a matter of time before he fell.
He said Mugabe had become a victim
of his own leadership failures.
"Events in Zimbabwe have moved fast
over these past weeks," Cross wrote in South Africa's Daily Dispatch. "Mugabe
is finished politically. The only issue now is when and how national
leadership changes will take place."
He said Zimbabwe had entered a
dangerous economic cul-de-sac.
"The overall effect of the current
economic measures - no matter how much Zanu PF wriggles and strains - is that
the country is in an economic cul-de-sac from which there is only one exit,"
he said.
Government's ill-advised policies, Cross pointed out, had
caused extensive damage to the economy.
"The immediate outcome of
Mugabe's financial and economic policies has been shortages of virtually all
basic necessities, fuel, food, spare parts and other essential imports," he
said.
"Also, for the first time the big mining houses and many major
commercial and industrial firms are staring at the prospect of either
breaking the law or insolvency and closure. The result has been chaos in the
country and we are rapidly reaching the point where we are simply grinding to
a halt."
Cross said the background to the economic crisis lay in 20
years of "maladministration of the country's fiscus, ill-advised policy
changes introduced without consultation in November 2002 and the
stubborn unwillingness of Mugabe to change course, even when failure stares
him in the face".
He said "government is guilty of overspending on
a huge scale for every one of the past 22 years", and "if it was a company,
it would have by now been placed under judicial management or
liquidation".
Cross said the situation was gradually becoming
unmanageable.
"In the past three years, as the government has
struggled with a collapsing economy and declining exports, it has resorted to
restricting payments against external debt and printing money to fund local
borrowings and excess government expenditure," he said.
"As a
consequence, it now has to operate under conditions where no one will lend it
money except under very harsh conditions and it must also operate in an
economy where inflationary pressures are spiralling out of
control."
Cross said these ill-conceived policies are largely to
blame for the present emergency.
Price freezes in particular, he
said, were unrealistic and a serious liability to business and the
economy.
"The freeze is doomed to failure - you simply cannot deal
with inflation by 'commanding' businessmen to hold down prices. There will be
three types of response: defiance, deceit and desperation," Cross said.
EVENTS in Zimbabwehave moved fast over these past weeks. I do not
want to dwell on the political developments that have dominated the
headlines, but rather on a series of economic factors that I believe is
actually determining the pace at which events are and will be taking place in
the next few weeks and months.
On the political front, let me just
make this one comment: President Robert Mugabe is finished politically. The
only issue now is when and how national leadership changes will take
place.
The background to recent economic developments lies in 20 years
of maladministration of the country's fiscus, ill-advised policy
changes introduced without consultation in November 2002, and the
stubborn unwillingness of Mugabe to change course, even when failure stares
him in the face.
This government is guilty of overspending on a huge
scale for every one of the past 22 years. It inherited an economy which was
very under-borrowed (total debt in 1980 was US$750 million) and now runs an
administration which owes everyone money and cannot pay it back.
In
business, when that happens, control and power passes to your
creditors. Countries are no different -- even though they can prolong the
eventual judgment day for much longer than a company in a similar
situation.
In the past three years, as the government has struggled with
a collapsing economy and declining exports, it has resorted to restricting
payments against external debt and printing money to fund local borrowings
and excess government expenditure.
As a consequence it now has to
operate under conditions where no one will lend it money except under very
harsh conditions and it must also operate in an economy where inflationary
pressures are spiralling out of control.
Judgment day has come and all
avenues of relief from foreign sources have dried up -- their creditors have
spoken.
Ill-advised policy
Thenthere were those ill-advised policy
shifts in November some of which are only now emerging into the light of
day. The first was the decision to freeze prices. The second was to take up
to 100 percent of all foreign exchange earnings by business at the primary
exchange rate of Z$55/ US$1, or the equivalent in other currencies. Finally a
crude attempt to freeze salaries at their January 1 level for at least six
months (originally the government intended 18 months).
We now know
from Reserve Bank statistics that the foreign exchange measures plunged them
into an immediate foreign exchange crisis. Businesses cleaned out their
foreign currency accounts before the tentacles of the Reserve Bank could
reach them and exporters froze all remittances from export debtors while they
waited to assess what was actually going on.
Those exporters that did
bring foreign payments back found that the Reserve Bank was taking 100
percent at the fixed exchange rates, leaving nothing for the business to use
to maintain itself.
To give you an idea of what this meant to exporters,
local currency receipts on exports declined from Z$85 000 for every US$100
they received to a paltry Z$5 500 -- a staggering decline of 94 percent in
revenue earned from exports. The amount they could use from exports on
maintaining business went from 60 percent to nil.
One major business I
know got one allocation of foreign exchange from the Bank at the official
rate and was then told "no currency available" every time it applied
thereafter -- it is now back in the market buying US dollars at 1 600 to one
for its essential imports.
No business can survive under these conditions
-- right now all major gold producers have told their staff that mining
operations will be shut down as soon as possible. Other mines have said the
same thing --nickel, chrome and other producers are equally
affected.
Only those with Export Processing Zone status are able to
continue, plus one new operator in the platinum industry which has a special
deal where it keeps all its foreign exchange earnings offshore.
In a
matter of weeks, the mining industry -- like commercial agriculture -- will
be no more unless there is a complete policy reversal. All
industrial exporters are in a similar position as are operators in the
tourist industry. These firms are worried about how they will fund the
shut-down -- if this is to be conducted in any kind of responsible way so
that it does not prejudice future operations and the essential interests of
their 300 000 workforce.
Price and wage freeze
As far as the
price and wage freeze goes: you know the story of King Canute. He was a king
who (like many of his ilk) felt he had divine power. He is reported to have
sat on the beach and "ordered" the tide to stay out. His reward was to get a
soaking when the tide followed its natural course.
The freeze is doomed
to failure -- you simply cannot deal with inflation by "commanding"
businessmen to hold down prices. There will be three types of response:
defiance, deceit and desperation.
Whichever route is taken by the
individual firm or person, the result will be the same -- much higher
effective prices for consumers associated with corruption and acute
difficulties.
If you are rich, then you will not suffer political
leaders are shopping in South Africa or Britain or simply paying what it
costs to get what they need.
That is not an option for the
middle-income community and the poor.
If the state continues with this
policy, then affected businesses (about 90 percent of all manufacturers) will
simply have to close their doors.
An interesting aspect is that many
Zanu(PF) firms (and they now control a very substantial proportion of
national business assets -- much more than the whites and white-owned
enterprises) are being allowed to flout the new regulations for obvious
reasons.
Economic cul-de-sac
The immediate outcome of these
financial and economic developments has been shortages of virtually all-basic
necessities, fuel, food, spare parts and other essential imports. Also, for
the first time the big mining houses and many major commercial and industrial
firms are staring at the prospect of either breaking the law or insolvency
and closure.
Theresult has been chaos in the country and we are rapidly
reaching the point where we simply are grinding to a halt.
The overall
effect of these combined measures -- no matter how much Zanu(PF) wriggles and
strains -- is that it is in an economic cul-de-sac from which there is only
one exit.
It must either go out through one of the gates on the street or
reverse itself completely and find its way back to the main road without
assistance.
In my book, that is simply not going to happen. How long can
they hold out -- not for long under any circumstances unless a creditor steps
in with major assistance!
My view is that talks under the guidance of
our major creditors are about to get under way and a form of judicial
management will soon be in the offing.
One thing is certain: if present
management leaves via one of the gates being offered, the major creditors of
this particular country are ready to help -- and we are more than ready to
step into the breach! We know the way back to the main road and what is then
needed for us to rejoin the rest of the travelling global community.
*
Eddie Cross is the spokesman on economic affairs for the
Zimbabwe oppositionMovement for Democratic Change.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setback for Tsvangirai's defence team February 07, 2003,
18:00
The defence in the treason trial of Morgan
Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, suffered a setback in its quest to
discredit the state's start witness Ari Ben Menashe when the judge refused to
admit into evidence articles that could prove the witness is a
liar.
George Bizos, Tsvangirai's chief defence lawyer,
accused Ben Menashe of being paid $1 million by the Zimbabwean government to
implicate Tsvangirai. Bizos also said it was on public record that Menashe
had lied about Australia receiving money from a foreign power to turn a blind
eye on an arms deal.
Bizos argued that an article in
Newsweek magazine describing the prosecution witness a "fantasist" should be
admitted to prove the defence's point. Judge Paddington Garwe ruled this
evidence including 12 other articles and documents would not be admitted
because they constituted commentary by journalists and others who were not
going to appear in court.
The court, however, agreed that
television interviews that featured Menashe, President Robert Mugabe, and
Tsvangirai should be admitted. These include a Special Assignment programme
by SABC.
Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general, and Renson Gasela, shadow minister
for agriculture, face the death penalty if found guilty of plotting to
assassinate Mugabe. As the trial went on, on the other side of Harare at the
Nigerian High Commission, police foiled a protest by MDC youths who were
demonstrating against Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian President. They say he
is a supporter of Mugabe.
Police briefly detained three
media people who were picked up outside the High Commission. The police say
the demonstration was illegal. The trial continues.
Treason trials nothing new to Zimbabwe's
law courts
2/7/2003 12:11:15 AM (GMT +2)
By Ray
Matikinye Features Editor
ZIMBABWE has a record of treason trials
that appear to have been cloned from a prototype.
Any opposition
party posing a serious challenge to President Mugabe's party or whose
popularity seems to surge ahead of Zanu PF's faces great risk of being
labelled treasonous.
Garnering popularity that threatens to whittle
down Zanu PF's support runs counter to its leadership's avowed goal of
remaining an indestructible monolith at the helm of a one-party
state.
Charges of treason have often become a bodycheck on
ambitious opposition parties. Save for the Zimbabwe Unity Movement
(ZUM), which gave Zanu PF a good run for its money in the 1990 presidential
elections, when the former Zanu PF secretary-general Edgar Tekere's support
snowballed beyond Mugabe's expectations prior to the poll, most opposition
leaders have been accused of trying to topple the government.
Tekere formed ZUM which fiercely opposed Mugabe's attempts to establish a
one-party state in Zimbabwe. He was expelled from Zanu PF after a series of
clashes with the party's top leadership for his criticism of rampant
corruption among his colleagues. His party ruffled Zanu PF feathers when it
received more than 30 percent of the presidential vote in 1990.
But
Tekere did not escape the wrath of Mugabe's paranoia about assasinations and
coups. Two weeks before the presidential polls in March 1990, Mugabe
told an estimated 40 000 Zanu PF faithful at a campaign rally in
Mutare that Tekere was threatening to assassinate the entire leadership of
the ruling party.
Mugabe said his presidential contestant intended
to incite the armed forces to stage a coup if he, Tekere, lost the
election.
Labelling opposition parties traitors has been invariable
for five general elections held over the past 23 years.
Since
independence, the first signs of intolerance to a strong opposition emerged
when the Zanu PF leadership accused Zapu of sponsoring dissidents and
therefore conspiring to topple the government.
The "discovery" of
arms caches in February 1982 had major political repercussions, with Mugabe's
Zanu PF openly accusing Zapu of planning to overthrow the
government.
Top Zapu men, including five Members of Parliament,
were detained on grounds of treasonous activities.
Zapu Cabinet
ministers, including Joshua Nkomo, Josiah Chinamano, Clement Muchachi and the
current Vice-President, Joseph Msika, were dismissed from their
posts.
At the same time Mugabe's government deemed it fit to detain
Zapu's former military leaders Dumiso Dabengwa, Lookout Masuku and four
others on charges of treason.
Dabengwa and Masuku denied the
plot, saying the arms caches had to be seen against a background of distrust
and the belief by many Zipra members that they might face attacks from Zanla
forces.
Moreover, Dabengwa had been part of an ad hoc committee
comprising himself, Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo and Emmerson Mnangagwa who met in
early 1982 to discuss how best to handle the known existence of these arms
caches.
Acquitting him, a High Court judge presiding over the case
referred to Dabengwa as "the most impressive witness his court had seen in a
long time," and he described the accused as "an antithesis of a person
scheming to overthrow the government".
Dabengwa and Masuku were
re-arrested and held in detention for a number of years. According
to a report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands from 1980 to
1988, Breaking the Silence, it turned out that Matt Calloway, a white former
head of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) inherited from the
Rhodesian administration, had been instrumental in organising the large
caches exposed in 1982.
Calloway deliberately misled Mugabe's
predominantly Zanu PF government into believing Zapu was engineering a
coup.
That plot led to an army campaign in Matabeleland and the
Midlands, resulting in an estimated 20 000 deaths among the civilian
population there.
Zipra military supremo, Lookout Masuku was
released from detention in March 1986 on the grounds of ill-heath, but died a
month later. Dabengwa was released in December of that year.
In
1995, Ndabaningi Sithole, the founder-president of the party now led by
Mugabe, was dragged into the High Court to answer charges of plotting to
overthrow Mugabe's government by recruiting people who underwent
military training at bases in Mozambique and plotting to assassinate
Mugabe.
"Plotting to assasinate" had become a bogey crime for the
Zanu (Ndonga) leader, as in February 1969 Sithole, who was then the
detained leader of the banned militant Zimbabwe African National Union, was
arraigned before the same High Court to answer charges of plotting to
assassinate rebel leader, Ian Smith and two of his ministers, Desmond
Lardner-Burke and Jack Howman.
Lardner-Burke was the Minister of
Justice, Law and Order and the Public Service, and Howman, the Minister of
External Affairs.
Sithole pleaded not guilty and in his denial made
statements that had disastrous consequences for his political career as
leader of Zanu: "I have never advocated violence to achieve any political
ends."
He was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail with
hard labour. Conspiracy to assassinate and topple a government
rebounded on Sithole when almost 26 years later he was sentenced to two years
imprisonment for a charge of trying to assassinate Mugabe, his erstwhile
subordinate and comrade-in-arms during the nationalist struggle.
But Sithole did not go down without making poignant allegations: "All my sins
were trumped up."
He told the High Court his party had been
infiltrated by the CIO, which showed the charges were a continuation of
harassment by Zanu PF and the government.
It later emerged that
the detonation in 1995 of an explosive device as Mugabe's motorcade drove
past was part of an elaborate plot to land Sithole in jail.
Operation Reminder, as the scheme was dubbed, was executed by the CIO and one
of the documents stated: "It has been accurately assessed that Zanu Ndonga in
the long run will cause extremely great damage to the superiority of Zanu PF.
Therefore we have identified the pillars of power within that party which
needs to be internally destroyed."
The CIO started publishing the
presence of the Chimwenje militant group in Mozambique, saying Sithole wanted
to topple the government using the militia group. After being
sentenced Sithole said: "My own arrest and subsequent trial in the High Court
made a mockery of the justice system in Zimbabwe. In the first place, the
whole trial had to follow what had been laid down by the Executive in their
efforts to move me out of the way. For instance, having found me guilty of
their trumped-up charge of assasination, they sentenced me to two years'
imprisonment. Where on earth has treason been punished with two
years?"
Sithole died before his appeal to the Supreme Court was
heard. High Court judge Justice Chatikobo said during sentencing,
Sithole's case was similar to that of Dr Bertrand, 58, an
ultra-right-winger secessionist who was then leader of the splinter group of
the Rhodesia Action Party.
Bertrand's treason case stemmed from
an attempt to persuade disgruntled former Zipra fighters to form an army
under his command to fight and establish a secessionist state in
Matabeleland.
Bertrand unknowingly recruited members of the police
and the CIO who had posed as former Zipra fighters and as a result was
arrested before executing the planned secession.
He was
sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and lost a subsequent appeal.
In
September 2002, Tony Blair said Britain was still willing to assist in land
reform in Zimbabwe. In November 2002, Stan Mudenge, Zimbabwe's Minister of
Foreign Affairs, insisted that the United Kingdom should honour its
commitments and compensate white farmers who had lost land during the land
redistribution programme.
To accommodate and save face for both
sides, all Britain now has to do is pay compensation directly to the farmers
concerned wherever they want the funds. They can then inform President Mugabe
that Britain has donated the land to the Zimbabwe government and is not under
any further obligation to assist any more.
From then on it will
be Zimbabwe's responsibility to carry on with any further reforms either from
their own resources or from any other foreign assistance they might be able
to obtain.
One can expect a lot of opposition from most politicians
in Zimbabwe to this scheme though, as it will deprive them of opportunities
to get their hands on most of the funds.
On the other hand, it
would be very ungrateful of Mugabe to decline this offer because he would get
fully developed farms with everything in place, to replace the undeveloped
land without any infrastructure that he claims the colonialists
stole.
It should not be too difficult for Britain to raise the
funds. If it cannot do so by itself, surely the countries that were so
eager to support her when she called for sanctions against the then Rhodesia
will not mind continuing to show their solidarity and chipping
in?
This would apply especially to those countries which were
publicly and vehemently anti-Rhodesia, but were Rhodesia's biggest suppliers
behind the scenes. (Although at very inflated prices, thank
you!)
More
than one million people in Zimbabwe's urban areas are facing starvation as
the food situation in the country continues to deteriorate.
This
brings to seven million the number of people in need of humanitarian aid
according to the latest United Nations food situation report.
In
an overview to a UN Special Envoy who visited the country last month, the UN
representatives in Zimbabwe said that the level of vulnerability to food
insecurity was increasing at an alarming rate in the urban
areas.
The UN report said: "Market distortions, growing
unemployment, a thriving parallel market for basic commodities and a
skyrocketing inflation rate have aggravated vulnerability of the urban
populations."
In response to the situation, the World Food
Programme (WFP) initiated round table discussions with government, the Harare
City Council and donors to prioritise the most vulnerable groups in Harare
especially children under six.
The UN said while 15 million
people in southern Africa required food aid, Zimbabwe's figure had risen from
6,7 million to 7,2 million by December 2002.
Although President
Mugabe is on record for telling donor agencies, the United States and Britain
"to go to hell", the UN appealed to donors to "provide more resources to
avert disaster".
Zimbabwe faces severe food shortages as a result
of the chaotic land reform programme compounded by a severe drought in the
past two years. The UN said food imports last year were lower than the 1,8
million tonnes required for Zimbabwe's domestic consumption.
The
UN said: "The government of Zimbabwe reported that total maize that was
imported from February to December 2002 is 685 784 tonnes. The national maize
annual requirement for both human and livestock from July 2003 to June 2004
is 1 895 943 tonnes."
Farm invasions which disrupted farming
activities impacted negatively on harvests and worsened the food
situation.
The UN said the government expected 571 347 tonnes of
maize to be produced in the 2002/2003 season, with only 56 335 tonnes flowing
into the granaries.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Lands,
Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister, Joseph Made, said he was in a
meeting.
The UN said while the WFP would increase food imports from
40 000 tonnes in January to 50 000 tonnes in February and possibly 70 000 to
80 000 tonnes in March, the pledges would only last up to end of March or
early April, therefore new commitments were urgently required.
THE government has stubbornly continued to pursue the
price controls policy, in defiance of numerous calls from business people,
economists and academics, for a shift in the prevailing pricing
regime.
Only last week, the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade published a voluminous Statutory Instrument (SI) wherein the
relevant minister ordered a price freeze for an even wider range of
goods.
The 100-page order, cited as the Control of Goods (Price
Freeze) (Amendment) Order, 2003 (SI 42 of 2003) would, with immediate effect,
result in the imposition of static prices on an array of goods and products
in all sorts of categories, for a period of six months running from the
effective date.
The effective date for purposes of the price
freeze order would be 15 November 2002. Products and services whose
prices were frozen last week included tea and coffee products, edible oils,
dairy products, poultry feeds, other foodstuffs, liquor, kitchenware,
detergents, disinfectants, construction goods, stationery, pharmaceutical
products, coal and coke products, and road freight charges.
Many
of the prices listed in the price freeze order, for various products, were
extremely low. Much as the frozen prices could be welcome for consumers, the
majority of whom are poverty-stricken, those prices, on the other hand,
clearly appeared to be way below realistic levels for manufacturers and
distributors.
For instance, the retail price for a 500 millilitre
packet of fresh milk was set at $17,86, while the same amount of milk of the
Chimombe brand would cost $16,04. The "frozen" price for 500ml of Lacto would
be $18,34.
A 50kg packet of sugar would, if the official prices
were to be observed, be sold at a retail price of $205. A 10kg packet of the
product would cost only $107,40.
These were the prices
applicable some two years ago, but inflation has risen in that period from 57
percent in January 2001 to 198,9 percent by the end of December
2002. Economists have repeatedly pointed out that the sort of
pricing structure reflected in SI42/2003 does not make business sense, and
it threatens the continued viability of business.
Simiso Nzima,
an economist, said: "The problem with the current price controls is that they
seek to control prices of products at the end of the manufacturing process
without factoring in other costs of production."
James Makamba, a
businessman, recently said: "Price control monitors or inspectors have a
tendency to penalise retailers who are at the end of the manufacturing and
supply chain, leaving the supplier or manufacturer untouched."
Makamba said in the case of the value chain for beef, for instance: "The
process of enforcing price controls must begin with the cattle producers and
abattoirs, if the retailer is to fall in line."
Many other
authorities, including Eric Bloch, John Robertson, Phineas Kadenge, David
Mupamhazi and Tony Hawkins, have in the past also voiced their concern at the
unsustainability of price controls in any economy.
The other
fundamental problem besides viability concerns, arising from price controls,
has been the shortage of products on the shelves at
official markets.
Since the introduction of price controls two
years ago, basic commodities have virtually disappeared from supermarkets and
other retail outlets.
The shortages could in certain instances,
such as the supply of milk, bread and maize-meal, be attributed to the
disastrous effects of the chaotic land-grab programme, but the impact of
price controls on those and other basic products remains trite.
Even Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of Finance, admitted at the presentation
of the 2003 Budget last November, that price controls had unleashed havoc
onto the economy and the day-to-day welfare of business and the population,
as articulated by key players in the economy.
Murerwa said then:
"Efforts to protect the consumer from spiralling prices are being undermined
by price controls that focus mostly on the final product, ignoring
developments affecting inputs in the production process."
"This has
affected production viability and the sustainability of the controlled price
levels."
His ministry, however, published a Price Freeze Order (SI
302/ 2002), just a day after the admission.
At least three other
such orders were subsequently imposed. Further, the recently signed
Tripartite Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol harboured the price
controls policy, and another document set for ratification in due course, the
Government and Business Partnership on Key Economic Issues, also entrenches
the same harmful policy.
Makamba urged government to reconsider the
suitability of price controls while Nzima warned that if government remained
insolent, the repercussions of its arrogance could be more devastating to the
economy in the near future.
Nzima said: "If price controls
continue, both manufacturing and retail companies could soon be forced to
either go to the black market for input materials and foreign currency, or
they could be left with no choice but to wind down operations."
Extensive reliance on the parallel market by formal industry would worsen the
foreign currency and general money supply situation and propel the closure of
companies as the economic climate became harsher. The move would increase
unemployment, believed to be between 70 and 80 percent.
Of late a lot of negative remarks have been made about
Morgan Tsvangirai in particular and the MDC leadership in
general.
Most of what has been said by those who have had the
opportunity to do so is seemingly generated by frustration which has been
caused by the social, political and economic downturn that has taken root in
the country.
There is no doubt however, that people are conscious
of the fact that this social, political and economic chaos has been caused by
President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.
Mugabe has frustrated
virtually everyone who has shown the spine to engage in efforts to improve
the lot of our people and for the good of the country.
Determined leaders such as Strive Masiiwa, Geoff Nyarota, Lovemore Madhuku,
Raymond Majongwe, Wellington Chibhebhe, Elias Mudzuri and of course,
Tsvangirai himself - just to name a few who have demonstrated their
ability to take this country out of the mess that it has been thrown into by
Mugabe - have had some land mines planted randomly in their way by the
establishment, in a desperate attempt to make it impossible for them to
function effectively.
Mugabe and Zanu PF will not allow anybody,
let alone perceived progressive forces, to operate, even if the country
stands to benefit.
This is the true reality on the ground and the
basis upon which Tsvangirai's performance must be judged.
Zanu
PF is a violent party and Mugabe himself is a brutal man. There is therefore,
no doubt that the killing of innocent people in order to cow them into
supporting Zanu PF is a culture that sustains Mugabe and
his party.
But such brutal behaviour is only found appropriate
by those leaders who have been rejected by their own people. They instead,
develop killing instincts in order to force their own people to blindly
support their misguided policies out of fear.
The late Unita
leader, Jonas Savimbi, is a good example of a leader who had lost all traces
of conscience and humanity. He would rather have let the whole nation perish
in order for him to gain political power.
Mugabe is a replica of
Savimbi save for the fact that he is not killing in order to gain power but
to preserve it.
Killing is his area of speciality and he takes
pride and pleasure in it, especially when there is continuous flow of the
blood of innocent souls. He knows that if he induces fear in the nation, that
will guarantee his continued stay in power.
But Tsvangirai is a
humane soul who cannot afford to let blood be spilled, especially in cases
where it is clear that Mugabe is itching for just that to
happen.
We must, as Zimbabweans, understand the type of people that
we are fighting to remove. Iri ndiro rinonzi banga riri mumaoko ebenzi.
Benzi rinogona kubaya munhu anouya kuzoripa sadza. (A case of a dog biting
the hand that feeds it).
The Zimbabwean crisis which Jonathan
Moyo refers to as a challenge requires a sober approach.
We must
avoid behaving like athletes who are taking part in a race with a
lunatic. At some stage the lunatic leads the rest of the pack and those
behind follow him in every respect, assuming of course, that he knows the
route.
The lunatic later loses track of the course and heads for
the mountains and everyone behind follows, resulting in the race not
producing a winner.
You will agree with me that those who are
currently heading the political race in this country are total lunatics and,
as a nation, we should never lose sight of this fact.
They have
demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt their will to retain power, even at
the expense of the nation.
Imagine your child being raped because
her parents do not support Zanu PF or people in your area being evicted from
homes and being denied food because they support the opposition
party.
These are the true facts on the ground, which are
indisputable. We are dealing with a group of people that must surely be
possessed by the demons of Lucifer himself.
They should
therefore be treated with caution. There is very little that Tsvangirai
has not done which any sane leader who has the people's interests at heart
would have done.
We should be proud as a nation to have been able
to choose a person in the mould of Tsvangirai to be our leader.
He is a leader who will sit down and think twice before embarking on any
issue, particularly those that involve human life.
As Zimbabweans
we should never be forced to confront Mugabe in his own political comfort
zone and at his whim. Let us hit him when he does not expect it. That time is
fast approaching.
We must, on the other hand, avoid unnecessary
divisions within our ranks. This will give Mugabe the ammunition and
the desire to fight us, particularly when we appear to be losing faith in our
leadership. At this stage anybody who is not Mugabe and is not a Mugabe would
be a suitable leader.
There is very little, if anything, that we
have assigned Tsvangirai to do and he has failed us. We can only accuse him
of having delayed the revolution whose time frame we did not define in the
first place.
I strongly believe we should all rally behind
Tsvangirai and give him the chance to execute this revolution to its logical
end. He will never let us down.
We cannot afford the luxury of
starting to talk about a new leadership now.
We would be playing
into the hands of Zanu PF and this is exactly what they want and what they
have always hoped to achieve.
YESTERDAY we carried a story
which represents a serious indictment of the Zimbabwe School Examinations
Council (Zimsec), the main culprit in what can only be described as a scandal
of a very grave nature.
The gist of the story is that 80 students
who sat for their A-level examinations at Guinea Fowl High School just
outside Gweru could not collect their results following the discovery of a
terrible mix-up at Zimsec. The students were awarded points for subjects they
had not sat for.
According to an official of the examinations body,
the mix-up was "a result of truncation occurring as the records were being
printed in the displacement of data on the printed page".
This,
of course, is all gobbledygook conjured up to try to mystify this totally
unforgivable mistake on the part of Zimsec in the vain hope that the public
will overlook its culpability, thus minimising the enormous damage it is
certain to have on the examinations council's integrity.
That was
Zimsec's second error, because - make no mistake -the public have neither
been fooled nor mollified by that nonsensical explanation. If anything, that
statement, meant to cover up for gross inefficiency and the complete absence
of quality control at that important institution, has outraged the whole
nation.
And the casual manner in which Zimsec reacted to this
shocking inefficiency bordering on dereliction of duty is, to say the least,
most insulting to all those affected. This includes the students
themselves, their parents, friends, relatives and, indeed, every Zimbabwean
concerned with the continually deteriorating standards of education in this
country.
It can be said without any fear of contradiction that,
almost from its inception, Zimsec has never displayed that sense of
responsibility and commitment to the maintenance of the highest quality
control standards which are an absolute prerequisite at all such institutions
the world over. Apart from the many cases of headmasters losing exam scripts,
some of which were loaded on the roof racks of long-distance rural buses, and
markers losing scripts in pubs, some of which were reportedly found in
dustbins, there have been several cases of more serious problems which Zimsec
could and ought to have avoided.
Among the disturbing instances
of Zimsec's laxity in this regard was its persistent failure to timeously pay
examination markers, in particular Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC) markers,
even though it would have collected examination fees from prospective
candidates earlier in the year.
It is a fact that teachers who had
marked ZJC papers in November 1998 only started receiving payment in August
1999. The result was that capable markers then withdrew their services. It is
not altogether far-fetched to link the abolition of ZJC examinations to that
perennial problem.
Then there has also been the ever-present
spectre of examination paper leakages, the most publicised of which involved
the daughter of Edmund Garwe, then the Minister of Education. Garwe, a man of
great integrity, earned himself much respect when he resigned after taking
full responsibility for the indiscretion, even though he had been unaware of
what his daughter was doing.
Following the Guinea Fowl High
School scandal the least the nation expected was an apology from Education
Minister Aeneas Chigwedere and an assurance that the government would put in
place watertight measures to ensure there would not be a recurrence of such a
breach of security, even if he thought that - with Zimsec's sordid track
record - nobody would believe him. But the best thing would have been for him
to resign.
The Guinea Fowl saga in so unsettling because, for the
first time, the nation is faced with the knowledge that the results students
have been receiving since Zimsec came into being may well not have been
theirs at all. This implies that Zimsec must have messed up many people's
lives - failing those who passed and "passing" those who failed.
There is only one obvious solution: to restore Cambridge exams until Zimsec
proves its capabilities at lower examination levels.
DR Salvator Alex Mapunda, the government pathologist who
conducted the postmortem following the murder of Cain Nkala, a war veteran
leader in Bulawayo, was yesterday accused by the defence of misleading the
court.
Advocate Eric Morris made the accusation while
cross-examining Dr Mapunda after he had testified before Justice Sandra
Mungwira on the postmortem he conducted on 14 November 2001.
Morris had asked Mapunda whether the decomposing body, which was exhumed from
a shallow grave at Norwood Farm about 40km from Bulawayo, could be smelt from
a distance of between six and 10 metres.
Mapunda said: "I don't
have the answer to that." Morris said: "I have to put it to you now
that you are far from being professional." Mapunda said he did not
want to mislead the court.
Morris said: "That is what you are doing
now. I have no hesitation now of accusing you of misleading the
court."
Morris' question related to Sergeant Jemitias Sibanda, a
State witness ' evidence that he had not smelt anything when he was assigned
to guard Nkala's grave on the night of 12 November 2001.
Nkala
was allegedly abducted from his Magwegwe home on 5 November 2001 and his body
was exhumed near Solusi University on 13 November 2001.
Fletcher
Dulini-Ncube, the MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Sonny Masera, the MDC director
of security, Army Zulu, Kethani Sibanda, Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu, are
on trial for his murder.
In his testimony yesterday, Mapunda
explained how he had witnessed the exhumation on 13 November 2001 and
conducted the postmortem the next day.
In his testimony he said
Nkala was strangled with black shoe laces that were knotted
together.
Asked by Justice Mungwira whether he expected to see
signs of soil and skin on the laces, Mapunda said he could not see
any.
Morris suggested that the shoe laces had been washed. He
smelled them and pronounced them "delicious" and invited Mapunda to do the
same but the doctor declined.
Morris then said: "I know why.
It's because you will be proved a liar, that's why."
ARI Ben-Menashe, the key State witness in the
treason trial of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two top party officials,
temporarily turned the High Court into a mini-comedy session as he skirted
questions posed to him during cross-examination.
He even chided
the defence lawyers to "stop shooting the messenger". "The lawyer is
trying to throw us into a smokescreen," Ben-Menashe said, avoiding a question
about a "deal" involving Callington Sales, a company in which he is
president. The company allegedly defrauded the Zambian government of nearly
US$7 million (Z$385million).
"The issue of Callington Sales has
nothing to do with this case." Ben-Menashe admitted Callington Sales
received US$7 million for the delivery of maize grain to feed underprivileged
communities. He, however, became hostile when he was pressed to say what
became of the deal.
"Is he a judge? Is there a court that said we
defrauded?" he shot back at Advocate George Bizos, one of the defence
lawyers.
Ben-Menashe, the head of Dickens & Madson, a
Canadian-based political consultancy firm, retorted before Justice Paddington
Garwe: "I resent this." He then turned to Bizos and asked: "Sir, are
you a judge?"
He, however, admitted a default judgment had been
entered against his company by the London Court of Arbitration, but said the
ruling was being challenged in London. He said the company went bankrupt
after then Zambian President Frederick Chiluba failed to settle some
debts.
Asked how Edward Simms, a man said to be a United States
Central Intelligence Agency operative, came to chair the meeting on 4
December 2001 where Tsvangirai allegedly outlined the plot to assassinate
President Mugabe, Ben-Menashe said Simms was invited by Alexander Legault,
but he did not know Simms personally.
Legault is a director at
Dickens & Madson. Queried on why he did not take the details of a
man who could have been a key witness in the alleged assassination plot,
Ben-Menashe interjected: "The video speaks for itself. Your client said what
he said. Don't shoot the messenger. Address the message."
Ben-Menashe admitted he signed a contract with the MDC which described Rupert
Johnson as one of the directors of Dickens & Madson.
Johnson
allegedly approached Renson Gasela, one of Tsvangirai's co-accused, claiming
he was an official from Dickens & Madson.
On Wednesday
Ben-Menashe disowned Johnson in his evidence-in-chief, saying he was an MDC
member.
Pressed by the defence to explain why Johnson would order
the MDC to deposit US$20 000 (Z$11 million) into Dickens & Madson's bank
account, Ben-Menashe retorted: "Ask your client. You know where he is. Go and
ask him."
Ben-Menashe said Tsvangirai came to Canada to "ask for
our company's help to assassinate the President of Zimbabwe and for us to
elicit the support of the US government in the plot."
Bizos
noted that Ben-Menashe used the word "eliminate" at least 10 times during the
video-taped meeting at the Dickens & Madson headquarters "knowing its
ambiguity and for the purpose of entrapping Mr Tsvangirai".
The
word "eliminate" also appeared in Dickens & Madson's contract with Zanu
PF, the lawyer noted.
AIR Zimbabwe continues to maintain offices in Belgium
although it stopped servicing the route in the middle of last
year.
The office is run by Tesfaye Bekele who is married to
Ghanaian Patricia Hayfron Bekele, the daughter of the sister of the late
Sally Mugabe.
David Mwenga, the public relations manager,
confirmed yesterday they had two offices in Europe. "We have a representative
in Brussels who supervises general service agents (GSAs) in Europe and North
America, including the London office."
Sources at the parastatal
said the offices were being maintained to provide a plum job for a
well-connected individual although the rent and salaries were causing further
financial losses.
A senior Air Zimbabwe manager, Tesfaye Bekele, is
in charge at the Brussels office, although his role has been a source of
irritation and conflict among other managers in the airline.
The
airline's managers contend that Bekele, whose specific duties were not clear,
was exploiting the airline's meagre resources without there being any
benefits to Air Zimbabwe.
"Instead, Bekele's stay in Brussels was
facilitated by senior government officials who are benefiting from his
presence there," a senior employee at the airline said.
"Everyone here is baffled by his continued stay there. Air Zimbabwe has no
flights to that area. He was only sent there last year."
Mwenga
said the GSAs sold tickets on behalf of Air Zimbabwe. Sources privy to
the airline's operations on Wednesday said for years, Air Zimbabwe serviced
the Harare-Kinshasa-Brussels route with Lac Airways of the Democratic
Republic of Congo collecting the revenue.
Air Zimbabwe cancelled
the route from its schedule after their agents failed to remit the revenue
they collected.
The airline was forced to cancel that route in the
middle of 2002 after the disappearance of about US$4 million (Z$220 million)
collected by Lac Airways.
Mwenga confirmed the disappearance of
the money had forced them to abandon the route.