Zim Online
by Patricia Mpofu Friday 25 January
2008
HARARE - The banning of an anti-government march and
police attempts to
thwart a court-sanctioned opposition rally were the
clearest indication yet
of the futility of President Thabo Mbeki’s 10-month
push for a democratic
solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis, civic leaders told
ZimOnline.
The police earlier this week banned at the last minute an
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party protest march that
they had
initially allowed.
When a magistrate’s court ruled on
Wednesday that the MDC could proceed with
the rally – the police had sought
to ban – armed police descended on the
opposition party’s supporters walking
to the rally venue, beating them up
and arresting several of people
including party organising secretary, Elias
Mudzuri. He was later
released.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) political pressure
group said the
police’s actions exposed the ineffectiveness of legal reforms
agreed by the
MDC and President Robert Mugabe’s governing ZANU PF party
under Mbeki’s
mediation.
“The ‘reformed’ Public Order and Security
Act (POSA) remains as fascist and
repressive as ever. The amended version of
the Act erodes freedom of
association and expression,” said Lovemore
Madhuku, chairman of the NCA that
campaigns for new and democratic
constitution for Zimbabwe.
The reforms to the POSA, that police had used
in the past to ban opposition
gatherings, as well as two other tough laws
governing the media and
elections, were lauded as a key step towards opening
up of democratic space
and ensuring free and fair elections in
March.
Under the amended POSA, the opposition can appeal to the courts
against
banning of their activities by the police. Previously, appeals were
directed
to the Minister of Home Affairs.
Madhuku said the police’s
beating of MDC supporters on their way to a
court-sanctioned rally showed
that it remained dangerous for the opposition
to organise and that truly
democratic polls remained impossible in the face
of “deepening structural
repression in the country.”
Mbeki has since last April led efforts by
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) to break Zimbabwe’s eight-year
crisis by facilitating
dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC.
After a
surprisingly fruitful start which saw the parties reaching several
agreements including key a constitutional amendment allowing holding of
parliamentary and presidential elections this year, the talks appear to have
virtually collapsed following differences over a new constitution and the
date for polls.
The MDC wants a new constitution agreed by
negotiators implemented before
polls that it says must be postponed to allow
democratic reforms to take
root before voting. Mugabe has ruled out
postponing elections and says
whoever wins the polls must decide when to
call a referendum to decide on
the new constitution.
University of
Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said Wednesday’s
events
appeared to suggest that Mugabe and ZANU PF might have negotiated in
bad
faith.
“My reading of the situation is that the MDC has exposed ZANU PF’s
insincerity in the whole talks. The ruling party seems not to be willing to
meet its part of the bargain in the whole deal,” said Masunugure, adding
that Mbeki would find it difficult to revive talks after the way police
treated the MDC.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a loose coalition of
more than 300 civic
society organisations, said in a statement that the
brutal attempts by the
police to crush the MDC rally showed nothing had
changed on the political
field, with police and other state agents
continuing to be used against
Mugabe’s political opponents.
Zimbabwe
is in the grip of a severe economic recession – blamed on
repression and
wrong policies by Mugabe –and seen in hyperinflation, a
rapidly contracting
GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to
the World Bank and
shortages of every essential commodity.
Analysts say free and fair polls
in March are a prerequisite to any plans to
resuscitate the southern African
country’s once brilliant economy. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Thenjiwe Mabhena Friday 25 January
2008
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s troubled tourism sector continued to
sing the blues last
year with arrivals from Europe and the United States
declining by a massive
by 21 percent as tourists continued to shun the
country.
In a provisional report due for release next week, the Zimbabwe
Tourism
Authority (ZTA) said there had been a huge decline in tourist
arrivals from
the two traditional source markets because of the country’s
negative image.
The report titled, “Visitor Arrivals by Source Market –
2007,” said tourist
traffic from Europe had plunged to 76 435 last year from
96 849 registered
in 2006 while traffic from the US had fallen from 44 746
to 33 897 visitors.
ZTA chief executive Karikoga Kaseke said the
authority was fighting to
regain lost market share in Europe and America.
“We are still working on
that market. We will not surrender that market," he
said.
Tourism, which was among the biggest foreign currency earners for
Zimbabwe,
is a shadow of its former self after President Robert Mugabe
embarked on a
controversial land reform programme eight years
ago.
The government’s violent land seizure programme coupled with
political
violence drove away tourists amid a severe economic recession
described by
the World Bank as unprecedented for a country not at
war.
The report however says tourist arrivals from Asia had risen by 9
percent
from 37 035 to 40 484 during the past year with Japan and China
contributing
the largest number of visitors to Zimbabwe.
Harare has
since 2000 pursued a “Look-East” policy after the West imposed
targeted
sanctions on Mugabe and his senior lieutenants in protest over his
human
rights record and repression against political opponents.
Economic
analysts however say although the number of arrivals from Asia had
grown,
the Asians are not high spenders and their increased numbers do not
translate into increased tourist revenue for the country.
The ZTA
report comes amid fresh travel warnings issued by the US and Britain
two
weeks ago urging their nationals not to travel to Zimbabwe because of
“an
increased potential for political violence.”
Zimbabwe is due to hold
presidential and parliamentary elections next March
amid fears that
political violence could flare up during the polls.
Political violence,
mostly blamed on Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party
supporters, has been a
constant feature of Zimbabwe’s polls since the
emergence of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
in 2000.
Once
one of the country’s fastest growing economic sectors, tourism has
virtually
crumbled as visitors shunned the country because of lawlessness,
political
violence and its poor human rights record.
Mugabe however blames the
tourism slump on negative reporting by
international media out to tarnish
Harare’s name as part of a wider
Western-led campaign to sabotage Zimbabwe’s
economy. – ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Own Correspondent Friday 25 January
2008
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo
said the government
was doing everything it could to procure fertilizer to
reverse the effects
of rains that have incessantly pounded the country,
threatening to turn the
2008 season into a complete write-off.
Gumbo
said the Harare administration, blamed by critics for poor planning
and
failing to avail adequate seed and fertilizer despite warnings of above
normal rains this season, was also encouraging farmers to keep planting in a
bid to save the season from going to waste.
"Normal planting is done
between October and late December, but I don't
think we're having a normal
rainfall season . . . so if the ground is wet,
why not plant maize?” Gumbo
told reporters in Harare.
Heavy rains have been pounding most parts of
Zimbabwe and much of southern
Africa since December.
The rains have
caused floods that have left at least 21 people dead in
Zimbabwe while
villagers in Muzarabani district in the low-lying Zambezi
Valley and the
southern province of Masvingo have seen property, livestock
and crops washed
away.
Last week, Zimbabwe’s Agricultural Technical and Extension Services
(AREX)
said the rains were adversely affecting farming operations with most
crops
now showing signs of nitrogen deficiency due to water logging while
the
country did not have adequate ammonium nitrate fertilizer required to
treat
the problem.
Gumbo said the Harare administration would act to
ensure availability of
fetiliser. He said: "(The) government is doing
everything in its power to
make sure fertilizer is made available to our
farmers."
Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, has grappled food
shortages since
2000 when President Robert Mugabe launched his haphazard
fast-track land
reform exercise that displaced established white commercial
farmers and
replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded
black farmers.
An estimated four million Zimbabweans or about a third of
the country’s 12
million population are in need of food aid, according to
international
relief agencies.
Chaos in agriculture because of farm
seizures also hit hard Zimbabwe’s once
impressive manufacturing sector that
had depended on a robust farming sector
for orders and inputs.
Most
of Zimbabwe’s industries have since the beginning of farm seizures
either
scaled down operations to about 30 percent of capacity or shut down
altogether, in a country where unemployment is more than 80
percent.
The Harare administration has declared the 2008 season the
“mother of all
farming seasons” to revive agricultural production and end
food shortages.
However, agricultural experts say predictions of a bumper
harvest this year
were misplaced after what it described as pathetic
preparations for the
season that saw the government fail to ensure adequate
seed and fertilizer.
Too much rain that the region is experiencing will only
help to further cut
down yields. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by
Tapera Kapuya Friday 25 January 2008
JOHANNESBURG -
Kenya has been experiencing a wave of violence that
should serve as a lesson
to Zimbabwe’s pro-democracy movement, as these
problems are rooted in the
same democratic deficits.
Much of the media coverage on Kenya seems
to have been consumed by a
focus on the ensuing violence with very marginal
efforts to investigate
issues at the centre of this conflict: the absence of
democratic
institutions and the shortfalls of ‘executive’
fundamentalism.
With Zimbabwe facing elections in March, a look
into the Kenyan
scenario would be helpful in avoiding a repeat of the crisis
experienced in
east Africa.
This is necessary in order to build
agency around a proper
constitutional reform process, whose outcome will
insulate Zimbabwe from the
problems those in Kenya are going
through.
Since the Kenyan election, over a thousand people have
died and 250
000 more have been displaced. As in most post-colonial
conflicts, much of
these tensions have taken an ugly ethno-tribal
character.
According to observers, the elections themselves were
held in a manner
that can be deemed ‘free and fair’. In the run-up to the
vote, all political
parties had relative space to organize and
campaign.
Kenya has a growing free media, and unlike Zimbabwe does
not have such
notorious legislations such as the Public Order and Security
Act or the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The election day itself was rather peaceful. The opposition, the
Orange
Democratic Movement, won the majority of the parliamentary seats.
Problems were then reported in the tallying of the vote, throwing
President
Mwai Kibaki’s victory into dispute. The chairperson of the Kenya
Electoral
Commission has since acknowledged that there was manipulation of
the
vote.
Independent observers have suggested that the election was
too close
to call. The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Rannesberger, is
quoted saying
whoever won the election, did so by a margin between 23 000 to
100 000
votes.
And that is where part of the problem
lies.
Kenya like Zimbabwe, has its Lancaster House Constitution,
drawn in
1963 as a settlement document when the British colonists were
withdrawing
from the territory to allow for Kenya’s
independence.
Consequently, this constitution, now with its fair
share of
amendments, has not bode well for a transformational state,
therefore
allowing for dictatorial tendencies to set in.
The
Daniel arap Moi regime would master repression under the shoulder
of
constitutional righteousness. As it relates to elections, state
administration and governance, Kenya has a winner-takes-all
system.
This system is what we have in Zimbabwe. What this means is
that, even
if one wins an election by one vote, the opinions of the section
of the
voters who would have lost will not find political representation or
expression.
It is a system that excludes ‘losers’ and, as we
are learning from
Kenya, this provides a base for fuelling other deep seated
tensions. It
questions the legitimacy of the winner as a representative of
all interest
groups.
As with Zimbabwe, Kenya’s presidential
system places more power in the
executive, including power to
legislate.
The executive has a monopoly over national resource
distribution, with
the legislature being reduced to a powerless club of
sessional critics or
patronage-driven loyalists.
With a
Constitution that bestows enormous powers on the executive, and
because
there are no constitutional provisions to ensure equitable
distribution of
the country’s resources, perceived loss of the vote carries
a heavy meaning
for those who lose.
In regions and amongst groups perceived to be
less prioritised by the
victors, this arrangement fuels anger. It means
another five years of being
isolated, another five years of exclusion,
another five years of poverty.
The disproportionate powers the
executive have compromises the other
arms of government.
The
legislature and judiciary become overly dependent on the
executive,
undermining their role to provide for checks and balances.
Executive
accountability is eroded.
Corruption and its attendant defense
systems set in: with regionalism
and identity cleavages taking centre stage
in issues of national importance.
Democratic transformation in
Kenya, as in Zimbabwe, gained its
momentum in the demands for Constitutional
reform, with Kibaki defeating Moi
on the need to draft ‘a people driven
Constitution’.
Kenyans are yet to see it, two Presidential terms
down the line.
Most of those in civil society would be absorbed
into the luxurious
benefits of the State and soon forget the principled
demands of
institutionalizing democracy, and facilitating the writing down
by the
people of a framework under which they want to be
governed.
The results are what we are seeing today: those who feel
excluded are
resorting to extreme measures to reclaim the vote. The death
toll keeps
rising as neighbor turns against neighbor, and identity replaces
values in
deciding who is a friend or foe.
The primacy of
identity politics becomes a breeding ground for the
most deprived
tendencies. It fosters an identity based nationalism which
regresses
democratic values necessary for nation building.
As we have seen in
Kenya, the electoral loss/victory soon takes the
form of one identity
grouping having defeated the other and the nation
dividing along
ethno-tribal lines. Ethnic identity is now equated with
political
identity.
Is Zimbabwe the next Kenya?
A similar threat
confronts Zimbabwe, risking the negation of genuine
national debate on
democratic transformation.
Given our history, and the need to
foster a common identity in our
diversity, a political system and
Constitutional framework that allows for
this is critical.
The
incumbent regime has set the country back into the
socio-psychology of
identity in determining who can participate in national
discourse. Our white
population has been effectively emasculated from being
Zimbabwean.
Even in the most liberal of opposition spaces, they
are regarded with
suspicion and are politely censored from making public
representations.
Zimbabweans of Indian descent or those of
mixed-race have been purged
from public political participation. Amongst the
black population, it has
begun to matter whether one is Zezuru, Karanga or
Ndebele.
As if this is not enough, gender, even within these
clusters of
divisions, has been so entrenched to qualify exclusion, with our
women
compatriots having to endure structural abuse to assert the mere fact
that
they too are citizens.
Human character is secondary in the
estimation of man and women.
These identities inform people’s
perceptions of who is excluded or
included in the economic, social or
political benefit – be they in the
patronage of the State, or in civil
society and opposition or business.
The violence that is manifest
in Kenya, though based on identity, is
reflective of failures in the
country’s Constitution and institutions to be
responsive to the crises of
nation building.
Many Kenyans have doubts about the validity of the
country’s
Constitution, especially the process under which it was written.
This is of
relevance to Zimbabwe, where sadly, the Kenyan case history could
be
vengefully repeating itself.
The MDC has consistently argued
that a new Constitution must be put in
place before the elections. Yet it
seems to be doing everything to confirm
its participation in the electoral
process before this key demand has been
met.
Gabriel Chaibva,
spokesperson of one faction of the MDC, in a recent
interview with the Voice
of America was categorical about participating in
the March
elections.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson for the other faction
of the MDC,
suggested the same in his widely condemned rally speech where he
threatened
Kenyan-style protests should Mugabe do what he knows best:
manipulate the
vote.
Despite this grandstanding and
pontification about a new Constitution,
the MDC – in itself a product of the
Constitutional movement – does not seem
to place value in the importance of
a democratic, public participatory
process of Constitution
making.
The Constitution it is fighting for in the talks is a
product of ‘four
wise men’, determining the permanent fate of 12 million of
their fellow
citizens!
The Constitution they are proposing has
not been seen or shared by
Zimbabweans.
Our experience has been
a bitter one: reforms made in the dark,
excluding national dialogue are
partly the reason why we are where we are
today: a reason for us to be very
afraid of the Kenyan ‘demons’ visiting us.
But what is even more
frightening, if it is to be believed, is the
revelation by Nathaniel Manheru
a columnist for government controlled Herald
who wrote in last Saturday’s
edition that the so called ‘transition’
constitution agreed by ZANU PF and
the MDC is nothing more than the 2000
government draft that was rejected in
the referendum eight years ago.
The South African experience offers
us learning curves on the issue of
national reconstruction. Emerging from
its brutal past, as the rest of
post-colonial Africa, South Africa underwent
a process of Constitutional
building that pitched public participation at
the centre of Constitutional
development.
Public opinion and
debate would take place, with its Constitutional
Assembly, civil society and
political parties opening the nation to dialogue
with itself.
What resulted was amongst other things, an electoral and political
system
that is modestly inclusive, guaranteeing proportional representation,
and
allowing all views brought to an electoral contest and receiving
electoral
support, to find a measure of expression.
Greater devolution of
power in provinces and local municipalities has
created a system of greater
accountability and service delivery. There is
freedom of electoral contest
and democratic expression.
The result has been limited violent
contestation of election results
and a harmonious existence of political
formations and civic groups despite
their competing ideologies or
perspectives.
Those who lose an election will still salvage their
proportional
representation of the vote.
The National
Constitutional Assembly has advocated for a similar
system of Constitution
making based primarily on the principles of ‘public
participation, openness
and transparency’.
Its 2001 draft addresses some of the key issues
of proportional
representation and institutions that safe-guard democracy:
Electoral
Commission, Human Right Commission, Gender Commission
etc.
The draft also argues for a strong legislature and judiciary
and the
effective separation of powers between the varying arms of the
State.
Parliament, elected through a mixed system of constituency based and
party-proportional representation would elect the leader of government who
would account to it.
This system was drawn out of the views
gathered from ordinary
Zimbabweans, by both the NCA and the government’s own
Constitutional
Commission.
The government draft presented to
the referendum in 2000 ignored all
these views, and was wisely
rejected.
In arguing that elections should be deferred until such a
time as
there is a Constitutional and electoral framework, the NCA aims to
pre-empt
the possibility of national degeneration.
The Kenyan
scenario points to the things we can avoid and toward the
importance of
working on developing and putting in place structural systems
that ensure
barbarism and exclusion are not part of our politics.
The
democratic movement must learn that short-cuts to freedom lead to
spurious
regimes and the entrenchment of anti-democratic practices.
The MDC,
carrying with it the mantle of the nation’s hope for change,
must rethink
its options.
The current opportunism and intellectual laziness that
is becoming so
pervasive should be stopped and must give way to the
principled call for a
just and free nation.
* Tapera Kapuya is
with the National Constitutional Assembly. He
writes in his personal
capacity. He can be reached on: kapuyat@gmail.com
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
24 January
2008
Shortages of cash which had hobbled Zimbabwe's
economy for weeks were
reported to ease late this week with fewer customers
in line at banks to
withdraw money, while the Zimbabwe dollar sharply
declined against the U.S.
dollar and other currencies.
Eyewitnesses
said customer queues had disappeared from larger commercial
banks in Harare
though they remained at building societies or savings and
loan institutions.
In Bulawayo, the country's second largest city in the
west of the country,
and in Mutare on the Mozambican border, improvement was
reported though
queues remained.
Meanwhile, there appeared to be much more cash in
circulation on parallel or
informal currency markets, gauging by a large
surge in the exchange rate for
the U.S. dollar from around Z$2 million per
greenback recently to more than
$6 million. Scarcity of local currency since
late 2007 had depressed the
rate for hard currencies.
Some observers
speculated that representatives of the central bank were
purchasing foreign
exchange in parallel markets to meet government
requirements - for instance
to purchase electricity, fuel, water
purification chemicals, and other
critical items.
Harare economist John Mufukare told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri that the cash
crisis may have abated simply because many
individuals took all their money
out of the banking system recently after
withdrawal limits were
significantly raised.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 01/25/2008 06:26:31
AIR Zimbabwe has increased its
fares by 300 percent with immediate effect,
it was confirmed
Wednesday.
Last month, Air Zimbabwe increased its fares by 100
percent.
The Harare-China flight now costs Z$4 515 400 000, up from Z$1
145 400
000 -- representing a 294 percent increase.
Passengers for
the Harare–Johannesburg route who were forking out Z$155,6
million will now
have to part with Z$549, 6 million.
Locally, the Harare–Victoria Falls
flight now costs $273 million, up from
$111,9 million marking a 114
percentage increase.
Air Zimbabwe has made proposals to the government,
seeking to be allowed to
charge fares in foreign currency. The airline says
70 percent of its
outgoings are paid in foreign currency, and accepting
fares in the unstable
local currency means the airline cannot meet its
debts.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and
Communications
chaired by Zanu PF legislator Leo Mugabe (Makonde) has
supported the idea.
“The committee established that the national airline
has been facing serious
viability problems caused mainly by inadequate
resources, in particular the
mismatch between revenue and expenditure,” the
committee said in a report
seen on Tuesday.
The report adds: “The
airline has been charging fares for regional and
international routes in
local currency, whilst other airlines charge for the
same in foreign
currency.
“The committee noted the huge financial requirements for Air
Zimbabwe and
sympathises with the corporation. The committee supports the
proposal for
Air Zimbabwe to charge fares in foreign currency for regional
and
international routes.
“This is one avenue where it can strike a
balance between revenue and
expenditure. The committee also feels that this
can generate funds to
improve the standards at the airline, improve its
image and attract more
clients. The foreign currency can be used for the
procurement of spares and
other requirements.”
The Zimbabwean
Wednesday, 23 January 2008 10:07
… relatives fear for soldiers'
safety
HARARE - The fate of 30 members of the Presidential Guard is
unknown
after a laptop belonging to President Robert Mugabe was stolen from
one of
his many safe houses in Harare, we can exclusively reveal.
Serving members of the Presidential Guard, a crack unit responsible
for
providing security to the ageing dictator said the soldiers, who were
among
those providing guard duties on the day in question, had been arrested
by
members of the military intelligence and military police while their fate
was not known.
"There is a lot of panic among senior intelligence
officers because if
the laptop finds its way into the public arena, it might
expose a lot about
the goings on at State House.
Mugabe was
reportedly so furious at the loss of his beloved laptop
that homes of the
suspects and those of their friends and relatives,
including business
premises, were raided and ransacked to no avail.
A relative of one of
the suspects said family, friends and relatives
had already lost hope of
ever seeing them alive.
"The soldiers are just being blamed for
something that they did not
do. When on guard duties they have no time to be
stealing such things. It is
those who hang around the President such as his
close security details who
are so familiar with him who could have stolen
the laptop," a tearful
relative said.
Mugabe was particularly
enraged by the theft as it happened while he
was in the process of analysing
reports of the Zanu (PF) restructuring
exercise and preliminary reports of
the voter registration statistics,
sources close to the presidential
entourage revealed.
Security officers said the soldiers had been locked
up or killed as
the theft was regarded as one of the major security
breaches, which could
expose Mugabe's public and private life.
Already, the theft of the laptop has brought into the open the fact
that
Mugabe does not reside at State House or his palatial Borrowdale
mansion.
senior official in the army said Mugabe, who is paranoid
about being
stormed by British and US soldiers, had come up with elaborate
security
plans which had seen him maintain appearances of living at the
Borrowdale
mansion.
"People just don't know it but Mugabe moves
from one safe house to
another. The noisy motorcades are usually decoys,
Mugabe now uses shorter,
quieter convoys except when appearing at official
engagements. At one time,
the cat was let out of the bag when the official
motorcade arrived at the
Zanu (PF) Headquarters long after Mugabe had
arrived in one of his more
discreet convoys." - Own
correspondent
The Zimbabwean
Wednesday, 23 January
2008 10:07
STAFF REPORTER
HARARE
One by one, senior Zanu (PF) leaders are coming out to demand an end
to
Mugabe's rule before the elections scheduled for March.
The latest to
join the call is former commander of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, Gen
Vitalis Zvinavashe, who enjoys considerable support from
military
personnel.
Zvinavashe, who retired a few years ago, is a substantial
businessman
and a member of Mugabe's soviet-style politburo, Zanu (PF)'s
highest
policy-making body."When we went to war we did not fight for a
single person
but for all of us. But what the president is doing now defeats
the whole
purpose of our having gone to war," he is reported to have told
one of the
many Zimbabwean websites this week.
Caption: MDC
President Morgan Tsvangirai,
addressing party supporters in Highfield
on Sunday,
said the MDC would boycott elections if a new
constitution
was not enacted ahead of the vote. See story
P15
"By clinging to power Mugabe is betraying the essence of
the
liberation struggle. I may also want to be president one day, but if one
clings on to power for too long, how do you expect youngsters to be leaders
of tomorrow. The president has played his part and should go immediately, to
give a chance to others whom we feel have the guts to shape a good
Zimbabwe," the general is quoted as saying.
He joins other Zanu
(PF) heavies who are in revolt against Mugabe's
continued clinging to power.
There have been reports, so far un-denied, that
former army commander,
retired Gen Solomon Mujuru, another wealthy
businessman and husband of the
deputy president Joice, is backing former
finance minister Simba Makoni in
the launch of a new political party.
Other names linked to this
initiative include Ibbo Mandaza, the SAPES
Trust executive director and
former permanent secretary, Dzinashe
Machingura, the chairman of the
Zimbabwe Liberators Platform as well as
retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi,
suspended Zanu (PF) provincial spokesman for
Masvingo.
As we
reported last week, this new party, which is yet to be named and
formally
launched, appears to have attracted support from senior members of
the army,
the CIO, the police and the civil service.
When he was still commander
of the defence forces in 2002, Zvinvashe
issued a statement just before the
presidential elections in which MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai posed a massive
threat to Mugabe, saying members of
the forces would not salute as president
anyone who did not have ‘war
credentials'.
His latest statement is
expected to embolden other Zanu (PF) officials
who may so far have been
afraid to come out and declare their opposition to
Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean
Thursday,
24 January 2008 17:23
Economic Madness Returns
HARARE
Another phase of madness and further economic
destruction is looming as the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission
(NIPC) braces for yet another
onslaught on industry and commerce over
prices.
NIPC chairman, Goodwills Masimirembwa has issued
a
statement promising the "full wrath of the law on all
businesses and individuals overcharging".
The Zimbabwean has
established that teams from the police,
army, municipal authorities as
well as Zanu (PF)
activists have been recruited for a
countrywide
crackdown expected to start next week.
Masimirembwa told The Zimbabwean that most businesses
"have defied
government orders and raised prices by
more than the 600% agreed and
passed by NIPC, meaning
the law has to take its course."
He
declined to reveal how the law would take its
course, but senior
officials in the police and army
speaking on condition of anonymity
said the
recruitment of forces was almost complete. "There are
many police and army officers who have already been
confirmed and will
participate in the crackdown,
similar to the one conducted last year,"
a source
said. "NIPC wants it to be done countrywide and seems
to be under political pressure to have prices slashed
significantly."
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said, "We
(police)
are already on the ground in that exercise because
overcharging is unlawful."
The Zanu (PF) regime seems to forget
quickly, or is so
desperate to the extent it chooses to repeat
an
exercise that brought a lot of mayhem, shortages and
economic decline last year. The crackdown on industry
and commerce over
prices last year forced many
closures whilst thousands lost their jobs
as the whole
nation grappled with unprecedented shortages of
all
commodities.
Sustained hyperinflation has seen prices
consistently
rising beyond the 600% ceiling imposed by the NIPC
at
the beginning of this month. Most goods and services
have
increased in prices by more than 1000% over the
past month.
Zimbabwean Christmas
in Retrospect
Sokwanele Article: 24 January 2008
A month after Christmas it is instructive to look back and enquire how Zimbabweans celebrated – if that is the right word – this traditionally festive season. Christmas in retrospect if you like, through the eyes of a typical Zimbabwean family.
Our collective memory tends to be rather short but in this case we need go back no more than ten years to appreciate what radical changes have come about in the way this event is marked in Zimbabwe. In this short space most of us we have moved from a joyous season of family reunions, music, laughter and good times, to the most dismal of occasions, surrounded by hunger, deprivation and plain, downright misery. And this is not the result of some gradual cultural shift or loss of spiritual vitality, but rather of a sudden and brutal invasion of our way of life brought about by outside forces – to wit the collapse of the economy and unprecedented increase of violence and corruption under ZANU PF misrule.
Just ten short years ago Christmas was something that we all looked forward to eagerly. All those who could – and that was most of the population – arranged a visit to kumusha (the Ndebele word is ekhaya) the rural family home. An opportunity to spend time with parents and other relatives, it was culturally obligatory for all who had the means to make the journey, and no hardship at that. Indeed it was a time of great joy – family reunions, loud music, much laughter and good times for all. Wage earners from towns and cities gladly provided the commodities expected of them – rice (amatshakada), chickens and bottled beers, with sweets, cakes and coca cola for the children. Their rural cousins would slaughter a goat to be eaten with its delicious entrails and sadza or sadza re mapfunde (ground millet). They might also provide traditional beer, utshwala (umqhombothi) o r amahewu – a tasty drink brewed with a mixture of sadza, sugar and crushed millet.
A glorious mixture of food was set out for the assembled family groups, combining the commercially produced favourites such as mayonnaise salad, potato crisps, sweets and popcorn with the traditional delicacies – edible insects like ishwa (inhlwa) and tsambarafuta (amahhlabusi) and wild fruits such as mazhanje and nengeni. Unless it was braai meat cooked by the men for themselves, the meals were prepared by the women. If the family was blessed with a daughter-in-law (umakoti) she would be the one responsible. If several omakoti, they would share the task. Christmas was traditionally a time of plenty, providing rare treats in the culinary line, especially for rural folk accustomed to a simple and more limited diet.
Moreover celebrating Christmas in the rural areas brought alive the deep cultural sense of ubuntu – inadequately translated, “togetherness”. In urban areas the trend is towards separateness and individualism. Rural folk on the other hand gladly pool resources to make Christmas a success. Thus a family with access to electricity or solar energy will most likely offer their home as a venue, enabling a radio or television to be used to provide the background music.
The children would have a good time too, spoilt with new clothes provided by grandparents or more wealthy relatives. The normally strict rules of social intercourse were relaxed to allow plenty of fun for all.
Traditionally the festive mood would be sustained into the new year, often with the slaughter of another goat on new year’s eve and, for a big family, at least five chickens. With few exceptions there was enough for all, and that included any relatives or friends who might drop in on the celebrations.
Ten years ago inflation stood at a modest level of about 10 per cent, and the thirteenth cheque – the annual Christmas bonus – had real value. Workers had sufficient disposable income to afford the occasional spending splurge and this enhanced the “feel good” factor of the Christmas season. Added to which there were no shortages of basic commodities in the shops and fuel was both available and affordable. The “January disease”, when Christmas revellers returned to the harsh reality of accumulated debt and unpaid bills, was a factor but not such as to spoil the fun or cause long-term damage.
The annual visit to kumusha represented a spiritual homecoming for all. There is no doubt that urban life offers a standard of living to many and opportunities that are simply not available in the rural setting. Nevertheless it lacks the warm, romantic and traditional ambience of the rural home. For the simple pleasures of drinking natural, untreated, water and eating wild fruit, of relaxing in rural serenity and of that vital sense of togetherness, there is no alternative to kumusha.
It is a matter of returning, once in a while, to one’s roots and thereby recovering one’s very identity and sense of well-being.
And if the traditional Christmas meant all that, what can be said of Christmas 2007 in Zimbabwe?
It is a world apart from what it used to be at its traditional best, and nothing better illustrates the catastrophic decline the nation has experienced over the last ten years than a comparison between Christmas then and now.
To begin with, families have been torn apart under the impact of the economic melt-down. At a conservative estimate 3 million Zimbabweans or a quarter of the population are now living outside the country. When 85 per cent of the workforce is unemployed and 75 per cent of those Zimbabweans with a job are working outside the country, it has to have a profound impact upon every level of society and every aspect of life. Considering also that it is normally one or both parents who leave the country to earn an income to support the family and the children who are left behind, it comes as no surprise to learn how gravely family life has been disrupted by the crisis.
Parents and relatives, many of whom feel isolated and miserable in their life in exile, will go to great lengths to be reunited with their loved ones at Christmas but this is not always possible. Those who have to spend the season separated from their families will normally try to make contact by phone, but even this may not be possible given the remote location of many rural families and the general state of disrepair and overload of Zimbabwe’s crumbling communication systems.
So the diaspora – the biggest proportional mass movement of a population in peacetime ever in modern history - has had a catastrophic impact on Zimbabwe’s families. Our families are divided, physically, as never before, with incalculable long-term consequences.
In short Christmas 2007 revealed a nation in a state of severe dislocation, with family life one of the worst casualties. The diaspora effect was compounded by food, fuel and cash shortages, and by astronomic increases in the cost of transport, making family reunions relatively rare across the country. Instead many found themselves spending days in bank queues to access the small amounts of money they were permitted to withdraw, while others were queuing to purchase any of the few remaining basic commodities on sale.
It used to be said that Zimbabweans would always “make a plan” to overcome any contingency. But what could the average teacher on a salary of $ 15 million (a month) or nurse on a salary of $ 20 million or general labourer with an income of $ 10 million, do when faced with transport costs of $ 18 million (one way) Harare to Bulawayo, or $ 25 million between Bulawayo and Gokwe on a commuter omnibus ?
To add to the general misery a number of the companies operating long distance buses were unable to source the fuel they required. Noczim was releasing fuel to designated retail points on different days – thus, on Sunday Bulawayo-bound buses were refuelling in Harare and on Monday, Harare-bound buses. As a result bus timetables became even more erratic than normal. Scores of commuters literally camped out at Bulawayo’s railway station and other terminuses, waiting - often in vain - for the next train or bus.
Moreover with inflation running at something like 100,000 per cent, the fare for the return journey, after as little as a week’s break, could well push prices even further beyond the reach of many commuters. To risk all then in order to travel back to one’s kumusha could very well leave one stranded out of town, with no money or food.
With acres of empty shelves in the supermarkets and most basic commodities no longer available, there was little or nothing anyone could set aside for Christmas festivities. And what festivities anyway, one might ask, with power and water outages endemic across the country and with four out of five Zimbabweans now living below the breadline and 45 per cent of the population malnourished? Indeed Zimbabweans had little to celebrate this year.
One of the cruel ironies of the present crisis is that the largest source of foreign exchange now supporting the corrupt Mugabe regime, and thereby prolonging the misery of all, is the aggregate of financial contributions remitted to Zimbabwe by the diaspora to support their desperate families. During the Christmas holidays for example when tens of thousands of injiva (Zimbabweans living and working either legally or illegally) in South Africa, return to their home country, the volume of the South African currency (the Rand) they bring into the country is so huge that the black market value of the Rand dips significantly.
And be assured of one thing - whichever way the black market moves, it is the ZANU PF elite, including those working in senior positions in the Reserve Bank, who stand to gain most. They operate through currency brokers who are mostly members of the ostensibly religious sect, the Vapositori. The brokers peg a street exchange value for whatever foreign currency is in circulation and then the political heavyweights who control their activities peg a higher premium transfer exchange rate. The difference between the street value and the premium transfer rate is enough to ensure that the money barons are guaranteed a life of affluence beyond the wildest dreams of the average Zimbabwean. So those driven out of Zimbabwe by the criminal mismanagement of the economy find themselves inadvertently propping up those responsible for these insane policies.
Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace, for example, withdrew USD 100,000 of scarce foreign currency from the nation’s Reserve Bank to finance their lavish three-week holiday and shopping spree in Asia early in the new year. According to The Sunday Independent (SA) they bought the USD 100,000 from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) at the low official rate of Z$ 30,000 to one US dollar before Christmas. The black market rate which is a far more accurate indicator of the Zimbabwe dollar’s real value was at least 60 times higher, prompting a comment from an inside source at RBZ: “You might as well just say he took the money out of the RBZ for free.” So we may take it that the Mugabes’ and their privileged entourage had a very good Christmas, thank you – and all at the expense of Zimbabwe’s long suffering people, most of whom could barely scratch one meal together.
What of those living in exile who could not return to spend Christmas with loved ones? After sending off whatever remittances they can afford to support their families back home, many spent time together with other Zimbabweans in exile, having a drink or sharing a meal. Faced with a growing xenophobia by the “natives” of their countries of adoption (particularly in parts of South Africa), Zimbabweans often tend to congregate in ethnic groups for mutual support and security. Some take on casual work which the locals do not favour, earning themselves handsome overtime wages through the festive season. It is a sort of life but hardly a life to be envied, and most of those caught up in it are sustained only by the hope that one day the ruinous tyranny in Zimbabwe will end and they will be able to return to their true home.
As miserable as Christmas 2007 was for most Zimbabweans, a worse thought for many was whether they would have any job to return to in the new year. Or for the beleaguered business community, whether they would still have a viable business to run. And for all Zimbabweans there now looms the dismal prospect in just a few months time of multiple national elections which will provide – if ZANU PF has its way - nothing more than a farcical endorsement of the status quo.
How much has changed in Zimbabwe in the course of just a few short years. The way Christmas is marked (one cannot say “celebrated”) provides an indication of just how much has been lost, in the way of family cohesion, traditional values and even a sense of national identity. It is as if the nation has been cut loose from its spiritual and moral moorings. Indeed if the ruling party – or as one commentator more accurately calls it, the ruining party – had deliberately set out to cause as much suffering and inflict as much misery on as many Zimbabweans as possible, they could hardly have improved upon the result. The ruining party have destroyed the economy and reduced the majority of citizens to a level of grinding poverty. Theirs has been an all-out assault on the nation’s once-revered cultural, spiritual and moral values. They have all but destroyed family life and created a society driven by fear, greed, corruption and violence.
Christmas 2007 was not a happy time for Zimbabwe’s much abused citizens. And what lies ahead for us all for Christmas 2008 and the years beyond that? Is it conceivable that we will allow Robert Mugabe and his ruining party to continue the rape and pillage of this once-beautiful land? Or are we now sufficiently angry – and determined – to stop the rot?
May the next Christmas be a better one!
The best Christmas present of all for the nation in 2008 would be a radically new government, led by men and women of real integrity, whose ambition is to serve and who have a heart for all Zimbabweans.
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January 2008 (PlusNews) JOHANNESBURG, Linda
Mbiko*, a 36-year-old widow,
crossed the border from Zimbabwe into South
Africa, hidden in the back of a
truck. She was fleeing poverty and a public
health system that had failed to
help her HIV-positive daughter. In
Johannesburg, she believed she could earn
enough money to send some home and
find treatment for herself and her child,
but without documentation she
found the city a hostile place.
“After my husband passed away, I had no
one to rely on, I had no food. When
he was working, that little money was
something to us. I was staying in
rural areas and the life there was not
easy; I had two kids to take care of
and I did not even have parents.
Sometimes, I had to sleep without food
because I had no money and even if I
had a little money, it was not easy to
get food because there was no food in
the shops.
Otherwise I was sick all the time and my child was ill as well,
but I was
not sure what it was and it was difficult because if you do not
have money,
you are not going to get anything. Only those people who have a
lot of money
get treatment.
“In the clinic, they decided to test my
child and she was positive. I was
afraid I was as well, but I did not want
to believe it. There was no
treatment so I used to get medicine from a tree,
which we call Muringa, the
leaves of this tree - if you make it into powder
and put it in porridge
people say it helps. That was what we were depending
on.
“When I came to South Africa, I was hoping to get a job and take care
of my
children, especially this one who is sick of the deadly disease. I was
also
hoping to find something which was going to make me last longer because
I
was sick. I was thinking, I’ll go to Johannesburg, because it is a place
of
gold. But it is not easy to get that gold even if you dig and dig you
will
not get it.
“It was different from what I was expecting. I was
hoping for a job, a
better life, better accommodation, but when I came here
it was not easy. I
had to spend most of my time in the park. You stay in the
park because you
have nowhere to go and sleep.
“One day I met a man
who offered to help me, but he used me for sex at the
end of the day.
Sometimes he locked me in his room, so I stayed for a week
and then I
escaped and was back on the streets.
“I got sick and I went to the clinic
in Braamfontein [an area in
Johannesburg’s inner city] to be tested. I had
to wait for two weeks to get
the results and I did not get counselling. The
nurse who gave me the results
told me, ‘Here are your results; you are HIV
positive, you can go and die.
You do not have papers, we can not help
you.’
“Some other patients told me about a shelter and at the shelter I
heard
about the support group. They referred me to Nazareth House [a
Catholic
mission in Johannesburg’s inner-city] where I got counselling and
ARVs
(antiretrovirals) and they never asked about papers.
“I’m still
staying at the shelter, still not working. I don’t have much
contact with my
family because they live in rural areas; I don’t know how
they’re
surviving.
“The support group has helped a lot, just to unload and give
each other
advice. Most are from Zimbabwe and have similar
experiences.”
ks
*Not her real name
[ENDS]
[The above testimony is provided by IRIN, a humanitarian news service,
but
may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.]
VOA
By Sithandekile Mhlanga
Washington
24
January 2008
In the latest flood disaster to hit
Zimbabwe, incessant rainfall led to the
inundation of parts of Tsholotsho
District in Matabeleland North late this
week, sources said.
No
fatalities were reported, but floods destroyed mud huts, livestock and
crops. Local sources said the Harare government has deployed military units
to rescue villagers.
Affected areas included Mhlahlo, Somanje,
Matshudula, Mhlabangubo, Masekesa,
Malanda and Dinyane.
Floods hit
other parts of Mashonaland and northeastern Muzarabani last
month, leaving
some 22 people dead and thousands more homeless.
Correspondent Thabang
Mathebula of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe was in
Tsholotsho and described the
impact to reporter Sithandekile Mhlanga.
The International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has
sent in a team to help flood
victims, according to Regional Disaster
Management Coordinator Farrid
Abdulkadir, who said floods in Zimbabwe are
generally in
decline.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
24 January
2008
Zimbabwe's supreme court on has dismissed a
constitutional appeal by a white
farmer seeking relief from impending
eviction from his farm, in doing so
appearing to ignore a recent ruling from
a tribunal of the Southern African
Development Community.
Chegutu
farmer Mike Campbell was challenging a constitutional amendment that
nationalized all farmland and barred farmers from appealing seizures in
court.
The decision came despite a ruling by a Southern African
Development
Community tribunal which barred the Harare government from
evicting Campbell
until a further hearing in the matter by the regional
tribunal this March.
Chief Executive Officer John Worsely-Worswick of
Justice for Agriculture
told reporter Patience Rusere of VOa's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that a senior
ZANU-PF official says he has an offer letter to take
over the farm, again
despite the SADC tribunal ruling.
Meanwhile,
Registrar Justice Charles Mkandawiri of the SADC tribunal said
that if the
Harare government does not comply with the ruling the tribunal
handed down,
it will refer the matter to the highest level of the regional
organization.