Zim Online
Thu 26 January 2006
HARARE - Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono has
disclosed that the country's top
military commander fears that worsening
hunger could ignite a popular revolt
against President Robert Mugabe's
government.
Gono, a top ally
of Mugabe, made the startling revelation when he
presented his monetary
policy review statement for the last quarter of 2005
on Tuesday this
week.
In a statement broadcast live to the nation on state
television, Gono
said Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General
Constantine Chiwenga
had approached him and told him to adequately fund food
production this
farming season because the military did not want to be asked
to "turn our
guns on hungry Zimbabweans" protesting for food.
"To quote the wisdom of General C Chiwenga, Commander of the Defence
Forces,
a hungry man is an angry man, and as Zimbabweans, we must pull
together to
ensure full productivity in agriculture so that hunger is alien
to every
Zimbabwean," Gono said.
Departing from the prepared
text, the RBZ chief added: "General
Chiwenga told me: make sure agriculture
is revived and make food available
so we (soldiers) will not be forced to
turn our guns on hungry Zimbabweans."
Chiwenga is the highest
military commander of the ZDF, which brings
together Zimbabwe's air force
and army. He reports to Mugabe, who as
President is Commander-in-Chief of
the ZDF. Gono, who did not say when he
spoke to Chiwenga, also did not say
whether the ZDF commander believed a
hunger-induced uprising was
imminent.
But the RBZ boss' disclosure is the first time that a top
official of
the government has ever publicly revealed growing fear within
the ruling
elite that severe food shortages and worsening economic hardships
could
trigger a popular uprising by Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is
grappling an acute food crisis with a quarter of the
country's 12 million
people needing urgent food aid between now and the next
harvest around April
or they will starve.
The food shortage has been worsened by a
severe economic crisis
gripping the southern African nation since 2000 and
which has spawned
shortages of fuel, essential medicines and just about
every other basic
survival commodity because there is no hard cash to pay
foreign suppliers.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's problems on repression
and wrong policies by
Mugabe especially his farm seizure programme that
destabilised the
agricultural sector, knocking food production by about 60
percent. Mugabe
denies the charges.
And political analysts see
no possibility of a mass revolt against
Mugabe's government in the near
future, saying the veteran President still
enjoys solid support among
security commanders who in the past have acted
swiftly to crush any signs of
mass action. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 26
January 2006
HARARE - Anti-corruption watchdogs have applauded
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono for speaking out against
corruption but
said railing against corruption would achieve little unless
the government
gathered the will and courage to root out dishonest conduct
among top
officials.
In a joint statement, the Zimbabwe
chapters of Transparency
International Zimbabwe (ITZ) and the Africa
Parliament Network Against
Corruption (APNAC) said the government should now
"walk the talk" by
investigating several cases of corruption involving high
government
officials that they said had been swept under the
ground.
"We welcome Gono's remarks on the fight against corruption
but we are
deeply concerned that although there has been much talk about
nabbing
corrupt high-ranking officials, there is very little to show on the
ground
regarding their arrest and prosecutions of the said culprits," the
two
organisations said.
The ITZ and APNC criticised the
government's Anti-Corruption
Commission which they said had remained silent
on corruption since being
established in September 2005 despite a backlog of
unresolved cases some
dating as far back as 1987.
"We also note
with concern that since the appointment of the
Commissioners in September
2005, the Anti-Corruption Commission, has
remained silent leaving the public
with great anxiety and anticipation about
the unresolved cases dating to as
far as 1987 and other emerging cases of
corruption," they said.
Presenting his monetary policy review statement for the last quarter
of
2005, Gono said corruption was on the rise at all levels of society,
warning
that efforts to revive Zimbabwe's comatose economy would fail if
pilferage
of national resource and corrupt conduct among those in positions
of power
and influence did not stop.
Citing the gold and farming sectors as
examples, Gono said Zimbabwe
over the last year alone lost US$160 million
worth of gold through smuggling
by traders, while farmers allocated scarce
fuel for farm production had
instead diverted the commodity to the illegal
black-market where returns are
higher and immediate.
Gono also
criticised blacks allocated farms seized by the government
from whites for
underutilising the land while some were still hanging on to
more than one
farm in violation of government policy that no one should have
two or more
farms.
But the anti-corruption organisations said it was time Gono
named and
shamed the culprits and added that the government should prosecute
those
suspected of corrupt activity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu
26 January 2006
HARARE - Students at Zimbabwean state universities
and other tertiary
institutions say they will next month stage
demonstrations to protest
against low stipends and falling standards at
their institutions.
University of Zimbabwe Students Representative
Council (SRC) secretary
general Mfundo Mlilo yesterday told ZimOnline that a
"national co-ordinating
committee" had been set up to organise the protests
by students at the
various colleges across the country.
"A
number of student leaders have been expelled in the past few years
in clear
cases of victimisation. We have also been deprived of our right to
demonstrate," said Mlilo.
"Students have other grievances such
as low payouts and shortage of
accommodation," he said.
President Robert Mugabe's government has in the past violently put
down
demonstrations by students while several student leaders have been
expelled
from institutions of higher learning for demonstrating against the
government.
Protests by university students over pay-outs and
deteriorating
standards are routine in Zimbabwe which is battling a severe
six-year old
economic recession.
Resident students get Z$1
million while non-resident students take
home Z$3 million per six-week
semester. But the students say the money is
too little in Zimbabwe's
hyper-inflationary environment.
Universities in Zimbabwe are
scheduled to open in the second week of
February. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 26 January 2006
HARARE - A five-member International
Monetary Fund team on Wednesday met
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Herbert
Murerwa and central bank governor Gideon
Gono to assess Zimbabwe's efforts
at economic recovery.
The meeting comes a day after Gono blamed the
country's economic problems on
targeted sanctions imposed by the
West.
"We met with the IMF team but we have not discussed much," said
Andrew
Bvumbe, secretary for the ministry of economic development who was
part of
the Zimbabwe delegation.
The IMF team is in the country to assess
Zimbabwe's progress four months
after the Fund spared the axe on Zimbabwe
for non-payment of debt. Zimbabwe
has since August made further payments to
the IMF to significantly reduce
its debt.
Gono has since promised to
clear Zimbabwe's debt to the IMF by February 28
this year.
The IMF team
is also scheduled to meet with business and labour leaders in
the country
during their six day visit which began on Tuesday. Its
assessments during
the meetings will be used at the Fund's executive board
meeting on March 8
which will decide Zimbabwe's fate.
Zimbabwe is in its sixth year of a
bitter economic crisis blamed on
President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement of
the economy. But Mugabe denies
ruining the country blaming the crisis on
sabotage by the West for seizing
large tracts of commercial farmland for
redistribution to landless blacks
six years ago.
On Tuesday, during
his monetary policy review statement, Gono said Zimbabwe's
problems were as
a result of targeted sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his
top lieutenants by
Western governments.
The United States, Britain and other major European
countries imposed the
sanctions on Mugabe in 2002 after they accused the
veteran Zimbabwean leader
of human rights abuses and failing to uphold
democracy.
Mugabe denies the charges insisting they are trumped up by the
main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and human rights groups
to
tarnish his image. - ZimOnline
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
COLUMN
January 25, 2006
Posted to the web January
25, 2006
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
AN International Monetary
Fund (IMF) fact-finding mission arrived in
Zimbabwe yesterday, in time to
see central bank governor Gideon Gono give
his first-quarter monetary policy
statement. Contrary to official claims
that this year will see changes for
the better, 2006 has started just as
2005 ended: on a terrible note.
Zimbabwe is still groaning under the weight
of economic crisis and rampant
authoritarianism.
The country, which President Robert Mugabe has ruled
for 25 years, is run by
a government that has lost legitimacy. The predatory
and parasitic elite at
the helm of the Zimbabwean state are now increasingly
relying on repressive
apparatuses, rather than representative institutions,
as instruments to
perpetuate their rule.
Mugabe's centralisation of
institutions and the personalisation of power
remains a malady in local
politics. Nothing has changed.
His regime's trademarks -- such as the use
of the state to serve narrow,
elite interests; transgression of human
rights; the assault on the
judiciary; the breakdown of rule of law;
political arrests and detentions;
the crackdown on private media, which saw
several journalists arrested in
the past month alone; and the deployment of
the securocrats for predatory
self-serving activities -- are still
evident.
Democracy, in its basic, procedural form -- which includes free
and fair
elections, as well as a strengthening of state and civil society
institutions to represent the collective will of the people -- is not taking
root in Zimbabwe. Instead, politics and the political economy are being
monopolised by a discredited elite that is hanging on to power by its
fingernails, and with no legitimate platform to stand on.
While the
superstructure is collapsing, the economic base has crumbled.
A casual
glance at the situation reveals that the economic indicators are
grim and
worsening. The IMF team will no doubt be alarmed by this. The IMF
recommendations -- especially on economic deregulation to increase the role
of market forces in the economy; and reform of public enterprises, the
fiscal sector, agriculture and governance -- have largely been ignored. Only
piecemeal reforms have been made -- lifting selected price controls, and
relaxing the exchange rate. Structural distortions and administrative
controls are still embedded in the economy.
On the political front,
the crisis of governance spawned by misrule has
worsened. Mugabe's
Jacobinism still holds sway and, as a result, the
democratic space is
shrinking instead of opening.
But there is a further problem. The main
political parties -- the ruling
Zanu (PF) and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) -- are
both in turmoil. The stalled dialogue between
Zanu (PF) and the MDC to break
the political impasse caused by disputed
elections has all but disappeared.
Zanu (PF) is reeling from a fierce
internal power struggle over who will
succeed Mugabe, while the MDC is
falling apart -- also as a result of
infighting. This dire situation has
left Zimbabwe locked in a party
political crisis.
Mugabe's succession
problem has become intertwined with the dynamics of
national politics. It is
now damaging party and state institutions. What
makes matters worse is that
Mugabe -- instead of accepting, for the sake of
the country that he pretends
to love so much, that his time as president is
now up -- is digging in. In
the process he is dragging the whole country
with him.
Zimbabwe
illustrates the difficulties countries face when making the
transition from
a dictatorship to a democracy in societies with weak
institutions and where
personalised rule has been firmly entrenched.
The prevailing touch-and-go
political situation in Zimbabwe makes it very
difficult for the economy to
recover. Investor confidence will remain at its
low ebb until a holistic
solution -- which encompasses the political and
economic spheres -- can be
found to sort out the crisis.
Perhaps the expected visit to Harare by
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan in March might set in motion an
international process that may
lead to settlement of these
questions.
SA's President Thabo Mbeki might want to use that opportunity
to renew his
efforts to resolve the situation in Zimbabwe, which is a dead
weight on the
region.
business.iafrica.com
Transcript
WORLD AT SIX, JANUARY 24
Zimbabwe's currency is once again in
freefall, Professor Tony Hawkins of the
University of Harare explains
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's comments
in the context of the IMF team
are visiting the country, and how much clout
he has.
Chris
Gibbons:
The Zimbabwean currency is once again in freefall. They are pegging
inflation at 800 percent. I wondered if Gideon Gono was waving some kind of
economic/political olive branch towards the west.
Let's get an
opinion from Professor Tony Hawkins, the University of Harare
Graduate
School of Management, joining us from the Zimbabwean capital.
Professor
Hawkins, good evening to you and welcome. What do make of these
comments by
your central bank governor?
Tony Hawkins:
Well, I think that they need
to be put into some sort of context, in the
sense that there is an IMF team
here, which arrived today. And clearly, the
message he wanted that team to
take back was that he, if not the rest of the
government, was keen on
improving ties with the international institutions.
Now, with President
Mugabe saying not too long ago that the IMF can go to
hell, I'm not sure how
seriously these statements are taken.
Chris Gibbons:
Let me put the
question to you slightly differently. Who carries the most
weight: Gideon
Gono or Robert Mugabe?
Tony Hawkins:
I think Robert Mugabe, by quite a
long way. I think Mr Gono, you know, he's
made a number of impassioned
pleas. He had one last week about the
parastatals losing trillions of
dollars, and him writing to the president
about it and saying we've got to
do something about this.
He has repeatedly said, and did again this
afternoon, in the statement you
are referring to, that we must stop evicting
productive farmers, and so on.
He's announced a new plan, which the
government has agreed, that any farmer
who has borrowed from the central
bank's special facilities should be given
special protection.
Again,
when it comes to what actually happens on the ground, I'm afraid
there's a
huge gap between intent and reality.
Chris Gibbons:
He really has the
most unholy mess to deal with, looking at inflation
figures, looking at the
currency figures, looking at the attempts to limit
those currency movements.
It's not a job I'd like to have at the moment.
Tony Hawkins:
No, I
think not. I think Mr Gono quite enjoys it, ironically. But I do think
it is
a mess, and he is right in saying that we have to get the
international
community back in play. But I doubt that is feasible as long
as you have got
the people running the government in play. It's a question
of what gives
first. I think that's the answer.
Chris Gibbons:
On the line to us
from the University of Harare Graduate School of
Management, Professor Tony
Hawkins, we appreciate your time here on the
World at Six.
IOL
Basildon
Peta
January 25 2006 at 08:08AM
Zimbabwean civic
rights leaders are seething over the African Union's
(AU) decision to let
President Robert Mugabe off the hook again by ignoring
a report by its human
rights arm on escalating rights abuses in the troubled
country.
They had expected the report to be tabled for discussion and adoption
at the
AU leaders' summit underway in Sudan.
The leaders said the decision
to skirt the Zimbabwean issue and other
worrying human rights abuses on the
continent proved that the AU system was
not working for
Africans.
"Africans have an enormous responsibility to make the AU
work," said
Arnold Tsunga of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which
made
submissions to the the African Commission on Human and People's Rights
on
rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Last month, the commission
adopted a report taking the government to
task over abuses. National
Constitutional Assembly chairperson Lovemore
Madhuku said: "African leaders
will always find an excuse to avoid
confronting Mugabe."
He
believed many Africans would be angered by the continued
unwillingness of
African leaders to deal with human rights issues.
"The fact that
they are meeting in Sudan in the first place shows
their disdain for human
rights," said Madhuku.
"The fact that they are passing the AU
chairmanship to a coup leader
in Congo makes them (African leaders)
laughable."
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
was quoted by
Beeld newspaper as saying the issue was not tabled because
Zimbabwe and
other African countries facing similar reports had not had
adequate time to
respond to the allegations.
This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on January
25,
2006
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 25
Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono used his
quarterly monetary policy statement to rebuke parallel market
traders in
fuel and other essential goods, but delivered little by way of
concrete
steps to reverse the country's ongoing economic meltdown, says an
economist.
A recurring theme in Gono's statement was the need to
curtail corruption in
both the public and private sectors.
"If, as a
nation, we do not resolutely stamp out growing corruption,
especially among
us people in positions of authority and influence ... we
will soon discover,
too late, that policy formulations, implementation,
monitoring and decisions
have been based on self-interest, racial overtones,
regional and tribal
considerations, at the expense of national good," Gono
warned.
"Economic opportunism is now at the heart of everything we
seem to be doing
day in, day out, and this cancer needs to be stopped as we
open a new
chapter in a new year full of new prospects," he
noted.
Economist Dennis Nikisi said it was pointless to rail against
corruption
without addressing the environment in which corrupt practices
flourished.
"Without a consistent and cogent policy in regard to securing
foreign
currency we are shooting in the dark. We were joking this morning
that the
Reserve Bank governor should now [become] a preacher - the
[monetary policy]
statement was not economic policy but merely addressed
issues that have to
do with morality," he said.
The government's
attempts to control the exchange rate, and the resultant
critical fuel and
foreign currency shortages, created opportunities for
people to "engage in
arbitrage".
"For example, a new farmer will take a whole [growing] season
to earn money,
but he can buy fuel [at a subsidised rate] and sell it on at
a profit almost
immediately," Nikisi pointed out.
Gono admitted that
Zimbabwe was the only country in the world experiencing
hyperinflation, and
said curtailing money supply growth, applying a tight
interest rate policy
and reinforcing the interbank foreign exchange market
were
priorities.
Nikisi predicted that inflation would continue to climb, as
the cost of
money was rising due to the increased printing of currency to
support fuel
imports and the ailing agricultural sector. "This translates
into higher
costs of production and companies will have to increase the
prices of
goods." It was difficult to imagine inflation staying below 600
percent this
year, he concluded.
IOL
January 25 2006 at
04:35PM
Harare - Human rights campaigners accused Zimbabwe
authorities
Wednesday of using hostage tactics in the pursuit of government
critics
after two employees of a prominent lawyer were detained for
allegedly
obstructing a police investigation into his
activities.
Arnold Tsunga's driver and gardener were accused of
trying to prevent
plainclothes police officers from entering his Harare home
Saturday. They
were released without charge Tuesday when Tsunga presented
himself to
police, said his attorney, Beatrice Mtetwa.
This
represents "a disturbing new tactic in which innocent individuals
are being
detained in order to unlawfully secure the presence of human
rights
defenders who have been continually harassed by state authorities or
individuals acting on their instructions," Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
said in statement.
Police insist the arrests were
justified, accusing Tsunga's employees
of giving him time to escape. The
lawyers' group, which Tsunga heads, says
he was out shopping at the
time.
Tsunga is one of six trustees of an independent broadcast
studio who
were sought by police for allegedly breaching the country's
stringent media
laws. All were charged in court on Tuesday with illegally
operating a
broadcast station.
President Robert Mugabe's
government has sought to crack down on his
critics as it confronts the worst
economic and political crisis since
independence from Britain in
1980.
No licenses have been issued for private broadcasters in
Zimbabwe,
where the government controls the sole authorised radio and
television
station. But at least three private radio stations beam programs
into the
country using long range transmitters.
Tsunga's
Dutch-funded Voice of the People studio produces community
and political
programs broadcast into Zimbabwe from shortwave transmitters
placed outside
the country.
Police arrested three staff members on December 15 and
held them over
the weekend until their director, John Masuku, and trustee
chairman, David
Masunda, reported to police on December 19.
Masunda was among the trustees charged Tuesday, while Masuku also
faces a
charge of operating without a broadcast license. The trustees' next
court
appearance is scheduled February 10.
In August 2002, the Voice of
the People offices were destroyed in a
nighttime bombing. No arrests were
made in connection with the attack. -
Sapa-AP
From Associated Press, 24 January
By Angus Shaw
Harare - Zimbabwe is introducing a new
range of bills that will more than
double the value of the largest bank note
to help reduce the piles of money
needed in routine cash transactions in the
stricken economy, the central
bank announced Tuesday. Gideon Gono, governor
of the Reserve Bank, said a
50,000 Zimbabwe dollar bill, worth 52 US cents
(43 euro cents), will be
released Feb. 1, with a whole new range of bills to
follow later in the
year. The biggest note currently in circulation is for
20,000 Zimbabwe
dollars, worth 20 US cents (16 euro cents). With inflation
running at 586
percent, that note buys only half a loaf of bread and is no
longer
sufficient for a local daily newspaper. Gono did not provide
additional
details about the new bills in a review of fiscal policy
broadcast on state
television.
Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed
since the government began seizing
thousands of white-owned commercial farms
for redistribution to blacks in
2000. Years of drought have compounded the
country's difficulties. Inflation
is soaring and the value of the currency
plummeting. Stores, restaurants and
other businesses have frequently
appealed for notes of up to 500,000
Zimbabwe dollars or one million Zimbabwe
dollars to reduce the bagfuls of
notes needed for routine transactions.
Shoppers carrying bundles of currency
bound with elastic bands, known as
"bricks," that do not fit in purses or
pocket books, are a common sight.
There are no coins in circulation. Gono
said the central bank was taking
steps to curb the depreciation of the
Zimbabwe dollar by linking it to the
volume of currency traded daily with a
2 percent cap. In October, the
central bank abandoned a fixed exchange rate
of 26,000 Zimbabwe dollars to
the U.S. dollar, allowing the rate to fall to
96,000 last week, a rapid
fourfold devaluation that spurred inflation. Gono
warned inflation was
expected to peak at between 700 percent and 800 percent
in March and urged
the nation "not to panic."
He said the only cure for hyperinflation
was greater productivity and the
eradication of rampant corruption. He also
blamed ill-disciplined government
spending, profiteering and inefficiency in
public utilities, which pushed up
taxes and municipal charges. Gono urged
authorities to crack down on
lawlessness on farms, which has disrupted
production, and said Israeli
experts had been hired to investigate smuggling
of minerals, including gold,
one of the nation's main foreign currency
earners. The central bank also
plans to appoint a body to investigate
"corporate governance" that will
include retired executives, retired Judge
George Smith and David Phiri, a
former governor of the central bank of
neighboring Zambia. "There is rampant
dishonesty in the economy ... This
cancer needs to be stopped now," Gono
said.
SABC
January
25, 2006, 11:30
At least 12 crocodiles have starved to death on a farm in
Serui, Zimbabwe,
while another 258 are close to dying, that country's Herald
newspaper
reported today. It said the reptiles had been going without food
since
November last year.
Some of the four-year-old crocodiles, which
were kept in four dry ponds,
showed signs of serious skin damage because of
extended exposure to the sun.
Malham Farm was allocated to Karikoga
Kaseke, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority
chief executive officer on November 3
last year. He confirmed this
yesterday, but said he could not move in
without an official offer letter.
"I was shown the farm early in December
but I have not received an offer
letter yet. I had placed some guards there
but later withdrew their
services."
Surviving crocodiles
rescued
Officials from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and
Zimbabwe
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA)
rescued
the surviving crocodiles yesterday. They were taken them for feeding
and
treatment at Pangula Farm near Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
Workers
at the farm said the crocodiles' last meal was a baby chicken.
Jimmy
Zuze, the ZNSPCA regional inspector said his organisation became aware
of
the matter after a worker called to say the reptiles were dying of
hunger.
After his attempts to meet Kaseke proved futile, he wrote him
a letter.
"Nothing came out of the warning letter until we informed Parks
and Wildlife
Management Authority about the issue."
Edward Mbewe, the
Parks spokesperson, said the authority was checking land
records to
establish who actually owned the farm so that the Parks and
Wildlife
Management Act could be invoked. - Sapa
The East African
(Nairobi)
January 25, 2006
Posted to the web January 25,
2006
Paul Redfern
Nairobi
Britain is to offer African asylum
seekers £3,000 ($5,400) to go home or
leave the UK.
In a pilot scheme
which will apply to all asylum seekers to the UK this
year, the British
government has introduced the payment in an effort to weed
out those who
have applied for refugee status merely in search of a better
life.
But critics say that the scheme could have the opposite effect
from that
which is intended. Last year, a permanent secretary in the UK Home
Office
warned MPs that making such a payment might actually encourage people
to
come to Britain.
"If the worst thing that is going to happen to
you if you come and claim
asylum when you are not due asylum is that someone
gives you a few thousand
pounds to send you home, that may not look like a
very big downside."
The British government says such a payment is better
than attempting to
force people who are not given political asylum to leave.
This, it says, can
cost around £11,000 ($19,800) per person. Just under
34,000 people applied
for political asylum in the UK last year, one of the
lowest figures over the
past decade.
The number of applications from
East Africa has also been declining over the
past decade with just 1,475
Kenyans, 3,045 Ugandan and only 230 Tanzanians
applying for political asylum
between 2000 and 2005.
This is dwarfed by the country with the largest
number of asylum appeals to
the UK over the past five years - Zimbabwe. Over
16,000 people from Zimbabwe
have applied for asylum in Britain since
2000.
The offer of £3,000 ($5,400) to return home or voluntarily leave
the UK will
be paid to people who agree to leave Britain in the next six
months and
could mean a family of four receiving £8,000 ($14,400) in cash
plus a
further £4,000 ($7,200) in job training and education. It will only
apply to
people who have asked for political asylum since
December.
The total cost of the exercise could be more than £6 million if
the
predicted 3,000 people take up the offer. In addition, the government
will
pay their travel costs.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2006-Jan-25
PARIRENYATWA Hospital's
Renal Unit has for the past week been turning away
patients before dialysing
after it ran out of a critical concentrate -
acetate.
The hospital's
chief executive officer, Thomas Zigora, yesterday would
neither deny nor
confirm the turning away of the patients and shortage of
acetate.
"I am
not aware of the current situation, but what I was told last week was
that
the concentrate was in short supply," said Zigora.
Patients interviewed said
they were told to return tomorrow to check if the
hospital's pharmacy would
have ordered the concentrate.
"I was told to return on
Thursday to check
if the concentrate would be available, but for now I
cannot walk because my
legs are swollen," said a Budiriro woman who spoke on
condition of
anonymity.
Other patients castigated the hospital pharmacy technicians for
failing to
prioritise such essential medications, complicating the
condition of the
ailing people.
"What people do not understand is that
this illness is different from common
illnesses.
It is very painful when
you do not dialysis when you are suppose to," said
an irate Chitungwiza man
who also preferred anonymity.
Haemodialysis is a medical procedure to remove
wastes and additional fluid
from the blood after the kidneys have stopped
functioning.
Renal patients dialyse for 14 hours a week.
If people with
kidney failure do not dialyse adequately they find it
difficult to breath
and parts of the body swell.
Apart from Parirenyatwa, haemodialysis is done
at Harare and Mpilo Central
hospitals.
But Harare hospital has few and
old machines, which are not enough to serve
all patients with kidney failure
in and around the city.
Bindura General and Chitungwiza Central hospitals are
also set to establish
renal units, as part of the government's efforts to
equip public health
institutions with all health services.
BR>
The Herald
(Harare)
January 25, 2006
Posted to the web January 25,
2006
Harare
THREE truck drivers have been arrested after they were
found draining $300
million worth of fuel belonging to the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe in
Marondera.
Police recovered about 3 000 litres
of fuel and $100 million in cash from
the suspects.
The three -- all
employees of local transport company Kukura Kurerwa -- were
supposed to
deliver the fuel to Noczim Harare depot from Beira, Mozambique,
when they
were arrested at around 8pm on Saturday last week.
Mashonaland East
acting provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector
Aspias Shumba
confirmed the arrests and said investigations were still in
progress.
He said policemen on patrol caught the three red-handed
while draining fuel
from the tankers.
After quizzing them, police
discovered that the three were actually stealing
the fuel and had already
drained about 3 000 litres which they had put into
drums.
On being
searched, one of the suspects was found in possession of $100
million cash,
which he failed to account for.
Police suspect that the money part of
proceeds from fuel sales along the
way.
"Further investigations
carried out revealed that the suspects were coming
from Beira and the fuel
was destined for Noczim," said Asst Insp Shumba.
He said the suspects are
expected to appear in court soon to face theft
charges.
During the
last 18 months, Noczim officials and several bogus fuel merchants
have been
arrested on allegations of stealing fuel from the State oil
company.
Most of the fuel found its way on to the black market while
part of it was
smuggled to neighbouring countries.
In August last
year, police in Harare arrested eight Noczim workers and
recovered 19 000
litres of diesel and 13 000 litres of petrol.
The fuel was allegedly
stolen from the oil company's Msasa depot. It is
believed the suspects
wanted to sell it on the black market.
The workers had connived with the
drivers of tankers and loaded more fuel
than the allocated quantity.
Reuters
25
Jan 2006 17:26:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
KHARTOUM, Jan
25 (Reuters) - An African human rights commission has
criticised the
continent's worst rights offenders, including Sudan and
Zimbabwe, in a
report analysts say marks a "coming of age" for the
organisation.
The
African Union's commission issued candid reviews of Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Sudan, Zimbabwe, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the report,
obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
Those countries said they wanted a
chance to reply before the report became
public, ensuring it remained
confidential.
"If the African Union is to have a strong voice it has to
foster
constructive criticism, not bury it," said Reed Brody from the New
York-based Human Rights Watch.
The report expressed concern at "the
intimidation of independent judges and
the interference of the executive in
the judiciary" in Zimbabwe.
It also expressed alarm at the number of
people displaced because of
government demolitions and urged Harare to
immediately stop the policy which
has made 700,000 people
homeless.
It condemned Eritrea for arbitrary arrests and long detentions
of
ex-ministers, journalists and parliamentarians, and demanded their
immediate
release.
In Ethiopia it called for the release of political
prisoners and said it
"deplored the death of civilians during confrontations
with security
forces". It also urged an inquiry into the clashes over
elections last year.
Summit host Sudan, snubbed for the chairmanship
because of atrocities in its
western Darfur region, was urged to immediately
cease all attacks on
civilians and to support aid workers trying to feed 2
million refugees.
Sudan should fully cooperate with the International
Criminal Court (ICC),
which is probing alleged war crimes, the commission
said. Sudan says it will
not let ICC investigators enter Darfur.
The
AU is reluctant to criticise members, but at a summit this week it
elected
judges for an African human rights court and fought a fierce
diplomatic
battle not to allow host Sudan to become its head, showing it
would no
longer ignore atrocities.
One AU official said this report was a
challenge to member states and proof
the rights commission was a serious
organ.
"Here we see how sensitive our member states are to criticism, but
the
commission is finally fulfilling its mandate and challenging them," said
the
AU official, who declined to be named because the report was not yet
public.
"The states will get their chance to comment but then the reports
will be
released," he added.
Brody said this was a sign of maturity
in the AU rights commission. "The
African commission is coming of age. Now
it is the African Union's turn to
do so," he said.