Cape Argus

Zimbabwe isolation takes toll on artists
January 28, 2005

Zimbabwe's traditional stone sculptors, who once earned huge sums from Western tourists, museums and galleries, are now struggling to survive due to their country's isolation.

The exquisite soapstone and granite works, crafted for centuries by the country's Shona people, came to the attention of the world in the 1960s when it metamorphosed into a more modern and Cubist art form.

The representations of humans, birds, beasts and spirits or purely abstract pieces started commanding hefty prices abroad and Shona works grace the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and the Rockefeller family.

But Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's stand-off with the United States, Europe and Australia since controversial presidential polls in 2002 has led to a slump in Western tourists, the main chunk of buyers.

Mugabe's policy of wooing Asia to offset this drop has not helped.

"We have suffered perhaps more than any other industry since the problems between our government and the Western countries started," leading Harare art dealer and Shona sculpture collector Newman Chiadzwa said.

"The European markets are virtually closed and since the start of this 'Look East' policy, we are getting lots of visitors from China and Korea coming to us saying they want to exchange sculptures with goods such as bicycles. But we need money, not bicycles."

Shona stone sculptures were picked up as souvenirs by European travellers as far back as the 13th century, according to historical records.

US magazine Newsweek once described it as probably the most important art form to have emerg-ed from Africa in the 20th century.

Many sculptors now moonlight to supplement their income or sell their works at a fraction of the price in a country labouring under a slew of economic woes including hyper-inflation and a high unemployment rate. 


Renowned local sculptor Ken-nedy Musekiwa said business had slowed down so much in the last five years that he had resorted to running training workshops in the United States and Europe to supplement his income.

"It's difficult these days to earn a living on stone sculpture alone," said Musekiwa.

"There is little business as fewer tourists are coming from Europe and the United States while most locals have little or no disposable income and would never think of buying a stone sculpture."

Fellow sculptor Tendai Rukodzi used to run a bustling open-air gallery along the main road to Harare airport. Now he spends most of the time chatting or drinking beer with friends while killing time and waiting for the odd customer to turn up.

"Some of our old clients have said they would never come here until Mugabe goes and as a result, I go for months without selling even a single item," he said.

"I end up selling the sculptures at giveaway prices just to get money to buy food and pay rent. I don't even get paid enough to buy stone to make the next piece."

However, Elvas Mari, an official with the Zimbabwe National Arts Council, insisted there was a silver lining.

"This slump in business has also helped in a way to separate genuine artists from imitators. I believe it's the mediocre artists who are feeling the pinch.

"Talented artists have weathered the storm and developed ways to sell their products in difficult circumstances," he said. - Sapa-AFP

Monday January 31, 10:23 AM

Mugabe to launch election campaign By Cris Chinaka Click to enlarge photo HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will launch his party's election campaign this week, with the main opposition expected to lift a boycott threat hanging over the critical poll, party officials and analysts say. The veteran president has yet to announce a date for an election expected to test how far his government has yielded to international pressure for a fair vote as well as the popularity of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mugabe, who turns 81 on February 21 just weeks short of 25 years in power, has attracted world attention in the last five years over his seizures of white-owned farms for blacks and charges he rigged Zimbabwe's last two major elections. Government officials said on Monday Mugabe would officially launch his ZANU-PF party's election campaign this week. "The official campaign will take place on Saturday, and the expectation is that the president will announce a date for the elections before he launches that campaign," one official said. While Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF prepares its campaign, the MDC is due to meet on Wednesday and Thursday to decide whether to participate in the poll, which it had threatened to boycott. "The announcement is just a formality, it was decided weeks ago that although the conditions are not conducive for a free and fair election, we have no choice but to participate," said one senior MDC official. Analysts say that even if the MDC contests the election, it is unlikely to end Zimbabwe's long-running political crisis. The MDC charges that ZANU-PF robbed it of victory in the last parliamentary contest in June 2000, and in the presidential poll in 2002 through rigging and a violent campaign that the MDC says killed left more than 200 opposition supporters dead. "ANTI-BLAIR CAMPAIGN" Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1980, denies the charges, and accuses his domestic and Western foes of sabotaging the economy and wanting to oust him over his land seizures. The MDC says recent electoral reforms -- including the appointment of a nominally independent electoral commission to run the March polls -- do not meet guidelines set by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community. Mugabe, who accuses Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of sponsoring the MDC, says the March polls would be an anti-Blair campaign for his ZANU-PF party to "bury" the MDC. Western powers led by Britain and the United States have imposed some sanctions against Mugabe's government over the election disputes and controversial policies. Political analysts say Zimbabwe's problems are likely to continue while ZANU-PF remains in power although the view of the government of some sections of the international community might improve if elections are not marred by violence. "I don't think anyone is naive enough to think that the crisis is going to end with the elections ... because there some fundamental differences between the government and the international community," said Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly, a political pressure group.

Financial Mail 28 January 2005 Gold mining ZIMBABWE'S NEW GOLD RUSH, 19th-CENTURY STYLE By Brendan Ryan Displaced farm workers have found a new livelihood

In Brazil they would be known as garimpeiros but, in Zimbabwe, the hordes of gold miners wielding picks and shovels are called mkorakoza, a Shona word meaning "panner". It's estimated there are more than 1m of them countrywide and they produce in total between 400 kg and 600 kg of gold a month. That means the mkorakoza could account for between 25% and 37% of Zimbabwe's gold output, which was 19,5 t for 2003, according to Gold Fields Mineral Services. Many have been driven into gold panning by Zimbabwe's land grabs, which have forced hundreds of thousands of farm workers off farms. They can find no other way to make a living and, in inflation-racked Zimbabwe, gold mining pays a lot better than most unskilled occupations, even if there were jobs available. A panner can recover around 2 g of gold a day, from which he will make about Z$140 000 (about R140). That's what a Zimbabwean farm labourer makes in a month. The result is a 19th-century-style gold rush as the mkorakoza flood - legally and illegally - on to farms in Zimbabwe's various gold belts. Zimbabwe has extensive gold-bearing zones but the reefs are narrow, geologically complex and erratic in grade, making standard commercial mining operations generally unviable. The mkorakoza live in tents and "bivvies" made of plastic sheeting or hessian sacks, right next to their mine workings. They get their supplies from - and let their hair down in - shanty towns in the bush near the workings. Apart from the harsh working and living conditions, many risk long-term health problems because they use mercury to form the gold they recover into a crude amalgam for smelting. They are also using technology that dates back to 1886, when gold mining first started on the Witwatersrand. The mkorakoza get their ore crushed by stamp mills. There's still one stamp mill in Johannesburg. It's a national monument on a plinth outside the Chamber of Mines building in Hollard Street. Yet these mills are now being made to order by small engineering firms in Zimbabwe. Stamp mills were replaced in the early 1900s by the vastly more efficient ball mills, which are, with significant enhancements, still standard technology in modern gold recovery plants. According to the Zimbabwean operator who showed me around his property on condition of anonymity, stamp mills "are a son of a bitch to maintain because they vibrate like hell. One worker is dedicated full-time to constantly tightening every nut in sight and knocking bits of metal back into the frame that are being shaken out of it." The mkorakoza refuse to use ball mills. They prefer stamp mills because they can watch their ore being treated. One miner says: "There's a muki wa [Shona for white man] in the ball mill stealing our gold." In a way he's right, because some gold is lost as fine particles get trapped in the cracks between the liners of a ball mill. The trapped gold is recovered through clean-up operations when the liners wear down and have to be replaced, which happens every few months. The mkorakoza cannot afford to buy their own stamp mill. These are often owned by the holder of the mining permit for the area being exploited. Frequently, that's a white farmer who has been kicked off his land and has also turned to gold mining to survive. The mkorakoza brings his ore, usually a ton at a time, to be crushed. He then takes the recovered gold-bearing fraction of the ore and concentrates it further through several stages of panning to isolate the heavier gold particles from the lighter waste material. With high-grade ore it's at this stage that the gold becomes visible as a yellow "tail" in the bottom of the pan, standing out against the dark grey of the remaining dense material. The gold-bearing concentrate is then formed into an amalgam using mercury and crudely smelted to produce a form of "sponge gold", which the mkorakoza sells to Fidelity Printers & Refiners, which buys it on behalf of government. The operator makes his money in two ways. He charges a fee for toll-milling the ore and providing basic services such as a tractor and trailer to haul ore from the workings to the stamp mill. The stamp mill recovers only the coarse gold fraction in the ore. The fine gold fraction is carried through the process by the flow of water but is then trapped in a small slimes dam. That fraction belongs to the operator, who recovers it using the same cyanide process that most modern gold mines use. Depending on grade and geological properties, the mkorakoza recovers 50%-80% of the gold that was contained in his ore. The cyanide tailings treatment process typically yields between 1 g/t and 2 g/t for the operator.

Talks with Zimbabwe rebels make progress

Steven Price

January 31, 2005

The chances of Zimbabwe's rebel players returning to the fold are better than ever if the meeting between the players and a three-man ad hoc committee set up by Zimbabwe Cricket is anything to go by.

The meeting, the second of its kind, which lasted for about four hours, took place on Sunday in Harare and several players described it as positive - as long as Zimbabwe Cricket also remain keen. The players said they might return sooner than expected.

The players, however, refused to shed more light on what actually happened they did not want to say anything to the press as this might jeopardise the negotiations. "The meeting was really positive," one said. "It is not true that we will come back unconditionally. Our position is still the same from the beginning, there are few issues which have to be addressed before we come back and play. We are still united."

At the meeting were Heath Streak, Raymond Price, Craig Wishart, Andy Blignaut, Trevor Gripper, Grant Flower, Neil Ferreira and Stuart Carlisle, while Addington Chinake (chairman), George Makings, Jackie du Preez and ZC human resources general manager Wilfred Mukondiwa represented the board.

Realistically, it is unlikely that the discussions will be resolved in time for any of the rebels to be included on the tour of South Africa as there is no follow-up meeting planned for at least another fortnight.

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