http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
21:50
A massive official cover-up could be underway after
police
investigations into the ballooning illegal trade in rhino horns
netted two
Zanu PF ministers.
Investigations by The Standard
show that a police crack unit following
the trail of rhino poachers ended up
at the doorsteps of Zanu PF politicians
who cannot be named, at least for
now, because of the complexity of the
case.
The two
politicians have been saved from prosecution after the dockets
"mysteriously
disappeared" from the magistrates' court recently.
Judicial sources
said yesterday the dockets were too hot to handle.
"No one wanted
to take the case because we all know that cases
involving high-profile
people are always covered up," said one of the
sources.
He
also revealed that prosecutors feared they could burn their fingers
if they
dared to take up the sensitive case.
Officials keen to see the
prosecution of the senior government
officials yesterday expressed
frustration at the way the matter was handled.
They said a
heavy lid slammed on the case could discourage detectives
who were keen to
stamp out poaching activities.
Over the past two weeks, The
Standard has talked to people familiar
with the case. What is unmistakable
is that people fear their lives could be
in trouble if their involvement in
the case is publicised.
While Attorney-General Johannes Tomana
could not be reached to explain
circumstances surrounding the case,
Environmental and Natural Resources
Management Minister, Francis Nhema
admitted on Thursday that senior Zanu PF
officials had been implicated in
the resurgent cases of rhino poaching.
Although he refused to
identify those implicated, Nhema said the
government was investigating cases
where some ministers were allegedly
involved.
Nhema's
admission coincided with a new report by the Convention on
Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) saying 12 rhinos
were now
being poached each month in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The
report said rhino poaching was poised to hit a 15-year high driven
by Asian
demand for horns.
In Zimbabwe, the situation was said to be
dire because people who were
caught dealing in rhino trade illegally,
escaped prosecution because of
their political connections.
"Yes, it might be possible that some government officials are abusing
their
powers and are involved in rhino poaching but we do not have the
names. We
are still investigating the matter," Nhema said.
"The HE
(President Mugabe) is even concerned about the issue. He asked
me for the
names of the ministers involved."
Nhema said an unnamed
minister was implicated in a case where a
Chinese national was arrested for
poaching rhinos.
"We made our investigations and we found out
that the person who was
very close to the minister was the one who was using
the minister's name,"
Nhema said.
He said the government
had stepped up anti-rhino poaching campaigns
and last week the minister
commissioned 11 Toyota Landcruisers for the
programme.
The
Zimbabwe Conservation Trust chairman, Johnny Rodrigues said they
were also
carrying out their own investigations into reports that government
officials
were behind some poaching syndicates.
"It's true that there is
an increase in rhino poaching in Zimbabwe
and the situation is getting out
of hand," Rodrigues said.
"Three weeks ago two rhinos were
killed in Hwange and we are positive
that some top people in the government
are involved.
"Right now we have the names of some senior
officials who are
implicated but we can not release their names because
investigations are
still underway."
Rodrigues said people
were blaming foreigners for poaching yet senior
government officials were
also involved.
"We cannot blame foreigners only because there
are also people from
the top who are involved.
"There are
cases where some members of the army were shot by the
anti-poaching team and
it's quite clear that these soldiers were sent by
very influential people,"
he said.
According to the Cites report, rhino poaching is
threatening the
success of more than a decade's work of bringing the rhino
population back
to healthy levels.
Cites expresses concern
with the way cases of poaching were being
handled in the
courts.
"For example, earlier this week a parks ranger
arrested with
overwhelming evidence against him for having killed three
rhinos in the
Chipinge Safari Area was acquitted without any satisfactory
explanation for
the verdict," reads the report.
"Similarly
in September 2008 a gang of four Zimbabwean poachers who
admitted to killing
18 rhinos were also freed in a failed judiciary
process."
A rhino horn can sell for thousands of dollars on the black market.
Zimbabwe's rhino population is believed to have declined from about 830 in
2007 to 740 at the end of last year despite an excellent birth rate in
monitored herds.
Last month a Chinese national appeared at
the Harare Magistrates'
Court after he was caught with 21.5 kg of tusks . He
had no licence.
Wang Xuebin (49), who is accused of
Contravening Section 59 (2) of the
Parks and Wildlife Act Chapter 20:14, was
remanded out of custody.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
21:39
JOSPHAT Chidhindi, a 27-year-old MDC activist, shed tears
as he signed
papers giving doctors the go-ahead to amputate his right hand
just before he
was wheeled into the theatre a fortnight ago.He shed tears
not only because
of the excruciating pain but because the reality had dawned
on him that he
would soon be crippled for life.
As the surgeons
led him to the theatre at a Harare hospital, Chidhindi
recalled how two Zanu
PF activists almost severed his hand at the end of
last month.
The feared militia attacked Chidhindi after he served one of them with
summons demanding compensation for his homestead that was burnt and his
property that was looted.
Fortunately, just before the
operation the surgeon changed his mind
and offered to try and save the
severely injured hand.
"I am happy he managed to save my hand
but I cannot forget or forgive
my attackers," he said.
Chidhindi,
an MDC youth chairman for Ward III in Muzarabani district
of Mashonaland
Central, is one of the scores of victims of renewed political
violence
blamed on the Zanu PF militia.
"It hurts to see my attackers
walking free everyday," said Chidhindi,
tears welling up in his eyes. "I
want to see justice done."
Chidhindi was one of the villagers
who lost property as the militia
rode roughshod over hapless villagrs in the
run up to last year's disputed
June 27 presidential runoff
election.
There have been reports of a resurgence of violence
targeted at MDC
activists and supporters trying to reclaim their livestock
and household
property looted during last year's violent
election.
Reports say only last week Never Miranda of
Gokwe-Kana Ward 29 was
severely assaulted by Zanu PF officials for wearing
an MDC-T-shirt while
Musungwa Karite, an agricultural extension officer in
Mazowe, lost two teeth
after he was accused of spreading "pro-MDC messages"
instead of promoting
farming activities.
Latest cases of
violence against MDC activists have also been reported
in Masvingo, Chegutu,
Mudzi, Bindura and Mutoko.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) recently said it was
representing 100 MDC supporters from Mutoko and
71 from Nyanga who were
recently arrested and are now facing charges of
robbery and extortion after
claiming their possessions from suspected Zanu
PF supporters who seized them
last year.
Police spokesman,
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said he
needed time to investigate
reports of politically motivated violence before
he could comment on the
matter.
But in separate interviews many Zimbabweans felt
politicians were not
serious about national healing, while others said the
only way the country
could close the sad chapter would be for the government
to offer
compensation to victims of the violence.
Zanu PF
chairman John Nkomo, who is also one of the three ministers of
national
healing, said he was aware of the revenge attacks and called for
reconciliation.
"The nation should realise that the
political leaders signed an
agreement and by doing so they signed for
everyone", he said. "We should
remember that we are one people with one
surname, which is Zimbabwe.
Nkomo said while the GPA stated
that although his ministry's job was
to remind Zimbabweans about the need to
unite, it also calls on the police
to intervene in all criminal cases
including political violence without fear
or favour.
"What
I can say about those who are still fighting is that political
parties
should go out there and talk to their people," Nkomo said.
"If
the politicians fail to control them, the police should then
intervene and
arrest them because we cannot afford to have a country which
continues in
chaos."
He said his ministry has since asked chiefs and trade
unions to help
spread word on the need for peace and unity in the
country.
The ministry is also working on establishing offices
countrywide in a
bid to expand its outreach, Nkomo said.
"We all
want Zimbabweans to stop this fighting, talk and unite", he
said. "They
should get rid of this need to revenge and all these other
negative
emotions."
But Chidhindi differed with Nkomo saying for
national healing to be
successful, there is need for
compensation.
"We want to be compensated for the property and
livestock we lost",
Chidhindi said.
"What hurts the most is
that we are now suffering with nothing to our
names yet the Zanu PF people
are walking free. They should be arrested and
taken to
court.
"As it is right now, only the Zanu PF politicians come
to our area and
they do not say anything about
reconciliation.
"We want both MDC and Zanu PF leaders to come
and jointly address us
so the hostility which continues to prevail in our
society can go away."
MDC-T deputy director for national
welfare, Brighton Matimba said
there was need for friendly peace committees
or peace clubs where MDC and
Zanu PF supporters especially youths will
interact without political
interference.
"Right now, MDC
people are at the forefront asking Zanu PF people to
come so they can talk
these things over and this could be giving the other
party a feeling that
they are superior," he said.
Matimba also said politicians,
especially top leaders, should avoid
inflammatory speeches which only serve
to widen the social rifts.
He said the government should also
go to the grassroots and explain
the GPA so people would understand it well
because there were some people
who believe that the MDC was swallowed by
Zanu PF.
He also supported the idea of compensation for victims
saying if the
perpetrators cannot afford to pay, those who sent them to
commit acts of
violence should bear responsibility.
Some
people have expressed fears that some national programmes which
require
public participation such as the ongoing constitutional reform may
be
compromised because of the tension.
"Doing a constitution
without national healing is like putting the
cart before the horse",
University of Zimbabwe lecturer Professor John
Makumbe told a recent civil
society constitutional conference.
Meanwhile, in the streets of
Bulawayo residents said lessons from the
Gukurahundi atrocities in
Matabeleland and the Midlands showed that if
perpetrators were not brought
to justice they were likely to repeat their
crimes.
They
called for the setting up of a fund to compensate all victims of
political
violence since Independence and the prosecution of repeat
offenders.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE & JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 21:37
BULAWAYO - Revived Zapu officials on Friday wrestled control of a
memorial
service for former Zipra commander Ackim Ndlovu from government
officials
accusing Zanu PF leaders of hypocrisy.
The angry Zapu politicians
said Ndlovu (77) who was declared a
national hero and was buried at the
Heroes' Acre yesterday died a pauper
because he was neglected by the
government.
Bulawayo governor, Cain Mathema who was supposed to be
in charge of
the programme was forced to take a back seat as several former
Zanu PF
politicians took turns to lambast the government.
There was drama when former Zapu officials Paul Siwela and Alderman
Charles
Mpofu among others forced their way to the high table reserved for
Zanu PF
chairman John Nkomo, Mathema and politburo members Sikhanyiso Ndlovu
and
Eunice Sandi-Moyo. Interim Zapu chairperson Dumiso Dabengwa also had a
place
reserved for him at the top table.
Some Zanu PF officials who
were initially on the programme were also
barred from speaking. Nkomo tried
to calm the mourners but his speech was
drowned out by
interjections.
Mpofu, speaking at the service said: "People
were angry over the
manner in which Zanu PF had neglected Ndlovu. This is
despite the fact that
he played a leading role in the liberation struggle.
He died a pauper."
Ndlovu was the founding Zipra commander and
at independence he was
elected an MP for Matabeleland South. "That is why
there was a bit of
problem during that memorial because we believed Zapu and
not those Zanu PF
people were supposed to be in charge of the memorial
service."
Zapu officially severed ties with Zanu PF in May and
one of its major
grievances was that Zipra heroes were not being given due
recognition.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 21:33
THE
MDC-T national executive on Friday took Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai to
task for failing to stand up to President Robert Mugabe whom
they accused of
violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA), sources said
yesterday.
The sources said Tsvangirai was also accused of
remaining "aloof" as
the 85-year-old leader in power since 1980 continued to
flout provisions of
the agreement that led to the formation of the unity
government in February.
Another bone of contention, the sources
said, was Tsvangirai's
continued silence as Mugabe increasingly claims that
he is both head of
state and government despite the power-sharing
arrangement.
The state media, which has not changed its
pro-Mugabe stance, also
refers to Mugabe as head of both state and
government.
Tsvangirai's spokesperson, James Maridadi confirmed
Friday's meeting
saying the concerns raised were "healthy" for the party
which stands for
democracy.
"They have a right to express
their views and this shows deep-rooted
levels of democracy in the party,"
Maridadi said. "It (national executive)
shows that it does not tell the
Prime Minister what he wants to hear but the
situation on the
ground.
"This is what the Prime Minister has been fighting for
- democracy."
On Mugabe's claim to be both head of state and
government, Maridadi
said the President's role was clearly spelt out in the
GPA.
He said Tsvangirai is head of government while Mugabe is
head of
state.
"If you look at the functions, he
(Tsvangirai) becomes head of
government. He formulates and implements
government policy and this makes
him the head of government," Maridadi
said.
Turning to accusations that Tsvangirai glossed over
Zimbabwe's
problems on his recent trip abroad, Maridadi said Tsvangirai was
quoted out
of context on the issue of farm invasions and the breakdown in
the rule of
law.
"The Prime Minister is very clear on the
issue of rule of law and farm
invasions," he said.
"He does
not tolerate all these. He is concerned about the on-going
selective
application of the law, farm disruptions and continued harassment
of MPs
from his party," Maridadi said.
Tsvangirai, said the sources,
also angered his party members after he
failed to categorically deny that he
apologised to Mugabe after his
ministers boycotted a cabinet meeting
recently.
"The issue of an apology cannot be substantiated. It
cannot be
verified whether he did so or not," said Maridadi, who was unable
to say
whether or not Tsvangirai apologised.
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:13
THE dirty linen of a former Deputy Minister's family is set to be
washed in
the public.
Anne Elizabeth Matonga - the estranged wife of Mhondoro
Ngezi MP
Bright Matonga - has filed papers in the High Court suing
businesswoman
Sharon Mugabe for adultery.
Anne, who is locked
in divorce proceedings with Matonga, says Mugabe
ruined her marriage by
committing adultery and ultimately brazenly snatching
her
husband.
To compensate for the suffering she underwent as a
result, Anne who is
now surviving on charity is demanding $50 000 from
Mugabe who runs a
marketing and communications firm, Imago
Y&R.
Mugabe is however denying the accusations. She says
she never knew
that Matonga had been married to Anne, adding she only got
acquainted with
him when their marriage had irretrievably broken
down.
But according to Anne's submissions, her marriage to
Matonga was well
publicised especially after she supported her husband in
grabbing a Banket
farm from its white owners.
Anne says
while her marriage still subsisted, the adulterous pair
started their
relationship sometime between late 2007 and early 2008.
By
June, Anne says Matonga had deserted her and their minor child and
was
staying with Mugabe at Number 23 Rolfe Avenue in Ballantyne
Park.
The suit, which will be heard in the courts after Mugabe
filed a
notice to defend herself, is set to bring out embarrassing details
about the
love life of the businesswoman and the politician who was
outspoken as
Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity.
Already in the summons, there are scandalous details about how the
pair
conducted their affair without regard to Anne and their minor
child.
Anne, who is represented by Beatrice Mtetwa, notes in
court papers
that the two did not just commit adultery in hotels in and
outside Zimbabwe,
but ended up staying together as husband and
wife.
Anne says theirs was adultery of an aggravated nature as
Mugabe
"paraded herself" as Matonga's lawful wife fully knowing that he was
a
married man.
And her ultimate humiliation, Anne says, was
for Mugabe to attend
public events with her husband.
One of
these events was the signing of the Global Political Agreement
which drew
thousands of people to the Harare International Conference
Centre.
She will implore the court to view this as
constituting aggravating
circumstances which call for "punitive exemplary
damages".
In addition, Anne will say Mugabe's insensitivity,
which made her a
laughing stock, did not spare their minor child. At one
time Anne says
Mugabe attended their child's school rugby sporting event
with Matonga.
The event was attended by many parents who know
Anne to be Matonga's
lawful wife.
Anne will testify that
their minor child was severely traumatized by
this incident as he became a
target of crude jokes from other children about
his "new
mother".
Anne will lead evidence that "so brazen was defendant
in her public
display of the affair" that she attended the funeral of
Matonga's father at
the communal home.
She will also state
that Mugabe even engaged in a taboo: kissing
Matonga in public at the
funeral.
Anne will tell the court that the adulterous
relationship had an added
"sting": it reduced her to a beggar after Matonga
vindictively made the farm
uninhabitable by disconnecting water, electricity
and withdrawing all
domestic staff from her.
She says her
husband virtually ceased to support her and the child and
instead used
proceeds from disposed family assets to go on holiday and to
enjoy life with
the defendant.
Mugabe, who is denying committing adultery with
Matonga, says she
cannot be liable for Anne's suffering because she had long
lost the services
of her husband as their relationship had broken down when
she got acquainted
with Matonga.
The date for the hearing
into the lawsuit is yet to be set.
Anne's lawsuit comes hard on
the heels of Matonga's application
seeking for a decree of
divorce.
In his application, which is set to go for a
full-scale divorce trial,
Matonga admits he committed adultery, an improper
association which resulted
in the birth of a child. He blames this on Anne's
"insolence and lack of
respect for him".
In her defence,
Anne says she was a faithful wife who "lost the
comfort, society and
services of her spouse" as a result of his adulterous
forays.
The two were married in 1997 at Southend-on-Sea,
Essex County, UK and
came to Zimbabwe after Matonga had been offered a job
by President Robert
Mugabe's government.
Before moving,
Anne had to resign from a well-paying accountancy job,
sell her UK house in
order to raise money for the couple's new life in
Zimbabwe.
Now she is surviving on charity in Zimbabwe after the fallout with
Matonga.
BY WALTER MARWIZI
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:07
GWERU -
Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) regional director Bob
Vaughan-Evans who was
brutally murdered at his home by unknown assailants
last week was buried in
Shangani on Friday.
Vaughan-Evans died on Tuesday after he was
attacked together with his
80-year-old wife, Jean, at their Gweru home in an
incident that has shaken
Zimbabwe's few remaining white commercial
farmers.
Grieving farmers said they suspected Vaughn-Evans was
targeted for
defending them because the assailants did not steal anything
from their
house.
According to a police report, the thugs
used a sharp object to strike
Evans twice on the head. He died on the
spot.
"The motive of the attack is unknown. The suspects
ransacked the house
and left blankets and other items in the house
up-side-down.
"Nothing was stolen as all (and) other things
remained untouched,"
read the police report.
Jean, who was
attacked on the eve of her birthday, was hospitalised at
a private
clinic.
The attack was the third the couple has suffered since
the beginning
of the year.
"His attackers could have been
trying to silence him because of the
valuable information that he supplied
to the CFU," said one source.
"He had information on his
finger-tips on what was happening in the
province such as farm invasions,
land and property takeovers from white
farmers, and some people were
obviously not happy with that," said a farmer
who asked to remain
anonymous.
CFU president Trevor Gifford said circumstances that
led to
Vaughn-Evans' death were still unclear.
"What we
have at the moment is a case that leans more to a case of
housebreaking and
theft," he said.
"It also exposes the couple's vulnerability in
such situations because
they were now old and staying alone."
He
expressed disappointment that police had not made any progress in
investigating the previous attacks on the couple.
Gifford
said Vaughn-Evans made a significant contribution to CFU's
work and was
committed to the development of agriculture in the country.
"He
made significant and tremendous contributions to the agricultural
sector in
Zimbabwe," he said.
"From the days he was employed as a deputy
director at AREX (Agritex)
to the time he left government service and joined
the CFU in the Midlands,
he contributed a lot in expertise on how to manage
the agricultural sector."
Several farmers were killed by Zanu
PF supporters when President
Robert Mugabe's previous
administration
began seizing commercial farms in 2000.
There has also been an upsurge in cases of armed robberies across the
country.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:01
BULAWAYO
- A High Court judge is demanding US$1 681 from the local
authority after
his Mercedes Benz car was damaged on one of the city's major
roads riddled
with potholes.
According to a letter of demand seen by The Standard
last week,
Justice Maphios Cheda says his car was damaged after he hit a
pothole along
Leopold Takawira Avenue on May 24.
"It was around
1900 hours when I was travelling along Leopold Takawira
Avenue towards the
city centre before Heyman Road when I hit a pothole on
the left lane," he
said.
"There were no street lights and the pothole was full of
water. In
addition thereto there was no warning sign about the impending
danger."
He said two tyres and rims were damaged and to replace
them will cost
at least $1 681.
A copy of an inventory of
the repairs shows that each 16-inch megrim
would cost US $504 to replace
while the tyres cost US $227 each.
The car is being repaired by
ZIMOCO, the Mercedes Benz dealership in
Zimbabwe.
But the
city council has challenged the judge's claims saying Leopold
Takawira
Avenue was a state road, which meant that the claim was
misdirected.
Responding to the claim council said "under
normal circumstances" it
referred such matters to its insurers who act on
the demands.
"However, in this particular matter, we realise
that our insurers
could not process this claim because this road was taken
over by government
in 2007. For an unknown reason, the government in 2007
took over Urban
Section of trunk roads," council said in a letter to the
judge's lawyers.
"The takeover was gazetted in the Government
Gazette on March 9, 2007
under General Notice 55 of 2007."
Council said although it had filled in potholes on some trunk roads,
this
did not mean it was responsible for the maintenance of the
roads.
"It was merely because we realised that the government
was kind of
economically handicapped and where possible, we assisted because
we have the
welfare of the residents of this city at heart," council
wrote.
Bulawayo's major roads are in a bad state owing to years
of neglect
blamed on the country's long running economic
crisis.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 19:55
BULAWAYO - Villagers in Binga district in Matabeleland North say they
are in
the dark about the ongoing consultations on the country's new
constitution.
Binga is one of the remotest areas in the
country. It has limited
access to local media because of lack of radio and
television transmission
as well as a poor road network.
This
has seen inhabitants in the area alongside thousands of others in
outlying
areas being left out of the historic process.
The parliamentary
select committee in charge of the
constitution-making process recently held
provincial public consultations,
which were limited to urban areas and
growth points. "We were not told about
the consultations because we do not
know that there is a constitution-making
process in the
country.
"We are not informed on current affairs because of
many factors among
them lack of local radio and TV reception," said Timothy
Munseke of Chitete
village in Sinansegwe ward.
Villagers in
most parts of Binga tune into Zambian broadcasts for
information and walk
several kilometres to Binga centre if they want to
access local
newspapers.
"The only way information can reach us is if it
goes through the
chiefs and headmen. We have no radio and
television.
"There are no newspapers so it's difficult to know
what is happening
in the rest of the country," Munseke
said.
Chief Siabuwa of the Siabuwa area in Binga said villagers
under his
jurisdiction were in the dark about the constitution-making
process.
"I do not even know about that (constitution-making)
yet villagers
expect us to update them on such issues.
"It
is like we are living outside Zimbabwe because we are not getting
information about what is happening in the country, especially this issue of
the constitution," he said.
Provincial public consultations
on the constitution began recently
after the government released funds for
the process.
The consultations will culminate in the
all-stakeholders national
conference set for tomorrow.
But
activists say the time frame the unity government has set for the
process
would make it impossible to capture the views of all
Zimbabweans.
"Villagers in rural Binga missed out on the
public consultations
because there was no information that ever got there,"
said Busani Ncube, an
advocacy officer at Bulawayo Agenda, a civic group
that has an office in
Binga.
"No official information is
reaching rural Binga about the
constitution-making process through
newspapers, radio or TV. Villagers have
to rely on NGOs for such
information."
Ncube also blamed a poor road network in Binga
for the failure by NGOs
to reach out to villagers so that they can make
their contributions.
"The parliamentary committee has a lot of
work to do in so far as
reaching out to the people since villagers in remote
areas really do not
know anything about the process according to our
findings from our chapters
in various provinces in rural areas," Ncube
said.
Binga MP Joel Gabbuza said lack of information on the
constitution-making process will also have an impact on the district's
future development plans.
"If villagers can't input their
views it naturally translates to the
central government ignoring the area
because it (government) would not know
what the people in that area want,"
Gabbuza lamented.
"The committee has a lot of work to do in so
far as reaching out to
the people. Villagers in remote Binga will not be
represented in the
thematic committees over what they need to be inputed in
the constitution
because they did not take part in the public
consultations.
"They just did not know that such a process was
in motion."
Select committee co-chairperson, Paul Mangwana
attributed the problem
to lack of funds and time constraints.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
19:51
THE Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede is being accused of failing
to
observe peace and live with his neighbours in harmony.
Mudede, who owns a plot at Lot 1 Ballineety Farm in Mashonaland
Central, is
involved in running court battles with his four neighbours -
George Kawenda,
Sylvestor Dendere, Abigal Mutingwende and Jacqeline
Mukanganyama.
The RG was in February sued by the four for
allegedly preventing them
from accessing their plots and communal facilities
at the farm.
The complainants said the property was part of
state land which was
being shared by occupants of Ballineety Farm which
includes dip tanks,
boreholes, fuel tanks, a silage pit, and paddocks, among
others things.
In the court application, the four alleged
Mudede had threatened to
forcibly remove their property and livestock from
the farm without a court
order.
They said Mudede was now
claiming that part of the farm was allocated
to him.
"Mudede has in addition fenced off the access roads to the rest of the
other
farmers meaning that we cannot access our farms in order to irrigate
or
attend to our crops and livestock.
"This matter becomes urgent
in that effectively Mudede has prevented
us from carrying out farming
activities," reads the application.
They said Mudede should be
stopped from forcibly removing their
livestock, property and equipment from
the farm without a court order.
After their suit was dismissed
in the High Court, Mudede chose to
escalate his fight with his neighbhours
by filing a case of perjury against
them. In his statement Mudede said
Kawenda and the three others had lied to
the courts.
"After
the applicant's case was dismissed on the 11th of March 2009, I
made a
report to the police about their lying under oath which I am advised
is a
criminal offence in Zimbabwe," Mudede said.
He said the four
were claiming that he had fenced all the access roads
therefore interfering
with the irrigation operations.
"None of them have irrigation
operations. In the case of Dendere he
has not even ploughed on his
farm.
"They claim their crops and livestock are in danger because of
the
fencing being erected by me. Kawenda's crops have been damaged by poor
farming techniques."
Mudede said he had never illegally
evicted any plot holder.
"There is no irrigation on Lot 10
which has been disrupted by my
fencing of boundaries.
"Mukanganyama has no crops under irrigation. I have never sought to
confiscate any facilities," he said. "My letter of offer has never been
declared null and void and there is no common user infrastructure within the
boundaries of Lot 1 Ballineety Farm."
This is not the first
time Mudede and the four have fought their
battles in the
courts.
In 2008 Mudede launched eviction proceedings against
Mukanganyama from
the 68-hectare sub-division 10 of the property, which
includes the main
farmhouse, on the basis of an unstamped letter from former
Lands and
Resettlement minister, Didymus Mutasa, which terminated her status
as
caretaker of the plot.
According to Mukanganyama, Mudede
also sought to evict Kawenda, Roti
Gahadzika and Dendere from other plots on
the farm.
Mukanganyama, a war veteran, won the court case
against Mudede in a
hearing held in Bindura by default when Mudede failed to
appear in court on
the day of the hearing.
BY SANDRA
MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
19:47
THE MDC-T led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has launched an
extensive restructuring exercise following last year's political violence
that saw hundreds of key party activists killed or displaced by alleged
state security agents and Zanu PF militia.
MDC-T deputy
national organising secretary, Morgan Komichi, said the
party structures had
been "decimated" by the violence that left more than
200 oppositions
supporters dead and thousands others tortured and displaced.
The
restructuring involves filling up or changing positions from the
party's
cells, wards, districts and provinces.
"We want to stand ready
come election time.
"We are telling them (supporters) that the
government of national
unity is not the end but a transitional phase," he
said.
Komichi said during the restructuring exercise they were
also
appraising its supporters on the developments in the inclusive
government
and the on-going constitution-making process.
Already the MDC-T has vowed to oppose the use of the Kariba draft
document
as the foundation for a new constitution opting for a people-driven
constitution-making process.
Widespread political violence
flared up after Tsvangirai defeated
President Robert Mugabe in the first
round of the presidential elections in
March but failed to get enough votes
to claim the presidency.
Those who survived the violence, which
was most pronounced in rural
areas fled to urban centres or sought refuge in
neighbouring countries such
Botswana, Namibia and South
Africa.
Some never returned.
It is estimated
that more than half of the MDC-T councillors in Harare
who were elected in
March last year at one time went into hiding fearing for
their
lives.
Some of them were living in "safe houses" after being
hounded out of
their homes.
Despite the violence, Komichi
said, MDC-T activists and supporters are
still determined to take up
positions.
Presidential and parliamentary elections will only
be held when a new
constitution is in place.
Komichi said
scores of MDC-T supporters were still nursing injuries
from the election
violence.
Victims of political violence, he said, are being
encouraged to report
all the cases to the police to make sure that
perpetrators face justice.
"All the cases must be documented
and justice will take place one
day," he said. "The victims must also be
compensated by the inclusive
government."
But about 90
villagers in Manicaland province, mostly MDC-T supporters
now face charges
after they repossessed property looted from them by alleged
Zanu PF
supporters.
Last year, Zanu PF militia forcibly took livestock
from perceived
MDC-T supporters to feed the party's members at various
"bases", which they
used to launch their terror campaigns.
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
19:42
ZIMBABWE might be heading for a clash with the United Nations
after
the government indicated that it will not immediately demilitarise the
Chiadzwa diamond fields where the security forces allegedly killed over 200
people last year, political analysts said last week.
They said
the presence of the military around the fields meant
continued gross human
rights violations.
A delegation from the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme (KPCS)
recently recommended the withdrawal of the
military from Marange accusing it
of engaging in senseless
violence.
But the Minister of Mines and Mining Development
Obert Mpofu said new
security measures will only be put in place once a new
investor has been
identified, dashing hopes of an immediate withdrawal of
the army.
This, said analysts, sets the stage for confrontation
between
government and the KPCS, which had recommend the withdrawal of the
military
by next week.
It had also recommended that an
investigation of the role of security
forces and other officials in the
Marange diamond operation must be set in
motion
immediately.
But the army and the police last week issued a
joint statement stating
that they will stay put in Marange citing the
"sudden influx of illegal
panners" following the KPCS team's
recommendations.
Political analysts also expressed scepticism
that President Robert
Mugabe's government would order an investigation into
Marange diamonds as
previous reports have fingered his cronies in the
looting of the gems.
Apart from that, they said, many senior
police and army officers were
still benefiting financially from the chaos in
Chiadzwa.
"There will not be any demilitarisation or
investigation in the near
future because senior people in government are
looting the diamonds," said
one analyst, who requested
anonymity.
"Even if the pressure (to investigate) comes from
heaven it won't
happen because diamonds are their
livelihood."
An international human rights watchdog last month
released a damning
report implicating senior Zanu PF officials and the
central bank in looting
diamonds in Marange.
The report by
the United States-based Human Rights Watch alleged that
deployment of the
army by Mugabe's previous administration was meant to
ensure that Zanu PF,
soldiers and police bosses could have unlimited access
to mining
revenue.
It said the diamonds provided an important source of
revenue for the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which "is underwriting" Zanu
PF activities
and military operations.
University of
Zimbabwe political analyst Eldred Masunungure described
attempts to
demilitarise and investigate human rights abuses in Marange as a
"minefield".
"It is a political minefield because there are
powerful forces that
are being touched," noted Masunungure, without
mentioning names.
But he warned Zimbabwe could lose millions of
dollars if the country
fails to stick to recommendations of the KPCS
team.
Basing on "meaningful progress" by government by next
week, the team
would make final recommendations to the Kimberley
Process.
Masunungure said any mishandling of the issue could
have adverse
effects on the shaky government of national unity (GNU) which
is battling to
raise funds for the country's
reconstruction.
"If the deadline expires, the team may
recommend (to the UN) that the
Marange diamonds be classified as (a source
of) blood diamonds meaning we
will be losing the US$200 million that can be
generated from the sale of the
gems," he said.
The
government estimates that it can generate about US$200 million a
month if
Marange and other mining centres are managed transparently.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) projects lawyer Zvikomborero
Chadambuka concurred with Masunungure saying failure to remove soldiers from
the area would have a negative effect on the economy.
"I
think that element of disdain would be dangerous to the economy
because the
diamonds would be banned," he said.
Apart from that, said
Chadambuka, the perception that Zimbabwe is a
rogue state would be enhanced
internationally.
Chadambuka queried why the military was so
interested in Marange and
yet Zimbabwe had so many mines dotted around the
country.
"Zimbabwe has established mines before so I wonder why
there is so
much interest in that particular area," he
said.
But another analyst, who requested anonymity, put it
bluntly: "It's
clear there is a political interest in the chaos and
disorder. It won't
shock me to hear that some people are lining their
pockets."
The KPCS team that was headed by Liberian deputy
mines minister
Kpandel Fiya investigated reports by human rights groups that
the military
used force to control access to Marange and to take over
unlicensed diamond
mining.
The team said it had discovered
abuses of civilians in Marange.
"Our team was able to interview
and document the stories of tens of
victims, observe their wounds, scars
from dog bites and batons, tears and on
going psychological trauma," Fiya
told Mpofu in a statement leaked to The
Standard.
"I am
from Liberia. Sir, I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years of
civil war and
I have experienced too much senseless violence in my lifetime,
especially
connected to diamonds.
"In speaking with some of these people,
Minister, I had to leave the
room. This has to be acknowledged and it has to
stop."
The team recommended that Zimbabwe must acknowledge that
diamond
mining at Marange was not in line with KPCS minimum standards and
urged the
government to act urgently to ensure compliance with prescribed
standards.
Mpofu denied allegations of human rights abuses at
Marange and said
calls to ban diamonds from the fields were
unjustified.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
19:34
BATTLE lines have been drawn between the government and labour
over
the latest attempt at drafting a new constitution.
The
fall out could signal a cruel reversal of fortunes for the
Movement for
Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Almost a
decade ago, the MDC which was still in its infancy boycotted
the 2000
constitution-making process protesting that President Robert Mugabe
had
hand-picked the commission charged with drafting the country's supreme
law.
The MDC teamed up with the Lovemore Madhuku-led
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU),
students, other opposition parties and civil society to
deliver a crushing
"No" vote that marked the beginning of Mugabe's
downfall.
This time the NCA and ZCTU are boycotting the ongoing
process arguing
that the initiative led by a parliamentary select committee
is undemocratic.
The ZCTU, which sired the MDC in 1999, accuses
the government of
ignoring its founding manifesto that recommended the
writing of a people's
constitution through a "constitutional commission
defined by and accountable
to a conference of representatives of elected,
civil and other social groups
after mass education on the
constitution".
"The ZCTU is guided by a resolution of a 1999
special congress that
was held at Zesa Training Centre calling for a
people-driven
constitution-making process," the secretary general of the
country's biggest
labour movement, Wellington Chibebe said in defence of the
union's stance.
"There is a world of difference between a
people-driven process and a
parliamentary-driven process."
Analysts last week said while the inevitable collapse of the
ZCTU-NCA-MDC
alliance might not stop politicians from having it their way
this time
around on the new constitution, because of the new configuration
in
government it may lead to a major shift in the country's political
landscape.
"What we are witnessing is a very interesting
scenario given that
ZCTU, by distancing itself is by all means trying to
carve its own space
within civil society, this time around without having to
be constantly
referred to as the parent organisation to a political movement
like MDC,"
said Brilliant Mhlanga, a Zimbabwean political analyst based at
the
University of Westminster in London.
"This in itself is
a positive move for the ZCTU and might be positive
for the MDC only if the
latter understands the implication of such a
political weaning process by
the parent organisation.
"In essence, MDC can be able to
develop a clear ideological location
of its own."
He said
however this form of political weaning was likely to be
disastrous for the
MDC-T given the laxity with which it was formed through a
coalition with
various other stakeholders, key among them being labour.
"That
alone will weaken the MDC, further. It will even aggravate the
cleavages
that are already showing within the MDC-T between the Morgan
Tsvangirai and
Tendai Biti camps."
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa)
Zimbabwe chapter director
Takura Zhangazha said although the new political
configuration brought about
by the formation of the unity government between
Zanu PF and the MDC
formations might weaken the NCA and ZCTU lobby, the
political parties will
ignore their opposition at their own
peril.
"Even if those campaigning for a "no" vote lose, it will
be a
significant vote that will raise questions of legitimacy for the
constitution," he said.
However, Zhangazha said it was not
too late for the government to find
common ground with the critics of the
process that gets into full gear
tomorrow with the first All Stakeholders'
Conference organised by the
parliamentary select committee driving the
process.
"I do not think it's about the No vote yet," he said.
"It's about
getting the government to change the way it wants to conduct the
process.
"But the potential for a no vote is real as the issue
of
constitutional reforms has been in the public domain for a long time and
it
is being taken seriously."
Mhlanga said despite the
record unemployment levels in the country
that might raise questions about
ZCTU's capacity to organise against its
longtime allies in the MDC-T and the
NCA's documented financial problems,
the alliance could still mount a
serious challenge against the politicians.
"This coalition
(ZCTU, NCA, students and civil society) still exists
today although slightly
depleted," he said.
"An added notch to the NCA-ZCTU cause for a
people-driven
constitution-making process is that they have a formidable
voice that stands
for the opposition in parliament through Jonathan
Moyo.
"That's a very strong boost."
But there
are some who felt the ZCTU and NCA leaders miscalculated and
risk emerging
from the battle bruised and irrelevant.
"As we move forward
with this process let us disabuse ourselves from
the view that there is
anyone who is indispensable," University of Zimbabwe
lecturer, John Makumbe,
told a recent civil society convention on the
constitution.
"If one organisation thinks that when it is not there nothing will
happen,
Zimbabweans should not be stopped but encouraged to go ahead and
make sure
that something happens despite that organisation's absence."
Zimbabwe's constitution adopted at the Lancaster House talks on the
eve of
the country's Independence has been amended 19 times.
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 18:54
THREE years ago Olive Mutabeni quit her
job as a nurse at Chitungwiza
Central Hospital where she had worked since
1985 for "greener pastures".
In her last five years at the
hospital, Mutabeni had worked as a
Home-Based Care (HBC) and Prevention of
Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)
co-ordinator but she had no idea the
experience would influence her future
in such a big way.
Mutabeni says a few months after she resigned, some of the people she
had
treated while co-ordinating the HBC and PMTCT programmes came after her
at
home for further assistance.
She ended up with so many people
in her community knocking on her door
every day needing help even at odd
hours.
"Some came to me very ill. Others came having lost hope
after testing
HIV positive while yet others wanted help for their relatives
who had been
discharged from hospital and they had no idea how to take care
of them,"
Mutabeni said.
Responding to her community's
needs, Mutabeni converted one of her
daughters' bedrooms in the Unit F
high-density suburb into an office from
where she received people living
with HIV from all over Chitungwiza.
"At first I was not sure
what to do and what these people expected me
to do and how I could help them
when I had no money for even a pair of
gloves to bathe the sick who were
bedridden," Mutabeni said.
"But I embraced the
call."
Mutabeni teamed up with former workmate Rosa Mufunde and
other
volunteers to start work that culminated in the formation of the Life
Empowerment Support Organisation (Leso) in March last year.
Leso was officially launched on Wednesday.
"I think what drove
me and Mufunde to start this organisation had more
to do with us being HIV
positive.
"It was because of the fact that we went through all
this lack of
support and stigma that we realised that if we turned these
people away we
would have been also guilty of stigma," Mutabeni
said.
But she says although their organisation has continued to
offer
psycho-social support such as counselling and home-based care to
people
living with HIV in Chitungwiza, it has not been an easy
road.
Speaking at the launch of the organisation at her home,
Mutabeni said
through the support of her sisters working in the diaspora she
has been able
to make a huge difference on the lives of those affected and
infected by the
disease in her community.
"What has made us
stay afloat as the Leso team is love.
"We have caregivers who
are not being paid, who walk long distances to
counsel and treat
patients.
"We have volunteers in the community who have huge
hearts and are
willing to help in every way possible," Mutabeni said. "It is
through our
love, the little resources and the love of God that we see here
today, at
this launch, some people who came to us unable to walk are now
strong and
healthy.
"It is through the passion to help
others that is in our team that we
see such miracles but we need all the
help we can get from well-wishers to
make our work much
easier."
Zimbabwe HIV and Aids Activists Union's Bernard Nyathi
speaking at the
same event said community-driven organisations must be
supported because
they reach out to the most affected
people.
"We need more organisations like Leso that work on the
ground with
grassroots people, who see the suffering first hand and the real
areas of
need instead of relying on statistics alone.
"That
is the only way we can ensure that HIV and AIDS funds reach
their intended
beneficiaries," Nyathi said.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
18:49
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe is one of five African countries that will
benefit
from a US$60 million United Kingdom fund aimed at facilitating
research into
health and science by universities.
Universities
in the country will be partnered by researchers at the
Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the University of Liverpool
as "part of a US$60
million initiative to strengthen research into science
and
health."
LSTM and the Liverpool University would also work with
universities in
South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi.
"The initiative will see the formation of seven new international
consortiums that will focus on developing and sustaining high quality
research into the health and well being of African people," Professor Peter
Winstanley of Liverpool's LSTM noted in a response to questions emailed to
him.
"This new initiative will improve the capacity of
African medical
schools to develop research careers and secure essential
funding for
long-term commitment to studies in health
sciences."
The country's universities lag behind in research
into health and
science owing to financial constraints. Winstanley added
that the initiative
to boost research on health issues will focus mainly on
major killer
diseases like malaria, TB and HIV/Ads.
Malaria
and TB are one of the major killer diseases in the country
after HIV/Aids,
health experts say.
An estimated 1.8 million Zimbabweans are living
with HIV/Aids.
"The most pressing problems in Africa right now
are infectious
diseases. Falciparum malaria remains one of the highest
priorities in
children.
"In adults HIV-related pathogens,
such as TB and Salmonellae, demand
the most attention," Professor Winstanley
said.
Zimbabwe continues to record a decline from an estimated
26% percent
of the population infected with the HIV virus that causes Aids
in 2002 to
21% in 2007 in the age group 15-49.
Despite the
drop in HIV infections, drug and food shortages in the
country have left
patients malnourished and more vulnerable to sickness and
a hastened death,
according to Aids support groups.
Studies by the World Health
Organisation show that only 15 000
Zimbabweans are receiving antiretroviral
drugs.
Although the government licensed local firms to
manufacture generic
Aids drugs, acute shortages of hard currency have
stopped imports of raw
materials and held back a government programme to
treat patients through
public health services.
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009 18:45
SEVENTEEN bright but economically disadvantaged Zimbabwean students
have
received full four-year scholarships worth over $5.5 million dollars to
study in the United States beginning September.
Ambassador
James McGee confirmed the awards during a send-off ceremony
in Harare last
week.
"As I conclude my term in Zimbabwe next week, I am more than
inspired
by the knowledge that the United States continues to contribute to
the
education of exceedingly bright and promising young Zimbabweans from a
diversity of backgrounds," McGee said.
The scholarship
recipients participated in an intensive year-long
United States Student
Achievers Program (USAP).
USAP assists highly-talented but
economically-disadvantaged high
school students to negotiate and finance the
process of obtaining full
scholarships to study at accredited US colleges
and universities.
In addition to being straight-A students, USAP
participants also
exhibit demonstrated leadership potential and the ethos of
giving back to
their community.
The recipients are Blessing
Havana (Pomona College), Corra Leigh
Magiya (Providence College), Joseph
Foromera (Duke University), Lennox
Chitsike (Hamilton College), Rutendo
Ruzvidzo (College of Wooster), Tafadzwa
Mahlanganise (Davidson College),
Tanya Sawadye (Cottey College), Yemurai
Adda Mangwendeza (Yale University),
Zvikomborero Alexander Matenga (Wesleyan
University), Tatenda Yemeke
(University of Chicago), Tatenda Mutsamwira
(Jacobs University), Lovemore
Simbarashe Kuzomunhu (University of
Pennsylvania), Lovemore Makusha
(Williams College), Lesley Nyirenda
(Stanford University), Ngonidzashe
Madungwe (Tufts University), Stephen Dini
(Swarthmore College) and Tinofara
Majoni (Colgate University).
At the function, several corporate groups
confirmed their support to
some of the students.
In this
year's group, the students come from a variety of provinces
and high schools
including Harare, Milton, Regina Mundi and Kriste Mambo,
Glen View I and
Kutama College, St Faith's Rusape, Monte Cassino and St
Dominic's,
Highfield, and Zengeza 1 High.
The students will pursue studies
in diverse fields such as medicine,
engineering, economics and political
science at a range of highly-selective
colleges including Stanford, Duke and
Yale Universities, the Universities of
Chicago and of Pennsylvania; as well
as top-ranked liberal arts colleges
such as Pomona, Williams and
Swarthmore.
Since the establishment of USAP in 1999 in Harare,
more than 200 USAP
students have enrolled with full scholarships covering
tuition and fees,
room and board, books and other expenses for four-year
bachelor degree
studies.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
18:37
BULAWAYO - Government intends to lure back senior health
professionals
who migrated to Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland
in a bid to
beef up staffing levels at overstretched health
institutions.
Dr Henry Madzorera, the Minister of Health and Child
Welfare announced
the plan last week as he bemoaned the fact that the
inclusive government was
still struggling to attract returning health
professionals six months after
the formation of the unity
government.
Madzorera said although a significant number of nurses
and other
low-level staff had returned during the past few months, the
situation
remained critical.
He said 50% of the posts for
highly qualified staff still remained
vacant.
"We have
specifically registered nurses and other general hand staff
and the greatest
challenge at the moment is that of doctors and other
highly-qualified
personnel," he said.
"We have a serious task ahead of us. That
is why we are now planning
to go to our neighbours and convince those
Zimbabweans working there to come
back home and work in the country's health
sector," he added.
Madzorera said his ministry would build
houses and provide health
personnel with easy access to clean water,
electricity, and proper ablution
facilities in an effort to retain qualified
staff.
"We also want to address the issue of dilapidated
infrastructure at
our hospitals. We have come across situations where some
buildings are
collapsing while others need a facelift.
"We
are currently engaging donors to solicit for funding of these
developments
that will seek to bring back the proper service provision at
our
hospitals."
The ministry would also prioritise the provision of
blankets and other
essentials at hospitals.
"We are trying
by all means to put back Zimbabwe in its rightful place
in the health sector
as compared to other countries.
"If we are able to get the
money from the donors, we believe as a
government, nothing will stop us from
achieving this feat," Madzorera said.
Health professionals
receive allowances from donors on top of the
US$100 a month that government
has been paying civil servants since
February.
BY NKULULEKO
SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
18:34
BULAWAYO - The city council has been forced to close some of its
clinics while others have been leased to private players due to a critical
shortage of health professionals to run the health centres.
The
local authority has not been spared the crisis bedevilling the
country's
health delivery system that was once the envy of many in Africa.
Out of the 19 municipal clinics in Bulawayo, four have since been
rented out
to private investors in order to save them from collapse after
health
professionals deserted council clinics.
"We rented out sections
of the Tshabalala, Pumula South and Lobengula
clinics to private players
since we had no capacity to run them as there
were no medical officers at
the council," Dr Zanele Hwalima, the Bulawayo
City Council health director
said.
However, Hwalima dismissed reports that Mahatshula clinic
had been
rented out to the Premier Services Medical Aid Society
(PSMAS).
A council medical officer had earlier confirmed that
PMSAS had taken
over the running of the council's Mahatshula
clinic.
Health professionals continue to skip the country for
neighbouring
countries, mainly to South Africa which remains the destination
of choice
for professionals and non-professionals alike, as the government
continues
to say it is not able to match their salaries to those obtaining
in the
region.
Health professionals earn US$100 allowances
from the government on top
of the other allowances provided by aid
agencies.
According to Hwalima, there is a serious staff
shortage with council
clinics manned by less than 40% of the required health
professionals.
Meanwhile, hundreds of poor HIV positive people
continue to die before
accessing free ARV treatment as the waiting list of
the free life prolonging
anti-retroviral drugs at council clinics stands at
9 500 against 152 that
can be admitted monthly into the
programme.
"At other clinics, the waiting list is up to 500,
but at the moment we
can only introduce eight people per month per clinic,
meaning that the
demand is very high.
"Of concern is that
some people have been coming for testing when they
can't even walk and
sometimes it will be too late," said Dr Edwin Sibanda, a
city council
clinical medical officer.
The majority of residents in the city
cannot afford treatment at
private owned institutions and municipal clinics
are an alternative to the
overburdened government hospitals.
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
18:28
ZIMBABWE will register a double digit economic growth starting
next
year buoyed by new lines of credit and an improvement in internal
electricity generation, a Cabinet minister said on Thursday.
Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister, Elton Mangoma
told the
Zimbabwe International Investment Conference that the economy is
responding
well to the policies enunciated by the inclusive government
formed in
February.
"The economy will enjoy double digit growth from next
year upwards and
I project that this will continue for the next 10 years,"
Mangoma said.
The International Monetary Fund projects that the
economy will grow by
2.8% in 2009 having contracted by 14% last
year.
The economic rebound announced by Mangoma, prevalent in
countries in a
transition, is attainable but cannot be achieved over a long
period of time,
analysts say.
"It's really an optimistic
forecast but difficult to attain," said
Tony Hawkins a business professor at
the University of Zimbabwe.
"You need high levels of investment
for that. But where will the
investment come from, and the finance, the
skilled manpower," he said.
Hawkins also noted that the
political environment, poisoned by failure
by the parties to the inclusive
government to solve outstanding issues, was
not conducive for spectacular
growth.
"No one can ever think that the GNU is ideal for rapid
rate of
economic growth," said Hawkins.
But Mangoma said
capacity utilisation in industry had more than
doubled in June to 25% from
as low as 10%.
According to the Short Term Emergency Recovery
Programme (Sterp),
capacity utilisation is forecast to top 60% in
December.
Mangoma said the increase in capacity utilisation had
been enabled by
the availability of lines of credit to the economic sectors
to ensure that
"retailers and industrialists restocked, acquired raw
materials, undertook
necessary repairs and maintenance and mines
reopened".
He said a medium term strategy which would succeed
Sterp must be in
place by October to drive the economic
revival.
The plan once unveiled will guide Finance Minister
Tendai Biti to
craft the 2009 National Budget.
Investors
were wary of the absence of property rights which reached
alarming levels
when investments protected under the Bilateral Investment
Promotion and
Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) were seized and Mangoma said
because "we
signed those agreements, those investments must be compensated
in
full".
He said Zimbabwe is on the verge of signing BIPPAs with
South Africa's,
the country leading trading partner.
Negotiations for signing of the agreement started early this year and
before
the two parties could clinch a deal, South Africa had its election
which
ushered in a new cabinet and the negotiations had to be restarted,
Mangoma
said.
Last week's meeting was attended by the three principals
to the power
sharing agreement, President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara who took
questions from
prospective investors.
Mutambara set the
tone saying the government must respect its
agreements if it has to be
trusted by investors.
He said the coalition government was the
best short term answer to the
problems bedevilling the country.
"This is the price we are paying for peace in our country," he
said.
Last week's indaba was the first such meeting since the
formation of a
coalition government in February but it was the second such
meeting since
independence.
In 1981, Zimbabwe hosted
Zimbabwe Conference on Reconstruction and
Development (Zimcord) to mobilise
resources to repair infrastructure damaged
during the protracted liberation
war.
Zimcord mobilised over US$2.3 billion in external
assistance and
marketed Zimbabwe as a safe investment
destination.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July
2009 18:16
BARELY three months after buying Leopard Rock, LonZim has
appointed
project managers to oversee the US$1.7 million refurbishment of
the hotel in
a major boost for the country's tourism industry.
This comes at a time when established players in the hospitality
industry
are scouting for funds to undergo major face-lifts following years
of
neglect due to the deteriorating economic conditions.
LonZim says
Lonrho Hotels, who will be the project managers for the
face-lift, will earn
US$102 000 for managing the process.
"Lonrho Hotel will provide
a detailed refurbishment programme and
budget for approval by the LonZim
board," LonZim said in a statement.
The face-lift programme is
expected to last a year and "bring the
existing facilities back to an
international five star standard".
In addition to the sprucing
up of the Leopard Rock image, Lonrho
Hotels will produce a development
master plan for the property which is to
be expanded.
"In
addition to upgrading the existing 18 hole PGA championship golf
course,
hotel, casino and private game reserve, the master plan will review
the
options of adding a further 100 rooms of accommodation, a second 18 hole
PGA
standard golf course, an international polo club and a world class spar
,"
it said.
Currently, the hotel consists of 49 double rooms, one
single room and
eight suites and can accommodate 115
guests.
At the completion of the refurbishment, Lonrho Hotels
will commence a
10-year management contract where it will be paid four
percent of gross
turnover and eight percent of the operating
profit.
"The Leopard Rock Hotel will be included in the Lonrho
Hotels Maestro
global central reservation system," LonZim
said.
David Lenigas, the LonZim executive chairman said the
face-lift would
return Leopold Rock to its former glory.
"The process of returning the Leopard Rock Hotel to its previous
position as
one of the leading hotels in Africa has now started and will
provide
Zimbabwe with a flagship property that is world class.
"We
intend to hold a PGA golf tournament as soon as the refurbishment
is
completed to re-launch this very special hotel," he said.
Lenigas said: "it supports the development of quality hotels
throughout the
region and with its previously announced development on the
coast at Beira,
Mozambique and the planned new five star Leopard Hotel in
Harare, LonZim
will have a unique geographical spread of hotels to serve the
market."
LonZim splashed US$8.5 million in April for the
hotel located in the
Eastern Highlands.
Leopard Rock hotel
is highly regarded in Zimbabwe and internationally,
with an impressive
history of accommodating royal guests such as the late
Princess Diana in
1995.
The acquisition of the hotel enhances LonZim's hotel
strategy for
Zimbabwe and comes hard on the heels of a proposed five star
property, 'The
Leopard', in Harare.
There are also plans to
set up a 'Leopard Lodge' property in Victoria
Falls and this "will provide
LonZim with a geographically spread portfolio
to service all of the wider
Zimbabwe tourism market."
Zimbabwe's tourism industry is
picking its pieces following years of
downturn.
Under the
Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme the tourism sector
is expected to
provide the quickest turnaround ahead of agriculture, mining
and
manufacturing.
LonZim will have to battle it out with the three
established players
in the hospitality business namely African Sun Limited,
Rainbow Tourism
Group and Cresta Hospitality who have been in the business
for a long time.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
17:03
FOR an organisation in which many millions have invested so much
hope
and faith, the vibes coming from the MDC leadership must surely, be
disconcerting.
No one can seriously doubt the political capital
that the MDC has
amassed over the last decade. Nobody can seriously belittle
its efforts.
No one can seriously underestimate the challenges it
faces even in
this inclusive government where its leverage is severely
limited. But
millions will have been dismayed by the apparent contradictions
coming from
members of the leadership.
One thing seems
clear: There is something seriously wrong with the
manner in which the MDC
manages and disseminates information. This, of
course is not
new.
At the height of the election season and the negotiations
that
followed it was often hard to ascertain the true position of the MDC on
account of the many voices and tongues that 'spoke' on behalf of the
party.
There was a temptation to think that this multi-voiced
system was a
negotiating tactic but in truth it brought more confusion and
whatever
benefits such a 'tactic' may have had were outweighed by the costs.
Sometimes it looked confused in the eyes of observers, saying one thing,
then another and doing a completely different thing. It must be said, this
did not help its standing in the eyes of SADC.
In recent
days there have been indications that all may not be well at
the
top.
First, during Prime Minister Tsvangirai's recent trip to
the West, he
faced some uncomfortable questions after a report by the BBC in
which
Minister for National Healing and MDC executive Sekai Holland
suggested that
all was not well in the unity government.
At
that time Tsvangirai was performing the unenviable task of selling
the
message that Zimbabwe was making progress under the new unity
government.
The apparent conflicting messages did not help and not even Mrs
Holland's
attempts to wriggle out of the situation were credible since the
interview
had been captured on video.
Second, just prior to the Prime
Minister's return from his Western
voyage ministers from his party boycotted
a cabinet session. The session had
apparently been brought forward to
accommodate President Mugabe's trip to
the African Union Summit in
Libya.
The MDC ministers objected to this on the ground that it was
a snub to
Prime Minister Tsvangirai who in their interpretation should have
stood in
for Mugabe as Chairman of Cabinet on the regular Tuesday session.
They felt
that the rescheduling of the meeting was calculated to prevent
Tsvangirai
from assuming this role in Mugabe's absence.
On his
return Tsvangirai expressed sympathy with his colleagues'
decision and
characterised it as a sign of frustration. More importantly
however, he was
quick to quash any doubts about the implications of the
boycott stability of
the GNU. President Mugabe later said in an interview
that Tsvangirai had
apologised for the behaviour of his colleagues.
Tsvangirai has neither
confirmed nor denied making the apology to his boss.
Some supporters feel he
did not have to apologise.
What is significant however is that
the conduct of the ministers in
boycotting the session was completely at
odds with the positive message that
the Prime Minister had been trying,
against an avalanche of scepticism, to
sell to the world.
There
was an apparent contradiction between the actions of the MDC
ministers at
home and the words of the Prime Minister abroad. It didn't have
to be said
in words; conduct alone communicated the message that what the
Prime
Minister was telling the world was not a fair representation of the
truth.
It raises the question as to whether Tsvangirai was
informed of the
boycott in advance. If so, did he approve of it? In that
case, why did he
have to apologise to the President? It seems to me that
despite the public
rhetoric, the Prime Minister did not approve of the
boycott.
If he was not informed, it begs the question why he was
not advised of
such a significant development. Was he deliberately by-passed
by his
subordinates on such an important and potentially embarrassing
decision?
The boycott has been described as an MDC v ZANU PF
power politics but
is there, perhaps, another angle to it? Could it also be
a reaction by the
MDC ministers to Tsvangirai's glowing appraisal of the
unity government and
its prospects during his Western trip? There is a
feeling amongst some
members of the public and perhaps the ministers that
the MDC is being taken
for a ride.
Were the MDC ministers
chiding Tsvangirai for painting an overly rosy
picture of the situation?
This boycott could have been a message to the
Prime Minister that no, Sir,
all is not as well as you suggest.
Third, at his press
conference after returning from the Western trip,
the Prime Minister
announced that Finance Minister Biti had negotiated and
secured a $950
million credit facility from the Chinese. Biti, who is the
Secretary-General
of the MDC denied this claim.
His denial was later corroborated by
President Mugabe who said this
Chinese facility had been negotiated long
before the inception of the unity
government and could not be credited to
Biti and the MDC.
The recently resurrected Herald columnist
Nathaniel Manheru did not
miss the opportunity to pour scorn on the Prime
Minister's claims. It has
left the Prime Minister appearing like a man who
does not play fair with the
truth. Clearly, some wires crossed here and
crucial questions arise.
On what basis did the Prime Minister
make the claim about the loan?
Did someone feed him the wrong information
which later caused him to face
the subsequent embarrassment of being accused
of not being faithful to the
truth? Did the Prime Minister jump the gun in
his haste to extol the efforts
of his Minister and his party in the unity
government after a Western voyage
that yielded little by way of funds? Or
was he simply ill-advised by those
around him? These are hard
questions.
What we do know however is that there is certainly
something that
needs to be attended to. It doesn't help that another MDC
Minister was
quoted as having denied the alleged mass killings at the
Marange diamond
fields.
The faithful of the MDC will argue
that it is improper to pinpoint the
party whilst overlooking the other
political parties (MDC-M and ZANU PF)
that are probably in a worse condition
organisationally.
Their frustration is understandable but theirs is
the biggest
political party in Zimbabwe and not just that but one that has
for a long
time and for many people represented the great hope in Zimbabwean
politics;
millions of people have invested their hopes and aspirations in
the party,
giving it the political capital that has sustained it so
far.
Such a status means that it attracts higher levels of
expectations and
with it scrutiny. If it should fail, then much else will go
not least the
already fragile hope and faith in politics and political
organisations.
But more importantly, any organisation that fails to
engage in
self-introspection is bound to go the same way as all others
before it. An
organisation must identify and acknowledge what it is doing
wrong and not to
simply shift blame onto others deflecting criticism,
believing that its
troubles are authored by some dark, mysterious forces out
to get it.
Something is not right somewhere organisationally and it
needs to be
sorted fast. For a start there must be better communication and
more
efficient systems of managing information. The MDC still enjoys a great
level of support and sympathy but it would be a great error if the party
took all this for granted.
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law
School, the University of Kent and
can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July
2009 17:01
ZIMBABWE is trying to run before it has learnt to
walk.
In recent weeks a series of conferences have taken place,
all intended
to present a picture of a country that has gotten over its
problems and one
that is ready to welcome investors.
It is
true that there is considerable investor interest in Zimbabwe.
But interest
is just the beginning. Anyone can be keen but that is far from
making a
commitment to invest in a country.
There have been rebranding
seminars and committees dispatched to
foreign capitals to reassure
businesses about the safety and desirability of
Zimbabwe as an investment
destination.
But last week President Robert Mugabe helpfully
muddied the waters
during a major conference that was aimed at attracting
foreign business to
come and participate in Zimbabwe's recovery process.
Mugabe was asked about
compensation for commercial farmers, whose properties
the government seized
in 2000 under the disastrous "revolutionary" land
reform programme.
Apart from his unsettling responses, the
contradictions between his
pronouncements and those of the other
co-signatories to the Global Political
Agreement depicted a country that has
not decided what it wants so its
leadership can start collectively singing
from the same hymnsheet.
Discordant voices aside, the
investment conference was mistimed. It
seemed the 400 delegates were largely
local and not foreign. The conference
coincided with fuel shortages, power
cuts, increasing reports of armed
robberies and generally the country's lack
of preparedness for investors.
At a time when the market is
supposed to operate more freely, the
Ministry of Energy and Power
Development was trying to force fuel importers
to use the state-owned
facilities, totally disregarding the fact that the
importers have standing
contracts that cannot be abandoned at the drop of a
hat.
This suggested several things - among them that the state was saddled
with a
white elephant of a pipeline and storage facilities. But ominously
this
suggested a throwback to the days when Zanu PF raided importers' fuel
in
order to keep its elite well catered for at the expense of owners of the
fuel.
The power cuts have increased so this would be of
concern to
investors, who would have to contend with interruptions to
manufacturing and
production.
For some time the government
has been talking about preparing for next
year's world soccer cup in South
Africa and how the country can cash in on
this. But here are examples of the
country's state of preparedness: In
April, the National Sports Stadium was
opened to allow hosting of
Independence celebrations. The facility remains
far from complete two years
after it was closed for
renovations.
Nothing is happening at the country's airports to
anticipate arrivals
of increased traffic. The hospitality sector remains
long on plans and
intentions but woefully short on
implementation.
Infrastructure remains run down. The country
can mount all the road
shows it desires and host as many conferences as it
wishes, but what it
needs to do is very simple: sort itself out first and
then learn to walk
before it can think of running. Right now there are a lot
of very unhelpful
mixed signals.
Contrary to the
president's claims, there is little evidence that
government has honoured
its commitments to pay compensation for improvements
on those farms
acquired. Many farmers have been ordered to cease production
and others are
fighting expensive legal battles in the courts to keep their
businesses
afloat.
That is not the message we should be sending to
investors but it is
the one they heard loud and clear!
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
16:54
In African countries where leaders have unrestricted power, it
takes
more than voting to bring about change.
In Africa,
presidential elections have become the fashionable norm,
like state airlines
used to be. This year there will be 15 of them. But like
those airlines, in
the absence of supporting institutions elections have
proved to be more
decorative than functional, a veneer beneath which the
autocratic rule of
the pre-1991 era continues little abated.
Autocracy in Africa was
ruinous: Narrow ethnically based elites
plundered the country for their own
short-term benefit. America and the
other Western countries that encouraged
democracies were right to think that
what Africa needed was accountability
of government to citizen, but wrong to
think that this could be achieved
simply by elections.
Africa needs democracy and a few countries
have it. The African
National Congress has just won the South African
elections.
No surprise there. Other elections in southern Africa
will shortly
follow. In October, Mozambique will go to the polls. The
election should be
peaceful and clean, a testimony to the country's
progress. Angola will hold
presidential elections sometime later this year
and unfortunately, this is
likely to be a different story. Don't expect a
cliff-hanger:
Already 30 years in office, President Jose Eduardo
dos Santos is
heading for his fourth decade. Angola totally lacks the
institutions
necessary, such as a free press and an independent judiciary,
for an
election to give an opposition party any chance of gaining
power.
The era of naive faith in elections began following the
fall of the
Soviet Union. The Soviet leaders had been utterly allergic to
contested
elections. We assumed they were right to be allergic: Elections
would topple
dictators.
And so, in Eastern Europe and then
around the developing world, we
pretty well defined the switch to freedom in
terms of contested elections.
We now know that Soviet leaders were dumb:
They had such unrestricted power
that they would have been able to win
contested elections easily.
As long as an incumbent leader has
enough options, facing an election
need not be too daunting.
One
potential weakness of elections in developing countries is that
electorates
may be so ill-informed about economic issues that they support
populist
politicians.
This has been the recent experience in parts of Latin
America such as
Venezuela and Bolivia.
It may become a
problem in Jacob Zuma's South Africa, but it will
probably not amount to
much. Zuma flirted with populism to gain the
leadership, but now he is
secure barring a political earthquake.
He is a shrewd politician
and knows that the real check on his power
now is the currency markets:
South Africa needs to finance a substantial
payments
deficit.
It will be many years before a South African election
results in a
change of government, but Ghana reached that milestone last
December.
The ruling party lost the election by a whisker, which is
the most
convincing demonstration that it was clean. This was all the more
impressive
following the disastrous elections in Zimbabwe and Kenya earlier
in the
year. Admittedly in Ghana the president of the incumbent party was
not
standing, and a ruling party minus its incumbent leader may have much
less
advantage.
Crucially, the members of the Electoral
Commission were genuinely
independent of government.
Annual
elections, of course, would be a distraction. But within the
normal range of
three to seven years, my colleague Lisa Chauvet of the
research centre DIAL
in Paris and I find that an increase in the frequency
of elections tends
significantly to improve economic policy.
When faced with the need
to win regular elections, governments
systematically improved policies as
measured by the World Bank's Country
Policy and Institutional Assessment, an
annual measure of the economies of
developing countries. For example, if
elections are every three years
instead of every seven, the chances of
policy improvement go up by around a
half.
For anyone who
has heard the critiques of the World Bank coming from
many of the
international development non-governmental organisations, this
result is
amazing.
The NGOs claimed to be campaigning "on behalf of the
voiceless"
against policies that were inimical to local interests. The World
Bank
agenda, which included anathemas like fiscal caution, liberalized
markets
and privatization, was externally imposed to serve the interests of
global
capitalism.
Surprising, then, that when the voiceless
gain the power of the
ballot, their policy preferences seem to be pretty
consistent with those of
the World Bank.
Here is the catch:
Crooked elections have no effect. In most African
countries the frequency of
contested elections has increased, but this does
not help if they are not
properly conducted.
Electoral misconduct has been disturbingly
common in low-income
countries.
The key crooked tactics are
voter bribery, voter intimidation and
ballot fraud. In each of them the
incumbent has an advantage. Bribery needs
money, but as long as the national
budget is leaky the president has more of
it than the
opponents.
With sufficient money, voters can be bribed
individually, or the local
big man can be bribed to deliver votes wholesale;
often entire villages vote
for the same candidate. Voter intimidation needs
forces of violence, but the
president likely has the police and the
army.
Ballot fraud needs the subservience of election officials,
who may
well be presidential placemen.
Pedro Vicente of Trinity
College in Dublin and I tested the effect of
voter intimidation through a
randomized experiment.
We chose the Nigerian presidential election
of 2007, which was
expected to be violent, and injected a campaign to reduce
intimidation,
randomly assigning it among constituencies. The campaign,
conducted by the
local NGO ActionAid, delivered the message, "Vote against
violent
politicians," using street theater and posters. It worked,
significantly
reducing the number of violent incidents and making voters
braver.
In the constituencies where the campaign took place the
vote for
violent politicians was lower, and the turnout for other candidates
rose by
around 9%.
How much of an advantage do crooked tactics
confer? Anke Hoeffler of
Oxford University and I have just investigated that
using data on 786
elections, some clean, others crooked, in 155 countries
since 1979. The
effect of crooked tactics turns out to be massive, nearly
tripling the
incumbent's expected duration in office.
Crooked
tactics also get incumbents off the hook of needing good
economic
performance. If incumbents are confined to honest electoral
tactics, then
raising the growth rate from zero to 5% is one of the best
ways of retaining
power: The time in office increases by around 60%. By
using illicit methods
the priority for policy can be switched from national
growth to private
patronage. So crooked tactics not only keep you in office,
they make office
more rewarding for crooks.
A few structural characteristics make
some societies highly exposed to
crooked tactics. Poverty is a risk factor,
but it is the compound of poverty
with a small population and dependence
upon natural resource revenues that
takes the risk level through the roof.
Small is not beautiful when it comes
to elections, and in small societies it
is probably easier for an incumbent
to keep the sinews of power
personalized.
Valuable natural resources should be an opportunity
for prosperity,
but in practice they tend to increase the incentive to hang
onto power by
whatever means, and to make it easier for incumbents to do so.
That is why
there is no chance that the Angolan elections will result in a
change of
power.
This cocktail of poverty, small populations
and natural-resource
dependence characterizes most of Africa and the other
societies of the
bottom billion. It stands in contrast to India which,
despite its poverty,
has succeeded in maintaining a functioning democracy. I
think that India's
huge size and lack of natural resources has
helped.
It also contrasts with the new democracies of Eastern
Europe such as
Poland and the Czech Republic. Not only were these societies
already
middle-income and not resource dependent, but a degree of political
discipline was imposed by the goal of membership of the European
Union.
Mugabe recently provided a spectacular demonstration: If at
first you
don't succeed try, try and try again. In the second round, delayed
until
June to give him time to change tactics, all it took was sufficiently
brutal
voter intimidation.
For good measure many of the party
workers of the opposition were
beaten up and several murdered. After that,
and the pitiful connivance of
regional leaders in Mugabe's retention of
power, there could be no doubt
that African elections face
problems.
The major political development in Africa over the past
year has not
been the patchy conduct of elections, but the comeback of the
coup d'etat.
Since independence there have been over 80 successful coups in
Africa and
hundreds of attempts, but their incidence had seemed to be in
secular
decline.
Perhaps their revival is due to the French
decision a decade ago to
pull back from paternalism in Francophone West
Africa. Coups are imitative,
and once the French allowed one in Cote
d'Ivoire to succeed, several others
in West Africa followed.
While nobody wants a return to French paternalism, the international
community could step up to the more limited role of protecting democratic
governments from coups on condition that they conducted elections properly.
For this to work, protection from coup risk would need to be an acceptable
price to pay for facing the greater risk of loss of office implied by the
honest conduct of elections.
In the past 12 months there have
been four successful coups. In two of
them, Madagascar and Mauritania, the
coup deposed a democratically elected
government: Being democratically
elected provides no significant protection.
Coups depose presidents but
create precedents: From now on few African
presidents can sleep
easy.
The potency of this carrot is that it turns automatically
into a
stick. If an incumbent stole an election the undertaking would need
to be
withdrawn-publicly.
Thus, the protection of decently
elected governments unavoidably, and
almost inadvertently, invites coups
against crooked governments. Following
the last year of coups, presidents
tempted to steal the next election know
all too well that such invitations
would not be declined.
African presidents are not sufficiently
fearful of us to be threatened
into denying themselves the advantages of
crooked tactics, but they are
fearful of their own armies. - Wall St
Journal.
* Paul Collier, a professor of economics at Oxford
University, is the
author of "Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous
Places" and "The
Bottom Billion."
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 11 July 2009
16:44
THERE are people who want to grab all the stakes and will then
stubbornly refuse to release their hold on them. These grabbers have firmly
staked their claim to be the people, but others say that the only people the
grabbers represent are themselves.
It can be very painful
for someone to have a stake in things,
particularly if the stake is inserted
into the wrong place, something
torturers know a lot about.
There are innumerable gatherings to discuss what the people want. Some
of
these even include "the people". Some include the people but only in
order
to instruct the people about what it is that they want. Some are
convened to
warn the people about things it would be very dangerous to
want.
By labelling your meeting, "a People's Convention", no
one can deny
that the people are indeed speaking and can be heard by all
those who are
prepared to listen. (There are none so deaf as those that will
not hear.)
It is, however, essential to use a special language
when addressing
such assemblies. Civil society organisations that usually
organise such
jamborees at enormous expense are, fortunately, very well
versed in the use
of this lingo.
Their generous donors fund
workshop after workshop, seminar after
seminar, and conference after
conference.
These events provide endless opportunities not only to
devise
solutions to every imaginable and unimaginable problem besetting the
country, but also to hone skills in the use of NONGOVORG speak.
The donor agencies themselves encourage the NGOs to maximise the use
of
gobbledygook in proposals and reports. They want language like log frame
analyses, time lines, performance targets etc etc.
The word
"gobbledygook" was coined by a maverick, Maury Maverick. He
used the word in
1944 in the New York Magazine to describe the obscure
language used by his
colleagues on the US Small War Plants Committee in
Congress. His
inspiration, he said, was the turkey, "always gobbledy
gobbling and
strutting with ludicrous pomposity".
The word met a clear need and
quickly became part of the language. It
is sometimes abbreviated slightly to
gobbledygoo.
Maury's grandfather, Samuel Maverick, a Texas
rancher, was the
inspiration for maverick, originally an animal not branded
to identify its
owner (because Sam Maverick didn't brand his own herds),
later an
unconventional person, and later still a politician who stands
aside from
the herd, refusing to conform to the party line.
Of course, politicians will never be prepared to follow the party line
if
what the party is doing is wrong. Richard Nixon Oval Office tape records
this statement from H R Haldeman describing the situation to
Nixon.
To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of
gobbledygook. But out of
the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you
can't trust the government;
you can't believe what they say; and you can't
rely on their judgment. And
the implicit infallibility of presidents, which
has been an accepted thing
in America, is badly hurt by this, because it
shows that people do things
the President wants to do even though it's
wrong, and the President can be
wrong.
Anyway back to NGO
speak. Speaker after speaker enlighten the people
with a dazzling array of
verbiage.
The consultative process must be transparent, participatory,
people
centric and people driven, and the people must own both the process
and the
product.
The bottom line is that we need a bottom
up approach instead of a top
down approach. (Whose bottom will be projecting
upwards is never explained
and reference to a top down apparently does not
relate to a lady who made
the bold decision to dispense with her
bra).
My organisation, of which I am the proud founder and only
member, must
be mainstreamed as it is a genuinely grassroots organisation,
as shown by
the fact that last year I went on an extended fieldtrip in
Chivhu lasting at
least one hour during which I had a meaningful, almost
life-changing,
interactive experience which has greatly enhanced my capacity
to relate to
the essences of rural existence.
We must
mobilise and energise the people to demand that all their
fundamental rights
be accorded to them.
Only by creating an enabling environment
can we expect the intrinsic
but latent synergies to emerge with irresistible
outcomes.
There must be a positive mindset change in the political
realm in the
direction of acceptance of functional
democracy.
What we need are holistic innovative and proactive
strategies to
overcome resistance to a paradigm shift and to incentivise
everyone to move
in that direction.
There are other words
to describe verbiage. One is "echolalia which is
meaningless repetition of
speech or the often pathological repetition of
what is said by other people
as if echoing them. Another is "logghorrhea",
excessive and often incoherent
talkativeness or wordiness.
Lawyers, of course, always use
plain, simple, easily understood
terminology. One fine example is this
provision in a British Act:
In the Nuts (unground) (other than
groundnuts) Order, the expression
nuts shall have reference to such nuts,
other than ground nuts, as would but
for this amending Order not qualify as
nuts (unground) (other than ground
nuts) by reason of their being nuts
(unground).
(John Makumbe would probably warn people not to try
this at home.)
Now where were we before we deviated from the last
deviation from the
topic? I vaguely remember that we were rattling on about
who is entitled to
hold the stakes.
Well, this question will
soon be answered.
Invitees to the Stakeholders' Conference will
have made the grade and
will have bragging rights in the area of
stakeholding; those not invited
will have to slink off and hang their heads
in shame because they will have
failed to qualify to hold any stakes. But it
may not be that simple.
The chosen ones at the Conference are
likely to compete over who
should hold the stakes and this could turn ugly.
But undoubtedly at the end
of the proceedings the people's wishes will be
crystal clear.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
What did US Official say in Libya to so Upset Mugabe?
Saturday, 11 July
2009 17:22
WHAT did Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant
Secretary of
State for African Affairs say to President Robert Mugabe to
upset him to the
extent the head of state resorted to using language such as
"an idiotic. .
.little fellow"?
That is pretty strong language
for a leader of a country to use, never
mind that it is extremely
undiplomatic.
What I do know, basing on his physique during his
tour of duty in the
period 1997 - 1999 when he was Ambassador to this
country is that Ambassador
Carson is not "a little fellow". The President
must have been displaying
utter contempt for President Barack Obama's
representative, imputing that
Ambassador Carson must have "a very small,
naïve" mind.
We were told; by the state media that Ambassador
Carson met President
Mugabe on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in
the Libyan coastal
city of Sirte, scene of US bombardment of Libya during
the Cold War between
the North Africa country and the US.
However, coming after a week in which the Minister of Media,
Information and
Publicity addressed media leaders in the country on the
subject of
objectivity, balanced and fair reporting, the state media never
afforded us
an opportunity to hear what Ambassador Carson said that raised
President
Mugabe's ire to such violent levels?
In the absence of balanced
reporting we are left wondering whether
President Mugabe was angry at the
fact that Washington did not give Prime
Minister any funding for the
economic recovery process; that he was not the
one afforded an opportunity
to meet President Obama at the Oval Office; or
that the US dared suggest
that any financial package to Zimbabwe was
conditional upon implementation
of the "outstanding issues" in the Global
Political Agreement? The list is
long.
Surely the rebuke of President Obama's representative on
African
Affairs must damage our chances of securing immediate funding from
the West
of which the US is part. The other Western countries will be
waiting to take
a cue from Washington. No one could ever have imagined such
a setback.
We seem to make much of the help from the East -
China in particular,
but I like to remind fellow readers that during the
cholera crisis, which
needlessly claimed the lives of more than 4 200
innocent lives, the West
poured in millions of US dollars in humanitarian
aid, while China
contributed only US$500 000. This figure was widely
reported by the state
media and is there for everyone who cares to check
with the archives.
Those fortunate to read what the immediate
past US Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, James McGee said before leaving the country
will recall him
quoting the Declaration of Independence saying: "'We hold
these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.
"That
to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and
organising its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and
Happiness.'
"As I understand it, this is exactly what the fight
in Zimbabwe has
been about - the right of a people to democratically elect a
government that
they believe will best serve their interest in securing
basic and universal
freedoms.
"I reject the idea that
Zimbabwe needs more donor support to do this.
It costs nothing. It doesn't
cost anything to start enforcing property
rights or to have judges apply the
law equally."
Could this have been the reason for President Mugabe's
reaction? We
need to hear Ambassador Carson's comments.
Dumisani Mpofu
Waverley
Kadoma.
--------------
Shocking Service at
Restaurant
Saturday, 11 July 2009 17:22
ONE Saturday last
month (June), I visited one restaurant in the
northern suburbs for dinner
with my friends visiting from the United
Kingdom.
In total we
were six adults and two toddlers. This was my first visit
to this
restaurant. We ordered our food. One of our visitors and I ordered
the
restaurant's much touted braai dinner.
However, much to my
disappointment the chicken was too salty while the
T-bone steak was tough as
leather.
I raised my concern with one of the waiters but to my
dismay the
manageress, descended on me like a tonne of bricks. To quote her:
". . . You
can go and have steak elsewhere. It is not my fault that beef in
Zimbabwe is
tough."
She couldn't hide her racist attitude
and hatred for people of colour.
She did not apologise for the offensive
remarks and naturally we were
shocked by her attitude.
As a
consumer I believe I have a right to complain if I am not happy
with goods
and/or services provided. I believe people like the manageress of
the said
restaurant have no place in our society as we are trying to
re-build our
economy and country. This kind of behaviour must be nipped in
the bud.
Zimbabwe has no room for racists.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
should effectively deal with cases of
this nature.
Concerned
Harare.
--------------
Transport
Nightmare for Rural Travellers
Saturday, 11 July 2009 17:17
FOR most people living in the rural areas, making a journey is
generally a
nightmare. It also means that getting produce to the market or
inputs from
the market is a daunting task.
The roads are largely in a state of
disrepair. I recently travelled on
four different roads - one in the
Midlands - the Empress Mine road to Gokwe;
the Nyamandlhovu road in
Matabeleland South; the Harare-Hwedza road in
Mashonaland East; and the
fourth, the Muzarabani road in Mashonaland
Central.
Transporters risk their vehicles by plying these routes. Equally of
concern
is that the few operators on these routes expect the rural
travellers to be
up before midnight or some unearthly hour in order for them
to catch the
transport to the nearest towns to conduct their business.
It is
amazing that the councillors and the MPs who are elected
representatives of
the people in these constituencies accept as normal such
treatment of the
people they are supposed to represent .
That is perhaps one of the
reasons why they are rejecting the Madza
BT-50s as unsuitable for use during
the course of their "duties" in their
constituencies.
Equally amazing is the fact that there are no local initiatives to do
something about the state of the roads - why can't the proceeds of the
Zunde-raMambo be used to pay villagers to undertake road repairs under the
supervision of the District Development Fund? And why do the councillors -
who live among the affected villagers - ensure that transport operators
travel from their areas at times that are acceptable? To expect villagers to
be up at 11pm or 2am in order to catch buses to the major towns in this day
and age is an injustice and abuse of the travellers.
Whatever
happened to the maxim: the customer is king?
I urge the councillors and
MPs to engage the operators with a view to
alleviating the plight of
travellers who continue to be subjected to this
abuse.
Mtshumayeli Mpala
Waverley
Kadoma.
----------------
Another Distinction
Saturday, 11 July 2009 17:13
ZIMBABWE has acquired yet another dubious
distinction - that of having
the most abusive head of state in living
memory.
Might President Mugabe's lack of diplomatic decorum and
rudeness have
something to do with his advanced age?
What is
obvious though is that the dear leader can't handle criticism
very well and
flies into a rage everytime someone points to his failings.
Intrigued
Harare.
-----------
AU's Embarrassing
Descent into a Club of Dictators
Saturday, 11 July 2009 17:11
THE recent African Union's violation of the Rome Statute which gave
birth
and legal force to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is
disturbing and
embarrassing to the entire continent.
African leaders who popularly
refer to each other as "brother"
rejected the warrant of arrest for the
Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir,
who stands accused of genocide in
Sudan's Darfur region.
The stance adopted by the AU makes the
continent the laughing stock of
the world. What is wrong with Africa? The
most ruthless dictators are found
in Africa!
Al-Bashir
committed crimes against humanity. His contribution to the
Sudanese genocide
is public knowledge. I congratulate the government of
Botswana for
distancing itself from this AU shame.
I encourage President Ian
Seretse Khama to boycott the AU's gatherings
because he must not mix and
mingle with dictators.
The rightful members of this club of
dictators (AU) are President
Robert Mugabe, King Mswati III of Swaziland and
Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of
Libya, to mention a few.
Botswana and other genuine African leaders must hand over Al-Bashir to
the
ICC if he passes through their territory. The AU is promoting impunity
for
leaders who have committed genocide. This is a very dangerous precedence
for
the African continent.
The other dangerous example that has
become the trend of African
politics is power-sharing agreements after
rigged elections. Africa must not
ratify democracy and human rights treaties
if it knows that it is a
dictatorial continent.
God bless
Africa.
Charles
University of Zimbabwe
Harare.
-----------
SMS THE STANDARD:
Saturday, 11
July 2009 17:11
Big con trick
EVEN the most gullible of all
people are now beginning to realise that
all the money we are paying to the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(Zesa) is not going towards servicing
their debt. We are simply financing
their lavish lifestyles. Once bitten,
twice shy. - D C, Kuwadzana, Harare.
******
IF what has
been said about Engineer Elias Mudzuri, the Minister of
Energy and Power
Development concerning perks from the National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM) is true then the MDC-T has serious problems on its
hands. We
thought the MDC-T was aware of the people's expectations. We know
people are
generally inherently corrupt but we expect the MDC-T people to be
aware of
this and try to work very hard to be different from those in Zanu
PF. This
clearly is a betrayal of the people's aspirations. The same goes
for those
who refused to return cars they were issued by the Reserve Bank
and those
who do not want to support the local motor industry. It's the
moral element
of being like Zanu PF politicians that we resent. - Irate.
What's
going on?
A few weeks ago someone wrote to your paper saying that
Noczim had
furnished the Minister of Energy and Power Development's office.
Then last
week he was reported by the state media calling on all oil
companies to use
Noczim's pipeline to ship in their fuels. Is this mere
coincidence? - M
Cyurius.
******
Lives in
danger
THE nation should declare a state of emergency over the
recent spate
of armed robberies. All over the country there are reports of
robberies,
meaning that our lives are in danger. We need protection from
these people
who were trained to use arms. - N Gasa, Eastlea,
Harare.
******
IS the rise in armed robberies and car
jakings not linked to the June
2008 violence? Where did all those AK 47s
that Zanu PF militias were issued
with go to? - W Manyande.
Time to
stand up
I urge the electorate to punish Zanu PF heavily during any
future
elections. We are needlessly suffering 15-hour power cuts because of
its
puerile brinkmanship. - Meki Sithole.
******
THE
constitution-making process is very flawed in that it does not
include the
people's participation. No wonder the ZCTU is not part of the
process. -
Rawlings Magede.
******
WE need a constitution that will
outlive us and withstand generational
leadership changes and serve us for
posterity as a sacred document, not one
that is meant to appease today's
politicians. - No to Kariba.
******
I disagree with the
idea that the Kariba draft becomes the reference
point or the basis for the
current constitution-making process because it
gives the President powers
which he has used in overriding our wishes.
Therefore we can't say the draft
is a good document. - Kudzai Chifamba.
******
CAN you
please facilitate publication of the National Constitutional
Assembly's
draft constitution for the benefit of the public, so that we can
scrutinize
and compare it with the Kariba draft? - Pro-reform.
A sham
PEOPLE were given land but were not paid for crops which they produced
and
delivered to marketing boards until Morgan Tsvangirai came along. I sold
2
100kg of tobacco last year and the cash I was given was only enough to buy
a
bicycle and a paper bag of groceries and worthless cheques which most of
us
still have. I sacrificed by selling my cattle in order to buy fertilizer.
This is what has been happening over the years. Gideon Gono was behind all
this. -Tsvangson Mazvita.
******
THE Presidential
scholarship has become a sham. It used to give many
young Zimbabweans from
poor backgrounds a sense of hope, but now the
candidates are selected from
children of Zanu PF's elite. - Real povo.
******
WATER has
been gushing out on Amby Drive near Chalkmead and people
have been washing
their laundry there. One wonders who is going to foot the
bill for all the
water lost when nearby areas have gone without water since
September 2008. -
Livid, Greendale, Harare.
******
ZIMRA has no intention of
respecting Comesa. How can it demand duty on
a small truck which I bought
for business for US$1 000 but am being asked to
pay duty of US$700? They
said they charge duty on transport costs when I am
the one who incurred the
costs for bringing the truck up to Beitbridge. -
RTK.
A
scam
COULD the responsible authorities please investigate and
organisation
calling itself Kugaramusango housing co-operative in Mufakose.
Thirty
percent of the stands there are owned by one individual and relatives
- some
of them under age - of this particular individual. - Taneta,
Mufakose.
******
WE haven't had telephones working in the
Ashdown Park area for almost
a year. Can anyone from TelOne bother telling
us why, especially as they
continue billing us for line rentals? -
Disconnected, Harare.
Dangerous
THE intersection of
Harare Street and Herbert Chitepo is very
dangerous, with numerous accidents
being recorded almost on a daily basis.
How many lives must be lost before
the responsible authorities do something?
A start could be putting traffic
lights. - Victim.
WHY do we curse those who dare to create
functional hydro-electric
dams, cars, fridges and helicopters when being an
import-dependent nation is
degrading? - A Solshin.
The more the
merrier
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe dispatches a team to counter Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's trip. Let's look at it in a positive way and
say that if
Mugabe thinks Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans can benefit from visiting
those
countries what's bad about that? Whoever said that the US$8.3 billion
needed
for economic recovery should only come from Western countries? Didn't
we
start with Sadc and did they give us the whole amount? Then it was
Europe,
so now it is the turn of Far Eastern countries. Why then should that
be an
issue, when this is being done by an inclusive government. We should
harness
all the opportunities and resources at our disposal. -
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=19672
July 12, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe admitted Saturday his
Zanu-PF party still
differed on policy matters with the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC),
his partners in the current inclusive
government.Mugabe said the MDC was too
friendly to the Western governments
in the process failing to realise the
West still had a hidden agenda to
recolonise Zimbabwe.
"Now it is not a fight with the gun. It is a fight
to get properly united
and that is why we are saying lets be one," he
said.
Mugabe was addressing mourners at the burial of the late PF-Zapu
member,
Ackim Matthew Ndlovu who died last week at the age of 77 through
illness and
was declared a national hero by the Zanu-PF
politburo.
The burial ceremony was boycotted by the two MDC
parties.
"Are we truly one in the inclusive government? Are we united?
Let's show
that we are united and speak with one voice," Mugabe said, "the
voice of the
Zimbabwe that is free; a voice that no longer seeks the support
of
oppressors.
"Those who oppressed us yesterday cannot be our
friends today. And we have
got to learn that.
"They may talk sweet
language to us but deep down they have a deep-seated
grievance. Let's not
humiliate ourselves any further."
Mugabe, whose government embarked on a
not entirely successful "Look East
Policy" that has involved trading with
the less hostile Asian countries,
said Zimbabwe will continue to befriend
the East.
Western countries are demanding broad political and economic
reforms from
Zimbabwe, something the Zimbabwean leader was not willing to
concede.
"We go to those friends who are prepared to work with us on the
basis of
partnership and equal terms," Mugabe said.
"We recognize
their participation and reward them for it but not on the
basis of master
and servant, boss and rider. We refused to be donkeys."
Mugabe's calls
are a contradiction to Prime Minister Tsvangirai who said on
his return from
a tour of Europe and the United States two weeks ago that
Zimbabwe, in her
attempt to rebuild her economy, will not segregate against
any of the
countries willing to assist her.
Mugabe said his party will not return
any land seized by his government from
the white commercial farmers saying
their ancestors took possession of the
land without paying for
it.
"Those who are still clamouring and wanting this piece of land back
and that
piece of land back should remember the history of the country and
what they
themselves did to us."
Mugabe said his government will
allow some of the few remaining farmers to
remain on their land out of
mercy.
Meanwhile, James Maridadi, spokesperson for Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
said the MDC leader failed to attend Ndlovu's burial because of
other
commitments.
For the first time since the formation of the MDC
in 1999, Tsvangirai and
his party officials early this year attended the
burial of the late
commander of Zimbabwe's defence forces, General Vitalis
Zvinavashe.
Tsvangirai on Friday sent a condolence message to the Ndlovu
family.
The MDC wants the involvement of everybody in the conferment of
national
hero status to outstanding citizens including sports persons and
musicians
of international repute.
Currently, the privilege to accord
such status rests with the Zanu-PF
politburo and has been extended only to
former fighters of Zimbabwe's
liberation war.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
July
12, 2009
Incomers hoping for opportunities from the 2010 football World Cup
are
instead finding xenophobia, poverty, poor wages and squalid death
Dan
McDougall in De Doorns, Western Cape
Beneath the granite shadow of South
Africa's Quadu Mountains, the prayers
for the dead infant are spoken in
Shona, the language of rural Zimbabwe.
It is early morning. Across the De
Doorns township, an hour's drive east of
the commercial heart of Cape Town,
migrant labourers emerge from twisted tin
shacks, forced awake by the sound
of mourning drifting across the main
highway north to
Johannesburg.
By the roadside cemetery a dozen women sing and shiver in
the midwinter
chill beneath a circling flock of starlings: "We will meet
again in Heaven,
through the blood of Jesus, we will meet."
At their
stamping feet, on a mound of rocky earth, sits the tiny coffin of
thin
cream-coloured plywood.
Inside lies the body of one-year-old Melissa
Mauketo, emaciated and
withered, a victim of malnutrition in a country that
has become a false
beacon of hope for Africa's dispossessed.
The
corner of the burial ground we are standing in betrays a wider tragedy.
Around us are crude immigrant graves adorned with simple white
crosses.
On each crucifix, the knife-carved names of other infants, the
diseased and
malnourished children of immigrants from Lesotho, Somalia, the
Democratic
Republic of Congo and Zambia. All of Africa in the ground beneath
us.
The girl's middle name was Nyaradzo. It means "comfort", the dead
child's
mother, Patience, tells me through her sobs. "We are a long way from
home
here, but Zimbabwe is still worse."
As we leave the cemetery,
Braam Hanekom, the founder of Passop, a
campaigning charity that helps South
Africa's refugees, says that up to
1,000 illegal migrants are coming to the
Western Cape every day, looking for
work and a new start. "By the time the
World Cup is upon us that figure will
have increased dramatically," he
says.
"This situation here is unacceptable. A child's death from
malnutrition on
the outskirts of Cape Town is astonishing and, with more
immigrants coming
in, it can only get worse."
He adds: "Imagine the
2010 games as an enormous magnet for Africa's
uneducated and impoverished
and then imagine how bad life will become for
these immigrants who come here
to these townships and camps with the hope of
finding work but find only
exploitation and xenophobia. The situation is
much broader than the
government recognises.
"What's not being acknowledged is the fact that
this isn't a 'male migrant'
issue. They are still summoning their families
as soon as they arrive here,
wives and children, when they can barely feed
themselves, and these people
are dying. The World Cup will be a tragedy for
many African families."
For all its poverty and historic divisions, South
Africa remains, despite
last summer's xenophobic attacks, which left 70
foreign workers dead in a
wave of antiimmigrant violence, a beacon of hope
for the dispossessed and
persecuted, with a constitution that in theory
guarantees equality and a
functioning economy that rewards entrepre-neurial
effort.
With President Robert Mugabe's continued destruction of
Zimbabwe's economy,
hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, many of them well
educated, still
stream across the Limpopo river into South Africa, straining
its resources.
Figures vary, but as many as 3m Zimbabweans may have made
the cross-border
journey under cover of darkness, one of the largest
exoduses Africa has
seen.
More recently they have been joined by
immigrants from Somalia, Nigeria,
Angola and Mozambique. Government sources
now claim that there are at least
6m foreign nationals working illegally in
South Africa, representing 14% of
the population.
Melissa Mauketo's
story shows many immigrants are facing even deeper
hardship. For South
Africa's illegal workers, underpayment, long working
hours, poor living
conditions and starvation are accepted parts of daily
life.
Most
suffer in silence for fear of losing their jobs or being
deported.
Philani Zamuchiya, of the Institute for Poverty, Land and
Agrarian Studies,
a research centre at the University of the Western Cape,
claims that already
appalling conditions on farms are becoming worse for
migrants, who will
accept almost any job out of desperation.
He said
that although minimum salaries should be £110 a month, most farmers
were
paying their workers a mere £20, which, "with their families, isn't
enough
to feed themselves".
Problems worsen during the five-month off season for
work in the vineyards.
Farm workers struggle to meet bare necessities, and
infant mortality in the
immigrant camps soars. "There is no food here, just
like Zimbabwe," says
Anita Makauto, Melissa's aunt. "Over there is a rubbish
dump where
Zimba-bwean and Congolese immigrants queue up every Friday to
eat, waiting
for the trucks to arrive to feed their families.
"I have
been there for scraps, as have all of my family. I see women eat
straight
from the ground, rotten cabbage and potatoes, scraping fruit out of
tins
with their hands. The council has told us we must take the rotten food
away
from the dump and eat it out of sight of the police."
She added: "The
locals call us names and threaten to beat us. Every week
fires are started
in the compound where we live. We live in fear because we
never know what
will happen next. We are scared to talk in public for fear
of people
recognising our accents. On buses we mustn't open our mouths.
People here
have seen the worst of South Africa but it is better they kill
us here than
we go back and they kill us in Zim."
On the flatbed passenger lorries
from De Doorns township to the vineyards
where day labourers eke out a
living, working-class South Africans, Zulu and
Xhosa, talk loudly and
threateningly about burying the foreigners who sit
beside them, particularly
the Zimbabweans and Lesothans, whom they accuse of
stealing jobs by
undercutting wages and working for as little as £1.20 a
day. The air of
violence and intimidation is palpable.
Although government ministers
condemned last year's attacks on foreign
workers, they have since left it to
civic groups to distribute aid and
grants to the displaced. Some critics say
the immigrants' plight has fallen
by the wayside, with the focus on the
World Cup. Others say the government
is paralysed by what a spokesman for
the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees recently called a "sense
of shame" at the treatment of
refugees.
Intermittent violence has
continued against foreigners, particularly
Somalis, many of whom are legal
refugees and run shops in the townships. A
Somali woman and her three
children were recently stabbed and bludgeoned to
death in Eastern Cape
province, prompting the UN's top human rights
official, Navanethem Pillay,
to condemn "a continued and dangerous pattern
of targeted attacks on
foreigners".
"This was a hard place for my baby to be born," says Lorian
Mohakia,
clutching her five-month-old son, Jacob, to her breast. Alongside
her in the
Bonne Esperance Refugee Shelter, in the Philippi district of Cape
Town, are
women from Zimbabwe, Angola, Burundi, Congo, Namibia and Senegal,
all of
them clutching undernourished infants.
Pregnant women and
those with newborn babies are among the most vulnerable.
Insufficient food,
delayed ambulance services, lack of beds and illness
continue to plague the
lives of most immigrant women.
"I need to leave the shelter in the next
few weeks," she says. "I've seen
other women leave to live on the street and
lose their babies. People don't
believe that babies can die of starvation
somewhere as beautiful as this.
"Immigrants like me don't exist; we are
unseen. Our children are born with
no rights, no birth certificate and when
they die nobody in South Africa
hears their mother's wails."
Strike
hits stadiums
The growing power of South Africa's vast army of immigrant
workers was
displayed last week in a countrywide strike by almost 100,000
construction
workers, many of them impoverished economic migrants from
Lesotho and
Zimbabwe.
The wildcat strike brought work on the World
Cup stadiums to a grinding halt
and placed further doubt on the nation's
readiness for next year's event.
The stadiums are due to be completed by
December and work was reportedly on
schedule before the strike. Yet concerns
remain that at least five stadiums
being built from scratch, including Cape
Town's showcase Green Point
stadium, are still far from ready.
The
strike came after workers demanded a 13% wage increase. They downed
tools at
midday on Wednesday, stopping work on many of the infrastructure
projects
the government is hoping will help pull the economy out of
recession and
prepare the country for the tournament.
Projects hit by the strike
included the high-speed Gautrain rail link
between Johannesburg and
Pretoria, ports, airports and power stations and 10
stadium
projects.
Many of the workers on the site of the Cape Town stadium say
they are being
paid less than £3 a day, a claim denied by the
authorities.
South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers, which has many
members in the
building trades, and the Building, Construction and Allied
Workers Union
confirmed last night that a framework for a deal had been
reached and the
strike would end next week.
Fears have been voiced
within Fifa, football's governing body, over the
preparations for what will
be the largest sporting event in Africa's
history. One particular concern is
the state of the power grid. Power cuts
are still common in most main
cities.
There are concerns about the wider infrastructure. In
Johannesburg, street
and traffic lights do not work in large parts of the
city and routine
maintenance has all but ceased.
Public transport in
Cape Town and Johannesburg is virtually nonexistent and
in Durban, another
host city, the roads are unable to cope with the volume
of
traffic.
There are mounting fears about security in a country with some
of the world's
highest crime rates. In Cape Town a zero-tolerance police
initiative aims to
cut petty crime in the city in the run-up to the opening
match in June. But
it will do nothing to curb violence in the surrounding
townships or street
robberies in Johannesburg, which will host the
final.
Award winner
Dan McDougall has joined The Sunday Times as
Africa correspondent. He was
voted foreign correspondent of the year at the
British Press Awards and has
also won the 2009 Amnesty International Media
Award for periodicals.
http://www.independent.co.uk
AMB, which owns a
large number of shares in the offshoot LonZim, is seeking
to oust the board.
The showdown is set for the EGM at the end of July. Mark
Leftly reports on
the protagonists
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Dave Lenigas polishes off
his breakfast of two small packets of cereal, as
the English summer rain
tip-taps against the windows of the Mayfair Hotel in
London.
The big
Australian leans back slightly, and then, in the macho manner that
gives
away his background in the testosterone-fuelled mining industry,
announces:
"I don't mean to sound cocky. But we are Lonrho. We have been in
Africa for
100 years. If anyone gets in our way, we have no choice but to
stomp on
their heads."
Perhaps realising that he does indeed sound a little cocky,
Lenigas,
grinning away, adds: "If we do something wrong, then fine, line us
up
against a wall and throw rocks at us. Don't you love my
Australianisms?"
Head-stomping and rock-throwing are just about the only
twists that haven't
occurred in a rather extraordinary saga being played out
on the Alternative
Investment Market (AIM), the junior stock
exchange.
Rebel shareholders, the Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, the
investment legend George Soros, and even golfing superstar
Tiger Woods are,
wittingly or unwittingly, personalities drawn into a
showdown that echoes
the great rows of Lonrho's "Tiny" Rowland
era.
While this dispute is not the sort that would move a prime minister
- in
Rowland's time, Edward Heath - to describe events as the "unacceptable
face
of capitalism", the battle over the future of LonZim, a spin-off of
Lonrho,
is almost as spectacular.
Rebuilding Zimbabwe
Lenigas,
who is, today, executive chairman, took over at Lonrho in 2005. It
was no
longer the great pan-African conglomerate of the 1960s, 1970s and
1980s. The
company was on the verge of selling its last signature asset, a
majority
share in Mozambique's Hotel Cardoso, for $3m.
Lenigas pulled the sale,
and went about creating the latest incarnation of
the great business empire.
It is now active across Africa in an array of
sectors, including building
materials, aviation, water technology, and
diamond mining, as well as
hotels.
As the political situation in Zimbabwe started to improve, the
Lonrho board
sensed an opportunity to invest ahead of the country's
anticipated
reconstruction. However, the directors did not want to use the
Lonrho brand
in the country, so went about setting up LonZim. While Lonrho
focused on
fairly mature investments, LonZim would be buying assets ahead of
an
economic recovery.
This was spun off as a separately listed
company at the end of 2007. The Aim
admission document made clear that the
companies were expected to be all but
inextricably linked.
The four
executive directors would be from Lonrho, holding the same roles.
For
example, Geoffrey White and Lenigas are respectively chief executive and
executive chairman of both companies.
White says: "In the prospectus,
we made it clear that LonZim would be using
Lonrho's expertise to run the
company for a management fee - either $500,000
a year or 2 per cent of funds
invested. The directors on the LonZim board
receive £1,000 a month, the
minimum salary to serve on the board of a plc."
Nearly 30 million shares
were placed in the market at 100p a pop, raising
£29.16m for investment in
Zimbabwe. Lonrho retained a 20 per cent stake.
Rebel alliance
At
about the same time, AMB Capital, a South Africa-based investment bank,
started building ties in Zimbabwe. Andrew Sprague, the rugby union-loving
AMB chief executive, is Zimbabwean.
AMB saw the country's potential,
and hankered for a vehicle that could "act
as a conduit for investment",
says Sprague. If AMB could find such a
company, Sprague says there are
parties willing to raise up to $30m for a
range of investments, including
housing, roads and mining infrastructure.
Sprague spied LonZim. He knew
there were both negative and positive views of
Lonrho which dated from the
Tiny Rowland days. Africans considered the
company either a force for
colonialism or a great investor, but on balance,
Sprague felt that Lonrho's
name was well regarded in the continent. The
LonZim name would help AMB to
build a strong business in Zimbabwe.
At the start of this year, the
shares, like most stocks in London, had
collapsed, in this case to just 15p.
Two months later, AMB and Damille
Partners IV, an investment vehicle, were
introduced and decided to buy up
LonZim shares.
AMB took a 20.75 per
cent position, while Damille built up a 6.75 per cent
stake, the two parties
paying an average of 16p a share. It is understood
that many of the shares
originated from George Soros.
At the end of March, the parties wrote to
LonZim's non-executives. They
expressed concerns at the group's investment
strategy, believing that the
LonZim board had overpaid for certain assets,
and argued that there were
corporate governance issues arising from the
company's ties to Lonrho.
The investors also called for an extraordinary
general meeting, at which it
wanted to vote off the Lonrho-driven board and
replace with two AMB
directors, including Sprague, and a duo from
Damille.
If elected, AMB wants to review every asset on LonZim's books
and by the end
of 2010 would try to sell any asset that is not expected to
generate a 30
per cent return for shareholders. The return is set so high
due to the risk
of dealing in a politically unstable country.
Lonrho
insists that this means AMB wants to wind up the company by the end
of 2010,
with the rebel shareholder effectively cashing in on a fire sale
when they
had paid only 16p a share, while other investors would lose out.
"AMB's
interests are chronically misaligned to other shareholders," White
alleges.
"Most shareholders bought in at between 40p to £1 a share."
However,
Sprague says that at no point has AMB stated that it wants to wind
down the
company. Rather, it wants to start from scratch, by selling or
winding down
assets and investing elsewhere in Zimbabwe. "We never said that
we would
liquidate the company. We just don't like the assets," argues
Sprague.
AMB is understood to be planning a stock exchange
announcement tomorrow
detailing this position.
Tiger
hunting
The most public dispute has been over LonZim's $8.5m purchase of
the five
star Leopard Rock Hotel, 220km south-east of Harare. Sprague argues
that
this does not meet his 30 per cent return criteria: "You'd be lucky to
get
your capital back if you sold it."
AMB values the hotel at about
$4m, while Lenigas says that his advisers
estimated that LonZim had snapped
up the hotel at half-price. LonZim also
plans to refurbish the hotel at a
cost of $1.7m and expand by 100 rooms.
Lenigas says that when this is
completed, the Professional Golfers
Association has indicated that it will
hold tournaments at the adjacent
course. Clearly, LonZim has images of
Padraig Harrington taking on Tiger
Woods at the venue.
At a breakfast
promoting Zimbabwe at a Big Four accountant's London base
last month, White
introduced himself to Prime Minister Tsvangirai,
mentioning the purchase.
"He said that tourism would be the sector that
would develop fastest in
Zimbabwe, and the government has since announced
that hotel modernisation
will be duty free," says White.
But AMB is also concerned that Lonrho
Hotels has been selected to oversee
the refurbishment and operations of
Leopard Rock. The LonZim board maintains
this was a fair, independent
selection process, while AMB believes it is an
example that the company is
compromised by its Lonrho links.
Should Sprague and Christopher Vosloo,
AMB's executive director, succeed in
gaining places on the board, they will
review Lonrho's overall management
agreement with LonZim to check if it is
legally binding.
Showdown
The EGM is to be held at 3pm on 30 July.
But this will not be a simple vote
to replace one board with
another.
The situation has been muddied by Damille's decision last month
to sell most
of its stake. The Damille board nominees, Brett Miller and Rhys
Davies, have
withdrawn, although they are still formally on the
ticket.
The decision to sell up has angered AMB. Sprague says lawyers are
reviewing
an alleged agreement between the two that Damille would not sell
up until
after the EGM. Miller counters: "There was no agreement between
Damille and
AMB about not selling any shares prior to an EGM or at any time.
Damille is
purely a financial investor, and the share value had increased by
over 100
per cent on what the shares had cost Damille."
Despite the
tension between the former allies, Miller says that Damille will
use its
remaining shares to vote for AMB.
Sprague is looking to enhance his
position by arguing that Lonrho, now with
nearly 25 per cent of the company,
cannot vote on a resolution to change
LonZim's investment strategy. This is
because any change would impinge on
the Lonrho's chances of earning a
management fee. White says that he has
obtained a legal opinion dismissing
this argument.
Should Sprague and Vosloo win the election, they would
have to work with two
of their rivals from Lonrho. Difficult, given that
White would ultimately
like to merge LonZim with Lonrho. The relationship
would also be
particularly tempestuous now that Lenigas and White have
issued defamation
proceedings against Sprague in relation to comments made
to a South African
journal.
And Lenigas won't back down on the
defamation suit, no matter the outcome of
the vote. "We take what he's said
very seriously, as it could harm Lonrho's
dealings with African governments
and investors.
"Geoff and I are merely the custodians and guardians of
Lonrho, and we need
to protect it."
Tiny Rowland would be proud of
those words. And he would be all too familiar
with the effects of a bitter,
very public dispute.
http://www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/090711.html
I am someone who was involved in the whole process of
transition from
Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and I am now deeply embroiled in the
subsequent
transition from tyranny to democracy in the new Zimbabwe. In the
intervening
period covering some 50 odd years, a great deal has gone under
the bridge
and a lot has gone wrong. A friend from the early days in
Zimbabwe wrote to
me the other day and asked, 'Where did we go wrong?' I
thought that question
needed an answer.
Obviously the historical
background was the failure by the successive
governments after 1923, to
recognise that their tenure was limited and that
without broad based
democratic support, their grip on power was eventually
doomed to fail. Had
they grasped that reality early on and started to work
on the future based
on that assumption, the outcome would have been very
different.
As
Nelson Mandela said in his autobiography, it was the whites that decided
how
power was to be transferred. In failing to recognise the basic
realities, we
created the conditions for the armed struggle and in doing so
we created the
coterie of leaders who would eventually take over power and
rule in their
stead. In our case, we were 'saved' from the worst effects of
this
shortsightedness and stubbornness by international intervention but as
always, those responsible for managing events during that era were unable to
totally overcome the effect of our own political behavior in the previous
decades.
At Lancaster House we made further mistakes, imposing on
Zimbabwe a British
style of constitution and failing to consult the
majority. We found
ourselves in the aftermath, with a government led by
people with no
experience of government, few entrenched principles and no
commitment to
democratic values or basic human rights. They did not like the
constitutional dispensation forced on them by the international community
and the region but had no choice in the matter.
We compounded these
mistakes by ignoring and condoning the subsequent abuses
of democratic
principles and human rights when the new government was
obviously violating
these. When Mugabe committed genocide from 1983 to 1987
under the guise of
'Gukurahundi', the rest of the world looked the other way
and continued to
receive him as a respected leader in western capitals. When
he violated
democratic principles and crushed domestic opposition, there was
no outcry
or even support for civil society or the fledgling opposition. One
by one,
successive opposition groups were allowed to suffocate and die.
Growing
corruption, nepotism and flagrant violations of all the norms of
good
governance simply went uncontested, embolden by this and seeing only
disinterest and unconcern, the Mugabe regime went on a spree, abandoning
fiscal prudence and restructuring the constitution to entrench their hold on
power. The steady erosion of the legal system and the principle of equality
before the law and the independence of the Judiciary followed these
developments and still the criticism from international organisations and
States and African countries remained muted.
Then, when finally the
people of Zimbabwe decided that they had had enough,
the MDC came into being
and delivered the first democratic defeat on Zanu PF
since 1980. Infuriated
by this defeat, the leadership of the Zanu PF and the
security branches of
the regime unleashed a well organised and funded 'total
onslaught' against
the democratic forces that had combined to make the MDC
defeat of the regime
possible.
They carefully analysed the electoral defeat and found that
they had lost
the urban areas, won in the rural peasant districts and that
the majority of
the 350 000 workers on commercial farms and estates together
with their
families had also voted MDC. This 'swing vote' became the key
objective.
Over the next five years, the regime simply smashed the entire
agricultural
industry in a brutal effort to crush the opposition forces
located on
commercial farms.
This marked the next mistake we all
made. We failed to see what they were
doing and to understand why. Even the
farmers did not fully grasp the
reality and right to the bitter end the CFU
and the ZTA argued for the farm
community to be 'apolitical' and to
'co-operate with government' even while
they were being targeted politically
and their assets stolen and the
industry they had built up at such great
cost over the previous 100 years,
was being systematically destroyed. The
international community also made
the mistake of accepting that this was
'land reform' when in fact that
slogan was just a smoke screen for their
real intentions. African States,
including South Africa, made the mistake of
taking Mugabe's claims about the
'African credentials' of the MDC and the
right of the State to plunder the
assets of the white farmers under the
guise of 'land reform', at face value.
Even though 95 per cent of the
farmers affected by the 'fast track land
reform programme' were Africans in
all respects except the pigment of their
skins, they were treated as
second-class citizens and foreigners. Even
though the race issue had
dominated the struggle for freedom and democracy
in southern Africa for most
of the previous century, this outrageous,
racially based criminal act went
uncommented on in African dialogue. The
abuses were simply brushed aside by
most as being justified as correcting an
historical wrong. This view
persisted even when it became known that over 80
per cent of the targeted
population had acquired their farms after
Zimbabwean independence in
1980.
This failure to call a spade a spade and the inevitable subsequent
collapse
of the Zimbabwean economy led to the present situation where our
GDP has
shrunk to 15 per cent of tiny Botswana and the great majority of
Zimbabweans
are displaced and desperately poor. We have become the
quintessential
example of how not to do things in the 21st Century; a model
that will be
used in Universities and Colleges throughout the world to teach
what happens
when you do dumb things.
But the list of our failures
does not stop there. After a bitter and
protracted campaign for freedom and
justice, the people of Zimbabwe finally
saw their votes overcome tyranny in
2008, a victory made even more
remarkable by the fact that this was achieved
without a stone being thrown
or a shot fired. Instead of greeting this
victory with the relief and
celebration that was due, the region, led by
South Africa, allowed this
corrupt and brutal regime to hang onto power and
forced the MDC into an
unholy alliance with their defeated oppressors that
is expected to bring
forth a new democratic dispensation in 18 months. It's
a tall order.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 11th July 2009