Business Day
Reuters
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HARARE
- Zimbabwe has missed its target to raise wheat output to a record
500 000-
tonnes after farmers reduced plantings, raising fears of bread
shortages,
the Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Farmers planted about 58 000ha
of wheat, considerably lower than the 110
000ha targeted by the government
in a bid to boost food security, the
newspaper said.
Zimbabwe has
suffered food shortages since 2001, which President Robert
Mugabe's
government attributes to drought but which critics blame on his
policy of
seizing white-owned land that has hit commercial farming.
Wheat is the
country's second staple crop after maize and Zimbabwe has in
the past few
years failed to satisfy its annual wheat consumption of between
400 000 and
450 000 tonnes.
"Given these statistics and this trend total production
will be about 218
046 tonnes. This implies a deficit of 168 954 tonnes which
the country has
to import," the newspaper said quoting a report by Economic
Development
Minister Rugare Gumbo.
The report said shortages of
fertilizer and seed, fuel and erratic supplies
of electricity, which is
required for irrigating the crop, had hit output.
On Friday Zimbabwe's
state-owned power utility said most parts of the
country were without
electricity after the failure of two generating units
at Kariba Power
Station in the northern part of the country.
The government has said the
country will harvest 1,8-million tonnes of maize
during the 2005/6 season
although some farmer groups and aid agencies
predict a much lower
output.
Zimbabwe is mired in an 8-year recession marked by the world's
highest
inflation rate at over 1 000%, shortages of food, fuel and foreign
currency,
all widely blamed on Mugabe's policies.
Mugabe, in power
since independence from Britain in 1980, denies running
down the economy and
instead blames the West for sabotaging the country in
retaliation for his
land seizures.
Zim Online
Sat 15 July 2006
BULAWAYO - Human rights activists in
Zimbabwe have castigated plans by
President Robert Mugabe's government to
set up a human rights commission
saying the move was meant to silence
non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
critical of Harare's human rights
record.
Speaking at a National Non-Governmental Organisation
(NANGO)
conference in Bulawayo on Friday, human rights lawyer Kucaca Phulu
said the
proposed human rights commission was a ploy by the government to
ban NGOs
involved in human rights work.
He said: "The proposed
commission comes at a wrong time in the wrong
form and for the wrong
reasons. We don't need it as it is an attempt to ban
some NGOs that have
accused the government of carrying out human rights
abuses.
"This is just like the Mahoso (Media and Information Commission) and I
can
assure you, if the government manages to introduce this Human Rights
Commission, many NGOs will not be accredited for them to continue with their
operations."
Earlier this year, Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced plans
by the Zimbabwe government to
amend the Constitution to create a Human
Rights Commission to oversee the
operations of NGOs involved in human rights
work.
But civic
groups and pro-democracy groups have criticised the plans
saying the Harare
authorities were the least qualified to monitor human
rights issues after
they were implicated in human rights violations over the
past six
years.
The civic groups have also threatened to boycott a United
Nations-backed conference scheduled for later this month to discuss plans to
set up the commission.
The civic groups said the human rights
commission should only be a
product of a holistic constitutional reform
process aimed at entrenching
democracy and human rights in the
country.
Speaking at the same conference yesterday, Bulawayo-based
political
and social activist, Jethro Mpofu, urged the civic groups to fight
the
proposed introduction of the commission.
Mpofu said: "There
has to be a united effort from the civil society,
politicians, and all other
organisations in the fight against the government
plans to introduce this
Commission which seeks to silence criticism."
Western governments
and human rights groups often criticise Harare for
perpetrating serious
human rights violations against political opponents.
But Mugabe,
who has been in power over the past 26 years since the
country's
independence in 1980, denies the charge insisting the charges are
trumped up
to tarnish his government's image. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 15 July 2006
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) on Friday criticised
President Robert Mugabe for snubbing
journalists from the private media
during his interview on the state of the
nation last Thursday.
Only journalists from largely
government-owned media like The Herald,
The Sunday Mail, the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, New Ziana and The
Mirror were invited to State House
for Mugabe's interview.
"It is typical of the president's arrogance
and that of his ruling
party and the government. The media, both private and
public, are interested
to know Mugabe's view as the economic meltdown and
political crisis
continues unabated.
"We are worried that
Mugabe has never called an all encompassing
interview or press conference
involving the private and independent media,
including foreign
correspondents. We eagerly await that day," said Foster
Dongozi, the
secretary general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ).
During the interview, Mugabe conceded that he was "very worried" by
the
state of Zimbabwe's economy but denied that the economy was in trouble
due
to state mismanagement, bad governance and human rights abuses.
The
veteran Zimbabwean leader, in power since independence from
Britain 26 years
ago, blamed what he termed "illegal sanctions" which were
imposed by Britain
and her Western allies allies four years ago for the
country's economic
troubles.
Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, denied snubbing
journalists from
the private media saying the Information Ministry will soon
arrange another
media briefing for journalists from the private media with
Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe government has had a frosty relationship with
the private
media after the Harare authorities forcibly shut down four
independent
newspapers, including the biggest circulating daily, The Daily
News, over
the past three years.
Journalists from the private
media have also been branded
"mercenaries" who are tarnishing the image of
the country after writing
highly critical reports about the Zimbabwe
government. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 15 July
2006
HARARE - A strike by Zimbabwe junior doctors entered its
second day
yesterday with the doctors vowing not to return to work until
their demands
are met.
The doctors downed tools on Wednesday
demanding better salaries and
working conditions.
The two main
government-run hospitals, Parirenyatwa and Harare
hospitals in the capital
Harare were virtually deserted yesterday with
hundreds of patients being
turned away.
The president of the Hospital Doctors Association,
Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa said they will not call off the strike until Health
and Child
Minister David Parirenyatwa makes a written undertaking promising
to address
their demands.
A nurse at Harare Hospital said there
was only one senior doctor who
was attending to emergency cases
yesterday.
"It's a real crisis because the junior doctors were the
ones running
this institution. If it continues for another day, a lot of
people will
die," said the nurse, who refused to be named because she is
not authorised
to speak to the press.
Deputy Health Minister
Edwin Muguti said the strike action by junior
doctors was illegal as the
government was working to improve the welfare of
doctors in the
country.
"They did not inform us of their problems. I was actually
surprised to
hear that they are on strike when we are doing everything
possible to
address problems in the health sector through the Health
Services Board. The
strike is illegal," said Muguti.
The
doctors, who are earning Z$57 million a month and a car allowance
of $50
million, want their salaries and conditions of work improved.
Strikes by doctors and nurses over poor pay and working conditions are
common in Zimbabwe which is battling a severe six-year old economic crisis
most critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement of the
economy. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat
15 July 2006
HARARE - The main faction of Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party will be represented in next
month's mayoral
elections in Chitungiwza and Mutare by two party officials
suspended by the
government as mayors of the two cities last
year.
Party insiders told ZimOnline that the Morgan Tsvangirai-led
MDC will
field Mishech Shoko in Chitungwiza and Misheck Kagurabadza in the
eastern
border city of Mutare because the party felt their suspension by the
government was unjustified.
"They will represent the party
because they were doing a good job and
they faced many challenges such as
continued interference by ZANU PF (the
ruling party) and government
officials," said a senior MDC official who did
not want to be named because
he is not authorized to speak to the Press.
A rival faction of the
MDC led by Arthur Mutambara could not be
reached for comment yesterday
whether it will also field candidates in the
mayoral election next
month.
Shoko and Kagurabadza were suspended in 2005 by Local
Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo in a crackdown against opposition-led
councils
around the country. The two were accused of gross incompetence and
mismanagement, charges they have denied. - ZimOnline
ABC News, Australia
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has rebuffed calls to declare a
state of
emergency to stop the country's economic freefall as it "would send
the
wrong signals".
Instead the cash-strapped country would "soldier
on" and pursue its policy
of finding financial partners in Asia, rather than
depend on western aid, Mr
Mugabe told the state-owned Herald
newspaper.
"The government did not declare a state of emergency to arrest
the economic
decline as this would have sent wrong signals to the country's
enemies and
even to its friends," the veteran leader said.
"We
decided to soldier on, seeking assistance from our friends, looking more
east than west and getting assistance to sustain ourselves."
Zimbabwe
is grappling with hyper-inflation and severe fuel and foreign
currency
shortages.
Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe has seen its
economy
contract by more than a third over the last seven years and
inflation soar
to 1,200 per cent - the highest in the world outside a war
zone.
Unemployment stands at 70 per cent and four million of the
country's 13
million inhabitants face food shortages, United Nations
agencies say.
Harare has blamed the country's woes on drought and
targeted sanctions,
especially those imposed by former colonial power
Britain.
London has slapped sanctions on Mr Mugabe, who has been in power
since
independence in 1980, and on his inner circle.
Economic
catastophe
Critics largely blame Zimbabwe's economic catastrophe on the
government's
controversial land reform program, which start in 2000 and
resulted in the
seizure, often violently, of white-owned commercial farmland
for
redistribution to landless blacks.
The government says the land
reforms were necessary to address colonial
imbalances.
"Our economy
is under siege, an economy really which should have had a
political
environment protecting it," Mr Mugabe said.
"This is because of (the)
actions of our enemies, led by Britain, who have
imposed sanctions on us...
Britain has been going around asking its allies
not to continue the usual
economic cooperation with us."
He accused Britain of intercepting
"arrangements that we have put in place
for the supply of fuel and
intercepting these ships - not militarily but
waving the pound, trying to
divert these ships to some other destinations
after offering them far much
higher prices."
Political analyst Takura Zhngazha said that Mugabe's
comments were part of
an ideological war he was waging with the
West.
"He thinks we are in a war situation, not a military war but an
ideological
one with the West," Mr Zhangazha said.
"He is also trying
to play the blame game, saying our problems are from the
West - yet they are
homegrown."
Mr Zhngazha said the President had failed to clarify how a
state of
emergency might butress Zimbabwe's failing economy.
-
AFP
From PBS Frontline/World (US), 27 June
Let's talk about him a
little bit more. How did he influence you?
Archbishop Pius Ncube is a man
that inspired me quite a lot because as a
young man, I was a Catholic. I
witnessed the rise and rise of archbishop
Ncube from being a priest and him
being promoted to vicar general at
Bulawayo's St. Mary's Cathedral and then
imminently becoming the archbishop.
The way I grew up seeing how he
conducted himself at mass and out of mass,
you could tell that this is a man
who believes in himself. This is a man who
is confident about life; this is
a man who truly stands for what he believes
in his heart. His sermons were
unlike other sermons that were preached by
other Catholic priests because
you'd have priests that would just run
through their sermon, and their
sermon did not relate to people. But each
time when I listened to his
sermons, they were sermons that gave people
hope. They were sermons that
comforted people. They were sermons that truly
were reflective of what the
people of Matabeleland were going through at the
different stages of our
lives. And I found him to be an interesting
character; I found him to be an
inspiration. And at one time, my prayers
were, "God, I want to be a brother.
When I become a brother, I want to be
just like Pius Ncube. I want to be
tall like him, brave like him, collected
like him; I want to be a man of
character like him."
And when I joined politics, it is interesting
that I attended one of the
sermons that he preached in Bulawayo at the Saint
Mary's Cathedral. This was
after the farm invasions in 2000, and he was
holding more like a prayer
meeting for the farmers and the workers that had
been affected. He said in
that sermon, "God is looking for those who will
stand in the gap for this
nation. God is looking for those who will not keep
quiet when all else keeps
quiet. God is looking for people who will be brave
enough and tell the truth
just like it is." As I was sitting there, having
begun my political
activism, I was inspired. And I said to myself, "If this
is a true man of
God and what he's saying is a true message from God, I
think God has just
found one who's going to stand up for this nation." I
committed myself to
the Lord on that particular day and said to the Lord, "I
will stand in the
gap; I will do everything in my power to help the nation
come out of this."
And I did just that as I became more and more active in
Zimbabwe for the
Movement for Democratic Change. Pius Ncube is a great man.
He's a great,
great man. I'd rate him amongst the Mahatma Gandhi of India; I
rate him
amongst Nelson Mandela, and in a way, Kwame Nkrumah [Ghana's first
president
and a famous nationalist leader]. What he's doing is what all
members of the
clergy should be doing - not betraying the people, but being
true to the
people, and being honest with the government no matter what it
takes. Some,
given the opportunity to wine and dine with leaders of the
nation, take the
opportunity to flatter. He doesn't do that. He meets
Mugabe, tells him the
truth. The media come to interview him, he tells the
truth. He tells the
truth wherever he goes. He is the conscience of the
nation.
What do you see for the future of Zimbabwe?
The future is
very big. You have people in influential positions to advise
and guide the
regime, but they have chosen to do otherwise. I am talking
about our
immediate neighbor, South Africa. Mbeki to be specific. His
government has
taken the step of quiet diplomacy. It has proven to be a
failure in terms of
resolving social, economic and political problems that
Zimbabwe is going
through. You also have the African Union and SADC [the
14-member Southern
African Development Community] as institutions that
should have come up with
guidelines and policies to rectify the problems
that Zimbabwe is facing
today. But they have failed because I believe the
leaders of Africa are not
united over Zimbabwe. You have the core of the
nation outside the borders of
Zimbabwe. These are the people between 21 and
45. These are the people that
are industrious and that can stand up together
and unite. But because they
are all over the world, their efforts become
uncoordinated. They cannot come
up with a program to change Zimbabwe. So the
future is bleak.
But
if I am to look at the situation from a Christian point of view, the
future
is very bright because people are looking for spiritual guidance more
than
they ever have done in the history of the nation. So people are
starting to
pray more. Whether in Islam, Christianity or even traditional.
They are
beginning to consult more, not only on a selfish basis, but on a
national
basis. Churches are coming up with nationwide programs. Even in the
Diaspora, you have churches that are coming up. So in terms of the Christian
perspective, the future is looking bright. God is going to answer their
prayers and either Mugabe is going to die or a new leader will take power
that is going to care about the people and the nation and resolve the
differences among the people, unite the people govern the country right.
People like Pius are well placed that have the blessing of God. Maybe they
will be influential in changing Zimbabwe.
How long are we talking
about?
Five years is a good projection to change the leadership. But to
talk of the
economic damage that has happened to the nation, for us to come
back to the
level we were at before is going to take us a lot of time,
resources, energy
and labor. To get back to our former glory, we're looking
at 10 to 15 years
or beyond that. And I am talking about a government that
will really take
positive steps toward economic revival. I am confident that
we will come
right if we have the right policies. Zimbabweans are
intelligent people and
hardworking, and we succeed in everything we do. We
have had the worst
dictator, but if we have a man that chooses to be good,
they are going to be
the best good person in Africa. That is the character
of Zimbabweans: When
they are bad, they are very bad; when they are good,
they are very good.
Hopefully a good government will come in
place.
This interview between Alexis Bloom and Khethani Sibanda took
place at his
home in Soweto, South Africa, in February 2006
http://www.nzls.org.nz/lawtalk/670Paradza.htm
WHAT do people have to watch out
for to prevent the erosion of the
independence of the judiciary? This is the
question Zimbabwean High Court
Judge and now refugee in New Zealand,
Benjamin Paradza, will be researching
over the next two
years.
Benjamin Paradza was a hero of the liberation struggle against
white
minority rule in his country. President Robert Mugabe appointed him to
the
bench in 2001. In light of the events that unfolded, many believe
President
Mugabe expected Mr Paradza to be yet another compliant
judge.
But the man who had been practising law in the small Midlands town
of Kwekwe
since 1986 was focused on acting with integrity in his new
role.
"I took it more as an honour than anything - not being aware of the
politics
behind it," he told LawTalk.
"I took up that appointment in
August 2001 and as far as I was concerned
what I wanted to do most was earn
my self respect as a judge - to do as far
as possible what was expected of a
good judge.
"During the course of my duties, certain matters were given
to me of a
political flavour. To me, that was neither here nor there.
Whatever the case
might be, I would handle it as professionally as I could
without fear or
favour in terms of my judicial oath of office."
What
the world now knows, and agencies such as the International Commission
of
Jurists, United Nations and Amnesty International have publicly decried,
is
that Benjamin Paradza was arrested on charges of corruption and
perverting
the course of justice.
Media around the world have pointed to the fact
that the judge was charged,
tried and convicted after he had freed an
opposition politician following a
habeas corpus application. The politician,
the Mayor of Harare, had been
charged with holding a political rally without
the permission of the police
and was being held in custody.
Justice
Paradza ordered the man be freed, essentially on the basis that the
meeting
contained more civic leaders than political leaders and that no
other
leaders of the opposition political party had been present. (The
Police did
not comply with the judge's order, but when the Mayor was brought
to trial,
the charges were dropped.)
Looking back, Benjamin Paradza realises that
this was probably the last
straw in a string of decisions he had made
"honestly and to the best of my
ability" but which "should have been made
differently according to the
politicians".
There is a New Zealand
connection to another Paradza judgment that went
against the wishes of
President Mugabe. He ordered the Government to issue a
passport to Judith
Todd, the veteran human rights and democracy opponent of
the Ian Smith
government. She has been just as critical of Mugabe's human
rights abuses as
she had been of Smith's, and Mugabe had stripped her of
Zimbabwean
citizenship.
Following his trial and conviction, Benjamin Paradza was
remanded for
sentence and fled the country while on bail. "I realised that
if I waited
for sentence, my life was in danger. The conviction, to us, was
obviously
more of a political thing than a legal finding."
Now the
judge has joined Victoria University of Wellington as a visiting
fellow in
its Institute of Policy Studies, initially for two years. During
that time,
the institute and Victoria's law faculty hope to raise the
additional
funding required to make the fellowship permanent.
In his research,
Benjamin Paradza will look at identifying indicators that
the rule of law is
being disrespected.
"For example, when politicians start doing certain
things and when
politicians start talking like this, then you have to start
to be worried,"
he says.
"The whole concept of the separation of
powers is also part of my research,
and I will be looking at how practical
and how real that whole concept is,
and how it can be made able to survive
under different circumstances and in
different places and in different
situations.
"I've grown to realise that power is something that has to be
shared and if
power is not shared proportionately and in a democratic
manner, it leads to
situations of disrespect of the rule of law and general
abuse of human
rights.
"I will not only look at Zimbabwe; I want to
look at what's happening in the
developing world and in this region of the
Pacific (for example, Fiji and
East Timor) at democracies that have gone
bad," he says.
The opportunity to be a visiting fellow at Victoria has
come thanks to a
London-based Swedish philanthropist, Sigrid Rausing, who
agreed to fund the
new fellowship for two years. She has a particular
interest in refugees and
the guardians of human rights, like Benjamin
Paradza, who are persecuted for
trying to uphold the rule of
law.
"I'm delighted to be able to help Victoria University of Wellington
to set
up this fellowship and to fund it for the first two years," Sigrid
Rausing
says. "I believe Benjamin Paradza is a worthy first holder of the
post. I
wish him and his family every success in their new
life.
"This is the first fellowship of its kind to be set up in New
Zealand - to
protect the guardians of human rights - and it is my hope that
VUW will be
able to use this gift to demonstrate how important this work is
and, in
time, to be able to source further funds from New Zealanders to make
this
fellowship permanent.
"It seems to me to be an essential element
of a just society that it acts to
protect and help those who risk their
lives to uphold basic rights and
freedoms. I would also like to pay tribute
to the New Zealand Government,
which, unlike the British Government,
recognised Mr Paradza's plight and
acted so speedily to rescue him and his
family," Sigrid Rausing says.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pat Walsh, has
welcomed Mr Paradza to Victoria.
"We are proud to be assisting Mr Paradza in
rebuilding his career in an
academic setting and we sympathise that he is
unable to do this in his own
country. It will be beneficial to our staff and
students to have the
opportunity to develop their skills with a practised
jurist in their midst,"
Professor Walsh says.
Dr Andrew Ladley,
Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, says he's
pleased to have Mr
Paradza on board.
"The experience that Benjamin has been through is a
vivid demonstration of
the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe,
including now the almost
complete erosion of the concept of an independent
judiciary, free from
government control," he says.
"Benjamin will be
working directly with me in developing his own study, and
in researching and
commenting in the broad area of peace and conflict
resolution studies where
he is likely to focus on the importance of the
independence of the
judiciary, the rule of law and human rights issues."
July 14, 2006
By
ANDnetwork .com
The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is
refurbishing the
Zambezi Camp in the resort town of Victoria Falls to meet
international
standards.
This was in line with the authority's
commercialisation drive, which
is aimed at boosting revenue.
The Parks authority has been commercialising since 2000, transforming
itself
from being a department within the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism to a
fully-fledged commercial entity.
The camp would, however, remain
open during the refurbishment, said
the authority.
"Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority wishes to advise all
its customers
that the Zambezi Camp (Victoria Falls) is currently under
refurbishment.
"This refurbishment is aimed at improving
standards in all our lodges
in a bid to establish world-class accommodation
facilities with excellent
service delivery in the jungle," said the
authority in a statement.
Wildlife experts from Zimbabwe were
recently in the US to market the
country's wildlife products at the World
Annual Convention.
Zimbabwe is rated among the richest countries in
the world in terms of
its wildlife species both in terms of numbers and
variety and has entered
into exchange programme with Nigeria and Asian
countries such as Japan.
The Parks and Wildlife Management
Authority realised a whopping
Z$115,1 billion from the sale of hunting
rights along the Zambezi Valley in
March this year.
Last year
the authority raised Z$13 billion from the auction.
The
Herald-Zimbabwe
Farmers' Weekly, UK
14/07/2006
09:00:00
Farmers Weekly
A group of dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers is
about to take a case for
compensation to an international
tribunal.
This move could benefit over 4000 of their compatriots who had
their land
taken by Robert Mugabe's government.
The case is being
taken by the Zimbabwean Dutch Farmers' Association (ZDFA),
in partnership
with the UK-based AgricAfrica, on behalf of 11 ex-farmers
with Dutch
nationality.
"International law is quite clear that, where an
individual's assets are
compulsorily purchased by the state, then
compensation has to be paid,"
AgricAfrica chairman Bob Fernandes told
Farmers Weekly.
That quite clearly has not been happening in
Zimbabwe.
Over 4000 white commercial farmers have been kicked off their
farms since
2000 - often under extremely violent circumstances - with their
land and
assets either handed over to government supporters or senior
militia, or
left to lie idle.
Only about 300 white farmers are still
in occupation of their farms, though
recent reports suggest a further, and
possibly final round of dispossessions
is under way.
While the
Zimbabwe government has been offering some compensation, Mr
Fernandes - a
former valuer from the capital city Harare - says this amounts
to less than
10% of the true value of the farms that were taken.
"With inflation
running at over 1000%, a farmer would have to be really
desperate to sign up
to that.
Unfortunately, some are desperate."
But he is optimistic
that the case being taken by the ZDFA will achieve a
better deal for
dispossessed farmers.
That case is based on what is known as an Investor
Protection Agreement,
signed by both the Dutch and Zimbabwean governments
and designed to protect
the assets of foreign nationals in
Zimbabwe.
The question of whether compensation is payable will be
considered by three
arbitrators under the rules of the International Centre
for the Settlement
of Investment Disputes (ICSID) - a forum linked to the
World Bank - in
Washington later this year.
Assuming liability is
established, the arbitrators will then set the sum of
money the ex-farmers
are owed.
"If an award for compensation is made and the Zimbabwean
government refuses
to pay, then the 11 farmers involved would have the right
to seize assets
belonging to the Zimbabwean government in any one of 139
countries that are
signed up to the New York Convention on the Recognition
and Enforcement of
Arbitral Awards," says Mr Fernandes.
It is also
possible that the World Bank would insist on payment of awards in
connection
with any future loans to Harare.
Mr Fernandez is optimistic that ICSID
will find in the Dutch farmers' favour
and believes this will set a
precedent for others to stake similar claims.
"But the big unknown is
what value will be put on the farms."
philip.clarke@rbi.co.uk
by
Philip Clarke
The Herald
(Harare)
July 14, 2006
Posted to the web July 14, 2006
Fortious
Nhambura
Harare
THE failure by the Grain Marketing Board to pay
farmers on time and the lack
of transport to ferry grain from communal and
resettled farmers will affect
the country's grain
statistics.
Communal farmers and resettled farmers, who produce the bulk
of Zimbabwe's
maize have either been holding on to their grain or sometimes
forced to sell
it to side marketers because they could not transport the
grain to the GMB.
Recent reports said that grain collection was going on
at a snail's pace
with less that 100 000 tonnes having been delivered to the
GMB to date.
The GMB intends to collect an estimated 1,8 million tonnes
of maize by the
end of next month.
But the lack of adequate
collection modes is making it difficult for the GMB
to collect the grain in
time.
The GMB has complained of lack of fuel and trucks to ferry grain
from
producers to storage depots.
This has been worsened by shortages
of funds to pay farmers, who in most
cases want to use the money to procure
inputs for the coming season.
Lack of transport has thus given a chance
to side marketers who are offering
farmers more money for a tonne of maize
and transport.
Grain dealers are offering farmers between $35 million and
$37 million a
tonne and ready transport while the GMB pays $31 million per
tonne and
insists that farmers bring their produce to their
depots.
Agricultural experts say the only way the GMB would curb the
illegal sell of
grain as well as improve grain inflows is to increase
collection points
thereby cutting on transport costs.
"The only
solution should be for the board to be near the farmers by making
sure they
construct permanent and temporary structures for grain
collection," said Mr
Alexander Furawu of Hurungwe.
In some areas transporters were charging
between $1 million and 1,5 million
to take a 50kg bag of maize to the
nearest depot.
This, farmers said was eroding their profit
margins.
As a result, farmers were opting to sell their maize to private
dealers who
were not only offering more money but were also collecting the
produce from
farms.
Most importantly they were also accepting maize
with high moisture content
that the GMB was rejecting, before the Government
intervened.
"Prices of almost everything are going up daily and we can't
sell to the GMB
alone when there are some people who are offering more
money.
"Transport costs have also forced us to sell the grain to dealers
as they
come to ferry the grain from our homes.
"I can not travel to
GMB depots when there are people who can pay and
transport the maize at
their expense," said a Goromonzi farmer, Mr Farai
Chimbwanda.
Those
farmers who take their grain to the GMB depots are forced to wait for
days
before getting paid.
The GMB usually takes a week or two to get payments
processed.
The payments are usually made in cheques which farmers say
they have to cash
at commercial banks using more money on
transport.
Some farmers said they were regretting delivering their maize
to the GMB as
they could have sold their grain to private marketers who
usually have ready
cash and transport than to wait for weeks to get paid by
the board.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union President Mr Silas Hungwe said the
delays in getting
payments for grain were making it difficult for members of
his association
to plan ahead or repay their loans.
"Most of our
farmers have debts that need to be cleared before the onset of
the next
farming season. The late disbursement of payment from GMB means
most farmers
can not repay the loans or borrow for the next farming season,"
he
said
On the other hand farmers are not eager to take their produce to the
GMB
depots, as they fear the country may not receive adequate rainfall in
the
next farming season.
Although the Government has released funds
to the GMB for prompt payment of
producers, the money has not been enough to
pay the farmers in time.
This has also affected the producer prices that
have been offered by the GMB
to farmers for their grain.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
13 July
2006
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is expected to ask
the Southern African
Development Community to endorse his nomination of
Tanzanian ex-president
Benjamin Mkapa as mediator in proposed discussions
with Britain.
SADC spokeswoman Mpho Kgosidintsi said a SADC summit was
set for August 17
in Lesotho, but added that the agenda was still in the
process of being
drafted.
A Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Ministry
source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said intra-regional lobbying has
begun, as Harare expects
resistance from Botswana and Mozambique, which were
believed to have wanted
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to
pursue his earlier proposal
to broker a crisis solution.
South
African President Thabo Mbeki, who had initially backed Annan, has
apparently asked Mr. Mugabe to agree that Mkapa should work under SADC
auspices.
Mkapa's precise role has remained unclear. He has yet to
publicly confirm
his role in the talks with Britain proposed by Mr. Mugabe -
and for which
British officials have not shown great enthusiasm, commenting
that
Zimbabwe's acute economic crisis has not arisen from bilateral
differences
as Mr. Mugabe holds, but from Harare's policies.
Acting
Information Minister Paul Mangwana said Mkapa volunteered to mediate,
but a
diplomatic source said President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania proposed
his
services.
Sources said Mkapa had met with Mr. Mugabe since taking up the
assignment,
later writing a letter to SADC criticizing its silence on the
Zimbabwean
crisis.
For perspective on the role SADC might play in the
initiative, reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe turned to
senior researcher
Chris Maroleng of the Institute for Security Studies in
Pretoria, South
Africa.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 14 July
A top official of South Africa's ruling
African National Congress (ANC) said
in Harare on Thursday that his party
supports the appointment of former
Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa as a
mediator in the alleged Zimbabwean
crisis with Britain. The broadcast
remarks by ANC Secretary General Kgalema
Motlanthe represented a concession
to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe,
who has opposed a United Nations
mediator and advocated Mkapa instead.
Mugabe blames years of economic
decline and social conflict in Zimbabwe on
its former colonial master,
Britain. The appointment of Mkapa has been
viewed with skepticism by the
British authorities, who say there is no need
for mediation between Harare
and London because Zimbabwe's problems are
purely internal. Under Mugabe,
the government has seized formerly prosperous
white-owned farms, sending
agricultural production into a tailspin and
turning Zimbabwe, once a food
exporter, into a food-importing nation on the
brink of starvation in recent
drought. Last year, security forces razed
shack settlements and homes around
large cities, leaving hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans homeless going
into the chilly Southern African
winter.
Motlanthe flew into
Harare for a brief visit during which he visited the
farm of Zimbabwe's
defence force chief Constantine Chiwenga, according to
the state
broadcaster. His visit came barely two weeks after Zimbabwe
appeared to snub
South African initiatives to end the biting economic and
social crisis by
insisting there was no need for UN intervention. South
African President
Thabo Mbeki was reported to have been pushing for UN
Secretary General Kofi
Annan to visit Harare. But Mugabe said that Mkapa
would instead act as a
mediator between Zimbabwe and former colonial power
Britain. In an apparent
conciliatory bid, Motlanthe said the ANC had taken
its cue from Mugabe's
ruling Zanu PF. "That's the view of Zanu PF, that's
what we go along with,"
he said in televised comments at Harare
International airport. "We'd support
whatever initiative that is viewed and
regarded by comrades in Zimbabwe as
the best possible route towards
advancing the interests of the people," he
added.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
BIRMINGHAM - Any
peace-loving citizen of Zimbabwe would strongly
deplore the attack of
opposition Member of Parliament, Honourable Trudy
Stevenson
recently.
The attack indeed, was savage and cruel. This act of
political
violence is not new to the Zimbabwean political scenario and has
been used
by Zanu PF over the years to get rid of the
opponents.
The early 1980's Gukurahundi massacres by President
Mugabe's
government where more than 20 000 innocent people perished, is just
a tip of
the iceberg.
With the growing opposition to his rule,
President Mugabe has
increased the intensity of violence to silence any
descending voices.
His government has also been involved in dirty
tactics of mudslinging
to opposition figures to tarnish their images. Some
of these drama-staged
acts of blackmailing have been exposed after thorough
investigations.
In the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections,
Zanu PF caused
confusion among the electorate when it knowingly and
deliberately lied that
the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was involved
in a treason plot to
get rid of President Mugabe.
They even
provided fake video footages to try and nail the opposition
leader. The
whole idea here was to find an excuse to destroy the opposition.
This culture of staged violence was further evidenced by the death of
Cain
Nkala, a Zanu (PF) supporter and war veteran. Although later
revelations
showed that Cain Nkala was a victim of the ruling party's
internal
politics.
By then, the ruling party had already tormented the
opposition
supporters blaming them over the war veteran's death. Precisely,
the
politics of blame and mudslinging to mislead people and causing
despondence
is not a new phenomenon in the Zanu PF's political
philosophy.
Squarely, the latest attack on Trudy Stevenson and four
officials from
the Professor Arthur Mutambara's faction is not far from
being a Zanu PF
product.
It is clear that there is no bone of
contention between the MDC and
its erstwhile friends which can warrant such
a savage attack replica of Zanu
PF culture.
Above all, MDC was
founded on the principles of non-violent democratic
resistance and there is
no way these principles could be changed overnight.
With due
respect, if thorough and professional investigations are
conducted to
explain the events surrounding the attack of the legislator
Trudy Stevenson
and others, the results will obviously reveal that Zanu PF
is
involved.
It is amazing to see the authors of violence joining the
peace loving
citizens in condemning violence. This act can be viewed as a
scapegoat to
mislead and fuel violence in the opposition.
The
main point here is Zanu PF is desperate to get rid of the MDC and
Morgan
Tsvangirai, and has not ruled out dirty tactics.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi
LONDON - THE
attack on Trudy Stevenson is an act of barbarism that
noone can really
condone. And the MDC, as led by Morgan Tsvangirai, was
quick in condemning
it.
But it seems as if the Professor Mutambara faction of the Party
wants
to gain political mileage out of it. Statements that followed the
attack
seem to have exonerated ZANU PF and ridiculously tried to make
Tsvangirai
the wicked person of Zimbabwean politics.
In doing
that the Mutambara faction is not alone, they have plenty
admirers
especially in ZANU PF, as represented by Nathan Shamuyarira their
spokesperson.
Interestingly the government mouthpiece reported
on the same day and
ironically on the same page that the case against
Didymus Mutasa was being
dropped, yet that involving Trudy Stevenson was
being propped up.
The Mutasa case was about ZANU PF intra-political
violence which
involved attempted murder and is no different from the Trudy
Stevenson case
but it is clear that the stake is higher to pursue Morgan
Tsvangirai. One
wonders why ZANU PF is too quick to implicate MDC and why
some of us are
complicit to that.
The attack on Trudy Stevenson
was splashed in the Herald, Trudy
herself gave a good account of how bad her
attackers from the other side
were, and that she has never seen such
savagery in her entire life. Of
course when in pain, one can say things that
they would not want repeated!
Not to condone violence, I personally
being a very peaceful man who
submitted fully to the life of Christianity,
but there is a clear distortion
in such statements.
It is
commonplace in Zimbabwe that the savagery that has been
witnessed was from
Ian Smith in the liberation struggle, the Robert Mugabe
regime during
Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and the Robert Mugabe regime
against mainly MDC
supporters and white farmers.
These are the facts, documented in
such reports as the Monthly
Political Violence Monitoring Reports that are
produced by the Zimbabwe
Human rights Ngo Forum. The depth of that savagery
is so deep and we have
Zimbabweans such as Tonderai Machiridza, Stephen Olds
etc lost their lives
and others like Gabriel Shumba, Ian Kay, Job Sikhala
etc were beaten and
left for dead.
This was savagery at its
worst, sustained by the ZANU PF
machinery.sustained shamelessly and anchored
as a monoculture through
institutions of violence such as the Youth
Militia.
The attempt to demonise Morgan Tsvangirai by exonerating
ZANU PF is as
bad as hero-worshipping Ian Smith because I do not like Robert
Mugabe. The
MDC cannot be demonised that way.
Whoever beat
Trudy was not sanctioned by Morgan Tsvangirai or whoever
leader of the MDC.
It follows also that it is not true that Tsvangirai and
the MDC are very
violent as both Nathan Shamuyarira and Gabriel Chaibva want
us to
believe.
Contrary to that if there is any political party in
Zimbabwe that is
serious about addressing the issue of political violence,
it is the
Tsvangirai led MDC. This is seen in the tangible efforts that
followed the
attack on Trudy Stevenson. The Independent Commission of
Inquiry that was
set displays a seriousness that only those with ulterior
motives won't
notice.
The quoting of the word independent in
some quarters seems to attach
doubt to the effect of the inquiry; its
purpose is being defeated even
before its inception by people obviously
longing to see the end of the
Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC. Yet the same people
have been crying for violence
to be addressed. It seems as if the attack on
Trudy was a blessing in
disguise for the Mutambara-led MDC and they want
that on and are clinging to
it as if their whole lives belong to it. But
some of it is coming from
people like Chaibva who themselves lack
credibility and were trained to
maintain ZANU PF by using violence, when he
was trained in the then People's
Militia.
But what Chaibva
forgot to tell the nation is that he was also
involved in intra-MDC fighting
when he was jostling for a position in MDC
Harare Province in 2001. Maybe he
is a recent convert to the peace brigade
but of course everyone who knows
about converts knows that they confess
first before they become true
converts. We haven't heard Chaibva confessing.
The same for Arthur
Mutambara, himself during his University years, a master
who taught our
intellectuals how to urinate in fridges! We have nothing
really to learn
from people who lack credibility to talk, and the nation
simply has to be
spared the lectures from people whose histories too are
well-embedded in the
culture of violence that they want us to believe they
loath.
Enter Gabriel Chaibva:
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate211.14346.html
on the proposed talks
between MDC and ZANU PF seemed to want to indicate
that Morgan Tsvangirai
and MDC may have played a traitor. The man, of course
doing his duty as the
Pro-Senate spokesperson, seems to want to speak to the
World and seems to
have thought that he might have wrong footed Morgan
Tsvangirai for what he
says is talking to ZANU PF. In his article he also
exonerates the
Pro-Senate MDC for what he says were accusations that they
were either a
creation or an extension of ZANU PF.
He seems to
celebrate the exposure of Tsvangirai as indeed the real
traitor, and further
talks about the "Winter of Discontent" which he thinks
might have been
shelved.
What is so striking is the attempt to be the good guys of
Zimbabwean
politics, a card that was played before the planting season of
Budiriro,
which as we all know came and others who had truly been serious
harvested
fruits, and others we won't mention to avoid unnecessary monotony
harvested
thorns. "Oh how did I become anheroxic?" said the food shy
sister!
The question of being traitors and going thousands of miles
away from
principles is there, stuck on the Mutambara faction that they it
will only
be changed with the fading of history. Zimbabweans will always
remember how
some of those they thought were MDC betrayed the struggle for
the love of
money.
They, led by Welshman Ncube and Priscilla
Misiharabwi-Mushonga,
decided to endorse a constitutional amendment all
civic groups in Zimbabwe
had rejected by participating in Senatorial
Elections. Zimbabweans remember
how those they thought were part of them
decided to deride the poor by
participating in a scheme once more being
advanced at the behest of their
oppressors, to overburden the already
overtaxed Zimbabwean taxpayer by
creating a senate that is nothing but the
"golden handshake" for Zimbabwe's
political mafia.
The senate
project came at a time when the electorate, which happens
to have the
largest stake in the political economy, was crying for houses
destroyed
during "Operation Murambatsvina" and hyperinflation. It is at that
time that
Welshman Ncube and company decided to distance themselves from the
legitimate agenda of poor people, which at the time was to get redress for
"Operation Murambatsvina".
It was around this time that they
chose to legitimise ZANU PF by
supporting the senate when that money should
have been used to build houses
for those affected by Murambatsvina. The
senate is a project that even ZANU
PF luminaries such as Shuvai Mahofa are
castigating in broad day light. One
wonders how far some of us have
travelled from the truth, if they are so
myopic not to see what others are
beginning to see.
Come, the Political Parties Financing Act. Faced
with two MDCs after
the split, and faced with two MDC congresses it was left
to the discretion
of ZANU PF and Mugabe to choose what to do. It was either
that the two
parties would be given Z$4bn each or else as it turned out to
be, ZANU PF
would reward the MDC they preferred and punish the MDC they
hated. And so
recent history has it that ZANU PF chose to give the Z$8bn to
the MDC they
preferred, those that were talking their language and opposing
them
innocently.
This meant the Arthur Mutambara camp was
baptised as another ZANU PF,
even more preferred to this day to ZANU Ndonga
which is ZANU PF's namesake
and to United People's Party which was born from
within ZANU PF itself. They
then were taken closer to the hearts and minds
of ZANU PF but on that day
they also became bad-smell to the besieged masses
of Zimbabwe. Bad-smell as
shown by their rejection at the hands of the
Budiriro folk.
Their redundant and decadent ideology was rejected
by the sound
rejection of their Party's principal promoter, the spokesperson
Gabriel
Chaibva.the rejection showed in the number they got 504; ironically
the code
name of a now redundant and decadent model of cars; Peugeot
504.
I wasn't really surprised when I followed Chaibva's argument.
It was
really not on principle, no. He was not saying MDC should not talk to
ZANU
PF, no. He was saying ZANU PF should talk to them because they have
more
representatives in the House of Assembly. What he could not see was
that
ZANU PF will not talk to another ZANU PF in order to end the
crisis.
They will engage the opposition and by aligning themselves
to ZANU PF,
by allowing themselves to be used as canon fodder early in the
day and by
being rejected by the grassroots the Mutambara faction is both
bad-smell and
damaged goods and ZANU PF will not have anything to do with
them.
ZANU PF and the international community would like to hear
the other
side as is the principle of natural justice and the true other
side that has
been resolute and unwavering in its opposition of ZANU PF is
the
Tsvangirai-led MDC and that is in the public gallery.
It is
therefore clear that all along Chaibva's group has been
positioning itself
for talks and in the process they decided to call the
bitter pill that is
ZANU PF by the name sweet but of course that did not
alter the test-buds of
the electorate. Instead the electorate has become
more and more interested
in supporting the truth, supporting the truth with
the vigour that it
deserves. Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC have not warmed
up to ZANU PF in
anyway.
They did not seek to "re-brand" the Party by harmonising
their
policies with those of ZANU PF as was done by Mutambara and company.
What
they have done is to proffer a platform by which ZANU PF will be
engaged and
that is being done on about eight pillars. What is being
proffered is a good
dispute settlement mechanism that is all inclusive and
this is rare and an
indication that at least in Morgan Tsvangirai and the
MDC he leads we seem
to have a leader prepared to move further away from the
culture of
revolutionary aristocracy that has done our country great
disfavour.
The Mutambara faction of the MDC is full of people who
have positioned
themselves as the sympathetic few whom without them poor
Zimbabweans would
have no voice of agitation. If you listen to Arthur
Mutambara speaking, his
emphasis on gravitas and how by inference he thinks
he meets that definition
and the excludability that he thinks befits people
such as Morgan Tsvangirai
and Joyce Mujuru because they do not have the
so-called gravitas, you can
see how people who claim to be pro-democracy are
not prepared to listen to
the electorate but their whims.
Like
ZANU PF they are a closed club of self-important persons no
wonder the likes
of David Coltart were shocked when they were not called to
mediate when they
thought they have the gravitas to mediate and denial would
be a
sin.
It is therefore left to the Arthur Mutambara led MDC to
start-searching for their soul. They are clearly exhausted with the struggle
and people like Chaibva who want to contest in every constituency are the
best case of such desperation. Defeated in the MDC primary elections in his
traditional Harare South Constituency he did the embarrassing thing of going
to contest in Budiriro in a clear sign that either the Mutambara faction has
no ready takers or they are a closed club where only a chosen few will be
preferred.
This is why we have seen the same recycled people
coming to "preach"
their political gospel which at best is a rare blend of
ZANU PF and 1960s
Pan-Africanism. Having realised that they do not stand a
chance with the
Zimbabwean electorate they now want to see the demise of MDC
and they have
been trying by all means to sound the international community
that MDC is
not good business.
They are no longer promoting
their own philosophy because they know
its bad-smell but as they go want to
pull with them the entire MDC and of
course the only hope Zimbabweans have.
Because they are intellectuals they
do not care what happens to the average
Zimbabwean because they have never
cared. They want their names only. One is
reminded of the Biblical mothers
who claimed the same child. One who was not
the mother wanted it cut into
two. The other who was the mother asked King
Solomon to spare the child's
life and give it to the other woman if
necessary.
The wise King settled for the later. In our scenario the
electorate is
the wise king and they have chosen the ones who want to save
the life of the
people's party. What's left for Chaibva and company is to
try and co-exist,
if they do that history may not charge them harshly. But
if they continue to
try and destroy the only hope the people of Zimbabwe
have, they may succeed
in scaling it down but they will never succeed in
destroying the Party.
And people will never forgive them. This
happened before and
ironically the same people were involved in the futile
attempt to destroy
ZimRights. For years ZimRights had a bad name with the
so-called
international community. But people remained resolute and now the
people's
human rights organisation still survives and has since been
rewarded by
regaining the respect from the ever inconsistent so-called
international
community!
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA CAN BE
CONTACTED ON 07984254830,
02077206614 mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or dhewah@hotmail.com
Please send any job opportunities for publication in this newsletter to:
JAG
Job Opportunities; jag@mango.zw or justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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inserted 15 June 2006
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General Manager Wanted
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inserted 15 June 2006
TRANSPORT MANAGER / FUEL MANAGER
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OPERATIONS MAN / CONTROLER REQUIRED
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inserted 22 June 2006
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inserted 29 June 2006
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administrator & very active (35 years &
above). Please apply to email
address: conquest@mweb.co.zw
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Ad
inserted 6 July 2006
Workshop Manager Required
Workshop located in
Ashbrittle
Work involves water supply systems
Applicant should be
approximately 60 to 68 years old, needing to supplement
his pension.
Knowledge of pumps and vehicle maintenance an advantage
Job covers stock
control and workshop activities as well as
telephone/reception
Salary
negotiable
Please telephone 091 212 163 for further discussion (evenings
882718)
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Ad
inserted 6 July 2006
VACANCIES
We are an Agricultural Commodity
Trading company, also involved in Contract
Farming.
We are looking
for a Farmer Liaison Officer/Broker/Agronomist
DUTIES are outlined below
but are not limited to: -
Data entry of contracts, deliveries and
communications (Computer skills
essential).
Liaison with Farmer's with
regard to delivery Procedures.
Handling of quality disputes and contracting
problems with both buyers and
sellers.
Managing any queries during
delivery of crop.
Weekly collection of documentation from various delivery
depots.
Liaison with the storage depots, transporters and other interested
parties.
Managing the supply of inputs to farmers during contract growing as
well as
monitoring the crop progress and any queries during delivery of crop
and
empty grain bags.
Crop progress reports and crop management.
Must
have a farming background.
Please apply to the General Manager,
04-307868/9
04-339575 or email sheyns@stayweltrading.co.zw
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Ad
inserted 6 July 2006
Operations Manager
"Operations Manager"
required for retail shops in Manicaland. Would suit ex
farmer and wife. Age
and experience not important. Email aylen@mweb.co.zw"
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Ad
inserted 13 July 2006
"Situation Vacant"
Hospital Matron.
Borradaile (Private) Hospital, Marondera, requires a Matron
in Charge to
start 1st August or later by arrangement. Applicants must be
registered RGN
with at least five years experience in a senior position and
preferably with
midwifery and OT certificates. Apply with CV and references
to
The
Chairman, P.O. Box 453,
Marondera.
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Employment
Sought
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ad
inserted 22 June 2006
Position Required in Safari/Outdoor
Organization;
Single male with previous experience in Zimbabwe and
Mozambique seeks
position. Has experience in camp management, catering,
lodge/camp
construction, and administration. Please contact Ned via Duncan on
011 405
387, 309971 (work hours) or email at ddollar@genham.co.zw
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Ad
inserted 22 June 2006
"HEAVY DUTY DRIVER
We are shortly leaving
Zimbabwe and wish to find employment for our driver
Munyaradzi Maliki. He is
a non-drinker, very reliable, hard working and
honest. Munyaradzi has driven
our T35 extensively on long distances over
extremely poor dirt roads to our
Kapenta Fishing Camp (Harare to Kariba -
via Gokwe). He is meticulous in
conducting regular full vehicle checks and
has proved to be a valued employee
and a good team player, who willingly
undertakes other duties if he is not
driving. His availability would be on
an immediate basis. Please contact
Shaw: 091 945686 or 091 270 245
(landline not
working)."
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Ad
inserted 22 June 2006
Farm Manager
Looking for a farm job as a
manager, Qualified at Blackfordby Agricultural,
Institute. Three years
farming experience in tobacco, maize and wheat.
Please contact George Heyns
home: 064 8388
Cell:091272216
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Ad
inserted 22 June 2006
Ex Farmer
Ex Farmer/Consultant and
Agronomist for Alliance One Tobacco aged 50 years
living in Zimbabwe with 23
years experience in growing tobacco, maize, seed
maize, horticulture, beef
cattle, pigs, chickens. Excellent management,
administration and
communication skills, computer literate, full clean
drivers licence. Was
runner up'Tobacco Grower of the Year' in 1985. Spent
last 2 years consulting
for Imperial Tobacco Group in Madagascar on the
production of flue-cured
tobacco.
AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY. CONTACT: 091 439 911/011 602 583 or
heather@karina.co.zw
Can send CV
if
necessary.
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-------------
Ad
inserted 6 July 2006
Girl Friday
Mature lady seeks position as a
Person Friday. Typing skills, Clerical
work, some computer experience i.e.
Email.
Reliable, Honest, Available immediately has own
transport.
Prefers not to have to deal with any figure work or
money.
Areas - Workington, Light Industrial Sites, Msasa, Newlands,
Southerton.
Contact Address: Phone Heather Don on 571737 or Email: digger@mango.zw
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Ad
inserted 13 July 2006
Commercial agricultural representative
I am
a former commercial agricultural representative with farming experience
in
Zimbabwe and Mozambique (virginia tobacco, burley
tobacco,
commercial/seed-maize, wheat, soyabeans, cotton, citrus and pigs); I
have
extensive knowledge on the subjects of agronomy, crop chemicals
and
veterinary products. Is there anybody out there with something for
me?
Contact Stu Taylor on 0204 -2288 or
091-650997.
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Ad
inserted 13 July 2006
URGENT POSITION REQUIRED -
MANAGERIAL
Divorced, tomboy type female aged 48 seeks urgent position any
where in
Zimbabwe. Due to unforeseen circumstances the position I was to
take up
shortly is no longer available and as a result I am available
immediately.
I have vast experience in all aspects of Management and
Management Training;
Stock Control; Buying; Sales and Sales Training and
administration. My
people skills are excellent and I have no problem working
or managing in
Male environments, so would fit in well in most companies. I
consider
myself to have integrity, loyalty and am not afraid of putting an
honest
days work or overtime. I do not have my own transport, but have a
valid
Drivers License.
Should anyone wish to discuss the matter,
please contact Theresa asap on
(016) 537 any time within the next
week.
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Ad
inserted 13 July 2006
Typing Service
Don't have time to do your
own typing and need someone to take the stress
from you. Well here I am call
on me and I will assist you in any way I
possibly can. I worked for Rio
Tinto, Eiffels Flats in 1991 till 1994 when I
left to get married. I then
started working for Carters Transport in Kadoma
and worked for them for 3
years. I did the creditors and wages side and
used the programs SAGE and
Payrite. I taught myself a lot on the computer.
Then obtained my ICDL in
February 2004. I have done various others projects
on the computer e.g.
(Party Invitations, Menus, Order of Services, Cheque
book labels, Typed up an
assignment for a student at Black Forbe).
I enjoy baking and cooking, its
one of my main interests. I have catered
for weddings, Company Christmas
Parties, Round Table Induction Dinners, 8
years of teas, lunches, dinners for
the Kadoma Golf Club and cheese and wine
parties.
Further more details
contact myself on the following:-
Contact name : Mrs J J
Niehaus
Email address : stealthtec@zol.co.zw
Mobile
number : 011-403718
Home number :
04-300430/433
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For
the latest listings of accommodation available for farmers, contact
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
(updated 13 July 2006)