Zim Online
Fri
21 July 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) party will next week meet civic society groups to
forge a united front
to pressure the government to resolve the country's
deepening political and
economic crisis, ZimOnline has learnt.
Authoritative sources within the main faction of the MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai and which has threatened to call mass protests to force President
Robert Mugabe to accept sweeping political reforms said the opposition party
would use the July 29 convention to persuade civic society to back the
proposed Ukraine-style civil revolt.
"We are obviously going to
take advantage of that convention to table
our roadmap (for political
reforms) for endorsement from our civic
partners .. all democratic forces
must come together to force Mugabe to play
ball," said an executive member
of the MDC, who did not want to be named
because he was not authorised to
speak to the Press.
Under the MDC roadmap,
Mugabe must either give up power to a
transitional government that will be
tasked to write a new constitution and
organise fresh elections under
international supervision or face popular
revolt.
Mugabe, who
has in the past deployed armed soldiers and police on the
streets to thwart
dissent, has rejected the opposition roadmap and warned
Tsvangirai and his
party that mass anti-government protests would be a "dice
with
death".
The MDC however appears undeterred by Mugabe's threats and
the planned
meeting with organised civic society will be a follow up to
several rallies
held by Tsvangirai across the country to mobilise ordinary
citizens for
protests against the government.
The Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC), an alliance of more than 50
civic society groups
in the country, on Thursday said the planned convention
would hammer out
ways to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis described by the World
Bank last year as
the worst in the world outside a war zone.
"The nation is bleeding
and all forces have to come together to find a
common solution," CZC
co-ordinator Jacob Mafume told ZimOnline.
Zimbabwe is in its
seventh successive year of a bitter economic
recession that has spawned
runaway inflation of more than 1 000 percent,
mass hunger and shortages of
fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard
cash and just about every basic
survival commodity.
Critics blame the crisis on repression and
wrong polices by Mugabe
such as his controversial seizure of productive
farms from whites for
redistribution to landless blacks.
The
land redistribution programme which Mugabe says was necessary to
ensure
blacks also had a share of arable land, is blamed for knocking down
food
output by about 60 percent after the government failed to back
villagers
resettled on former white farms with inputs and skill s training
to maintain
production.
Mugabe, the sole ruler Zimbabweans have ever know since
independence
from Britain 26 years ago, denies mismanaging the country and
says its
problems are because of economic sabotage by Britain and its
Western allies
opposed to his seizure of white land. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri
21 July 2006
HARARE - It was uncertain this week whether Russian
energy firm
TurboEngineering would invest in Zimbabwe's energy sector after
officials
from the company expressed dissatisfaction at the southern African
country's
single buyer model for electricity and erratic subsidies from the
government, sources told ZimOnline.
The Russians who arrived in
Harare last Sunday and had expressed
eagerness to invest in four power
generation projects with capacity to yield
more than 1 000 megawatts of
electricity were also said to have been unhappy
with the state-owned
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)'s
finances.
According to sources, the Russian investors openly told officials from
the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Ministries of Energy and Finance that they
could not invest in a market where they would be required to sell
electricity to only one state-owned company and not directly to
consumers.
"They looked to have been on a determined exploration
but what they
saw at ZESA put them off. Worse still when they discovered
that they could
not sell their product directly to consumers but to a
state-owned company,
they showed that they were not too pleased," said a
ZESA official, who spoke
on condition he was not named.
Energy
Minister Mike Nyambuya could not be reached for comment on the
matter.
Zimbabwe has invited potential investors in the
generation of
electricity that will then be sold to a wholly-owned
subsidiary of ZESA, the
Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Company
(ZETCO).
ZETCO owns and operates the transmission grids and
infrastructure in
Zimbabwe and is the only one that sells power directly to
consumers.
The Russians were also unhappy to sell electricity to
ZESA or ZETCO
both of which are technically insolvent.
Our
source said the Russians also expressed displeasure with the
subsidy
arrangement between the government and ZESA.
He said: "The Russians
demanded to know whether government was up to
date with subsidy payments at
which point they were told that government was
facing insurmountable
challenges and was therefore defaulting."
The Russians had wanted
to invest the development of Condo
hydro-electricity plant, Gairezi power
plant and the Batoka Hydro-project on
the mighty Zambezi river.
The three projects, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of United
States
dollars to develop, would have yielded enough electricity to see an
end to
Zimbabwe's crippling power shortages.
Zimbabwean industry and homes
suffer from hours of power cuts every
day, with energy experts saying that
the country looks set to be the worst
affected by a power crisis expected to
hit southern Africa by 2008 because
of failure by the cash-strapped ZESA to
expand generation capacity at
existing power stations or to build new
ones.
Zimbabwe currently imports 35 percent of its power
requirements from
neighbouring countries but these will in two years time be
unable to sell
electricity to Zimbabwe because of rising demand in their
domestic
markets. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 21 July
2006
HURUNGWE - The Zimbabwean government has barred an Irish
non-governmental organisation, Goal Zimbabwe, from distributing food to
schools in Hurungwe district saying the district had harvested enough food
this year and did not need handouts from donors.
Goal Zimbabwe
launched an ambitious supplementary feeding programme in
schools in
Hurungwe, about 380 kilometres north-west of Harare, last May in
a bid to
stop children from dropping out of school because of hunger.
But
last week, the NGO received a directive from President Robert
Mugabe's
government to discontinue the feeding programme.
Goal Zimbabwe
human resources manager, Pamela Muzenda, confirmed to
ZimOnline that the NGO
had moved out of Hurungwe.
"We are moving to other needy districts
as the government has said
Hurungwe had a bumper harvest last season. The
government also said most
households in the district can now afford three
meals a day and the
situation is no longer critical," said
Muzenda.
"We will certainly be back when the need arises," she
added.
School authorities in Hurngwe have however expressed dismay
over the
discontinuation of the programme.
"We were all taken
aback following the decision to discontinue the
programme. Parents are
worried that the withdrawal of the NGO will
drastically affect attendances
in schools," said a headmaster who refused to
be named because he is not
authorised to speak to the press.
President Robert Mugabe's
government earlier this year said Zimbabwe
will not need food aid because it
would harvest about 1.8 million tonnes of
the staple maize, which is enough
to feed the country's 12 million
population.
But food aid
agencies have rejected the claims with, for example, the
Consortium for
Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE) saying last
week that most
rural households will still need food assistance this year
because of poor
harvests.
Zimbabwe has faced severe food shortages over the past
six years after
Mugabe seized white-owned farms for redistribution to
landless blacks.
But Mugabe denies his land reforms triggered the
food shortages and
instead blames the food crisis on erratic rains. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 21 July
2006
BULAWAYO - Authorities in Zimbabwe's second largest city of
Bulawayo
have suspended all emergency rescue services including the
ambulance and
fire services because there is no fuel.
In yet
another dramatic illustration of worsening hardships in
crisis-hit Zimbabwe,
city spokesman Phathisa Nyathi said the local authority
had also stopped
collecting refuse or attending to burst water and sewer
pipes, a situation
that could lead to an outbreak of diseases such as
cholera in the city of
more than a million people.
Nyathi said: "The situation is critical
and none of our ambulances are
on the road at the moment. We have halted
attending to burst sewer pipes and
collecting refuse and we have also
stopped fixing broken down traffic lights
because we do not have the fuel to
move from one place to the other."
Zimbabwe has since 1999 grappled
an acute fuel crisis, itself the
result of a severe economic meltdown that
has also spawned shortages of
food, electricity, essential medicines, hard
cash and other basic
commodities while inflation has shot beyond 1 000
percent.
Bulawayo city council, like every other institution in the
country,
was relying on the illegal but thriving parallel market for fuel
supplies
but sources said the government had ordered the council to stop
purchasing
fuel from the parallel market.
Nyathi said the
state-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe that is a
charged with supplying
fuel to public institutions was failing to keep the
city running with only
10 000 litres of diesel being supplied out to of the
20 000 litres the
council had ordered last June.
The government last month said that
it had secured a US$50 million
fuel supply deal from top European banks, BNP
Paribas and Loita Capital
International, which it said would see an end to
fuel shortages.
But the shortages persist amid fears the fuel deal
with the European
banks might have collapsed the same way similar deals with
funders from
countries such as Libya and Kuwait collapsed after Harare
failed to pay
back. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 21
July 2006
MASVINGO - A Zimbabwean man got more than what he
bargained for when
he was severely assaulted by state security agents after
he attempted to
hand over a squirrel to Vice-President Joice Mujuru during a
rally at
Sipambi business centre in Masvingo last Wednesday.
The man who appeared to be in a trance, was knocked to the ground by
Mujuru's heavily built bodyguards after he surged towards the platform
during the rally shouting that he must be allowed to hand over his "gift" to
the vice-president.
Shoving and pushing through the crowd
towards the platform, squirrel
in hand, the man shouted in the vernacular
Shona language: "Regai ndimupe
shindi mhani. Regai ndimupe chipo chake,"
which loosely translated means,
"let me give her the squirrel. Let me hand
her the gift".
Police in Masvingo town refused to comment on the
matter insisting
they were not aware of the incident.
Mujuru
later on donated Z$250 million towards the rebuilding of
Gokomere High
school which was gutted by fire last May. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 21
July 2006
CHINHOYI - Ruling ZANU PF party legislator Cecilia
Gwachiwa has been
hauled before the party's disciplinary committee in
Chinhoyi over
allegations that her live-in boyfriend is a member of the
opposition, which
zealots of President Robert Mugabe's party here consider
an offence.
Gwachiwa is the Member of Parliament for Hurungwe East
constituency, a
bastion of ZANU PF.
Senior ZANU PF officials in
Hurungwe have alleged that she is in a
blossoming romantic relationship with
Henry Juru, who they accuse of having
close links with Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party.
Last
week, Gwachiwa was summoned before the ruling party's
disciplinary committee
after 17 party members signed a petition against the
legislator over her
romantic ties with Juru.
ZANU PF deputy provincial chairman for
Mashonaland West, Christopher
Shumba, who chaired the disciplinary Hearing,
told ZimOnline: "We have
already set up a committee to probe the allegations
and see if she has a
case to answer. Next week, we expect that those who
signed the petition will
come to give oral evidence in the
matter."
Gwachiwa has however denied that her boyfriend is a member
of the MDC
saying the allegation was part of a smear campaign to tarnish her
image.
Zimbabwe is heavily polarised along political lines with the
two main
parties, ZANU PF and the MDC engaged in a six-year old bruising
battle for
political supremacy. - ZimOnline
IOL
July 20 2006
at 01:05AM
Johannesburg - South Africa needs to take more decisive
action against
Zimbabwe, delegates at a seminar on that country heard in
Pretoria on
Wednesday, SABC news reported.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" has failed to
create favourable
political, economic and social conditions in Zimbabwe,
said Peter Kagwanja,
the director of the International Crisis Group in
southern
Africa.
"Continued engagement between Zimbabwe and South Africa
means that
South Africa is sacrificing its own foreign policy ideals, the
very
foundation of its own nationhood, and therefore I think that with or
without
the context of quiet diplomacy, South Africa now needs to stand up
for the
values that are at the heart of its own
nationhood."
Professor Adam Habib from the Human
Sciences Research Council told the
SABC conditions exist for South Africa to
play a leading role in
facilitating negotiations between Zimbabwean parties
and the international
community.
"There is greater pressure. I
think the economic crisis is bigger. I
think South Africa is taking a more
harder stance, I think support
continentally is far bigger in our favour
than it has been before, but I
really think the big debate is 2008... when
presidential elections are
scheduled.
"And we need to start
thinking now about how we position ourselves for
the resolution in 2008 that
is sustainable, because Zimbabwe is too
important a country to let go down
the tube. Because what happens there has
enormous consequences for what will
happen in South Africa." - Sapa
The Living Church Foundation
07/19/2006
The Archbishop of Canterbury
has called for the Bishop of Harare (Zimbabwe)
to step down while misconduct
charges against him are pending before the
church courts of the Province of
Central Africa.
The call for the Rt. Rev. Nolbert Kunonga to go marks the
most significant
intervention by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams in the affairs
of an Anglican
province outside the Church of England.
A statement
released on behalf of Archbishop Williams said: "In the context
of a
prolonged and political crisis, the Diocese of Harare faces intolerable
strain in the form of the very grave and unresolved accusations against
Bishop Kunonga. The primary way forward is by dealing with these charges
through the church courts in the Anglican province of Central Africa, but
this process has been aborted and the matter is unresolved."
In other
jurisdictions, Archbishop Williams said a priest or bishop facing
such
serious charges would be suspended without prejudice until the case had
been
closed. "It is therefore very difficult for Bishop Kunonga to be
regarded as
capable of functioning as a bishop elsewhere in the Communion,"
he said.
Archbishop Williams also pressed the Primate of Central Africa, the
Most
Rev. Bernard Malango, and other leadership in the province to bring the
case
to a conclusion in a way "consistent with justice, transparency and
truth,
so that the damage to the health and credibility of the church can be
addressed."
Bishop Kunonga's ecclesiastical trial on charges ranging
from heresy and
fraud to incitement to murder broke up last year after the
judge hearing the
case quit, citing the lack of witnesses able to
substantiate the charges.
The witnesses, fearful for their lives, declined
to return to Harare from
exile to testify and the judge refused to allow the
witnesses to testify via
video link.
The case of Bishop Kunonga is
expected to be taken up by the next meeting of
the Central African House of
Bishops later this month.
(The Rev.) George Conger
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE - The
United States government says Benjamin Mkapa's mediation
in Zimbabwe's
crisis will be welcome if he is firm to ensure Harare agrees
to sweeping
changes that will lead to the rescuing of the country whose
economy is in
tatters after 26 years of Zanu PF rule.
Activists in the country
have been arguing the mediation effort can
only work if the country has a
new Constitution that will pave the way for
fresh elections that are free
and fair.
The US embassy in Harare says in a statement released
Wednesday the
former Tanzanian president's efforts would also be welcome
only if he can
manage to have President Robert Mugabe accepting the role he
played in the
country's declining fortunes.
Mugabe has over the
past six years accused Britain, Zimbabwe's former
colonial master, for
working in cahoots with the US and other western allies
in seeking regime
change in the country following his government's
controversial land reforms.
London says it is not blame for Zimbabwe's
economic decline but that it is
Mugabe's fault.
Mkapa is yet to speak on the role Mugabe and his
government say he
agreed to take on.
United Nations Secretary
General, Kofi Annan, who was widely expected
by the international community
to take on the mediating role, called off a
visit to Harare and threw his
weight behind Mkapa's efforts.
The US says Zimbabwe's real problems
that are growing by the day need
to be solved soon. The US does not believe
the issues affecting Zimbabwe
have anything to do with Britain.
"As a sovereign and independent nation, it is up to the government and
the
people of Zimbabwe to recognise that the roots of the country's current
crisis lie within Zimbabwe, and equally to assume their responsibility for
devising viable solutions internally," read the statement.
The
statement further says Zimbabwe's problems find their roots in the
high
level corruption that even is acknowledged by Mugabe himself and early
this
year, Reserve Bank Governor, Gedion Gono, told the nation graft was one
of
the major issues sinking the country.
The US also says misguided
economic policies, failure to uphold human
rights, democracy and the rule of
law are also some of the major causes of
the country's crisis political and
economic crisis.
"If former president Mkapa is able to convince the
government of
Zimbabwe to acknowledge its responsibility for the crisis and
to embrace the
need for reforms and national dialogue focused on Zimbabwe's
present and
future rather its past, this initiative could make a meaningful
contribution," the statement read in part.
Mkapa, a seasoned
journalist, diplomat and politician, was elected
President of Tanzania in
November 1995 becoming the country's third
President since independence in
1961. He had previously served as Mwalimu
Julius Nyerere's Press Secretary
for two years. He also served on British
Prime Minister, Tony Blair's Africa
Commission.
The main MDC that is led by Morgan Tsvangirai has since
said it does
not accept Mkapa's mediation efforts since there was no
consultation before
his appoinment.
July 20,
2006,
By ANDnetwork .com
Importers have called on the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to review the
current exchange rate, which they say
is affecting viability in the
prevailing hyperinflationary
environment.
The rate, unlike the parallel market one that
constantly changes in
line with costs and other determining factors, was now
irrelevant to
business and had affected the industry's ability to contribute
to national
development.
Shipping and Forwarding Agents'
Association of Zimbabwe chief
executive officer, Mr Joseph Musariri, said
that the unrealistic rates
charged by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority had
distorted cost factors, making
it impossible for importers to increase their
business and income.
He said an exchange rate convergence between the
current official rate
of $101 195 to the US$, and the parallel market rate
of $450 000 to the US$,
should be made to make the sector more
attractive.
"The Reverse Bank of Zimbabwe needs to move in quickly to
try and
achieve an exchange rate convergence between the current rate and
the
parallel rate," he said.
"Because, revenue from imports for
Government, freight forwarders and
customs clearing agents remain suppressed
as these charges are mainly based
on the value of the imported goods
converted at the ZIMRA exchange rate."
These rates are linked to the
interbank rate, which has remained
static in sharp contrast to the parallel
market rate, which is always on an
upward trend.
The development
has seen the distortion of cost factors affecting
imports volumes and
income.
Mr Musariri also urged the Government to encourage importers to
buy
goods on an ExWorks or Free on Board (FOB) basis to save on foreign
currency
and increase business.
This, he said, had the capacity to
provide local importers with an
option to engage indigenous freight
forwarders in moving their goods from
overseas to the country.
This
development enables local importers to have greater control of
the goods and
save on foreign currency that is paid to international
transporters when
goods are bought from overseas suppliers on a Cost
Insurance and Freight
(CIF) basis.
Such a move increased national incomes from transport,
freight and
importers.
Zimbabwean exporters would also have the
power to contract local firms
to move their exports.
The RBZ in its
third quarter monetary policy review last year
expressed concern at the
decrease in business from importers.
Expectations are high that this
month's monetary policy will address
some of issues affecting the
industry.
Lengthy customs procedures at border posts and costly transit
fees are
some of problems in the exports and imports sector.
Zin Chronicle
The Herald
(Harare)
July 20, 2006
Posted to the web July 20,
2006
Chidyamatiyo
Bindura
Over $1,5 trillion worth of timber
was destroyed last year in uncontrolled
veld fires while over 22 000
hectares of plants and crops were damaged in
2004 and 2005 which are rated
as the worst years in the country's history, a
Cabinet Minister said
yesterday.
The Minister Environment and Tourism Cde Francis Nhema told A1
and A2
farmers gathered at the launch of the National Fire Protection
Strategy in
Bindura, Mashonaland Central that the rate of fire damage was
alarming.
Cde Nhema said high incidents of reported veld fires prompted
his ministry,
through the Environment Management Agency to engage
stakeholders and assess
the extent of damages and causes of the fires
country-wide.
"Our findings have revealed that the damage caused by these
veld fires
increased enormously in the last four years in all land tenure
categories
and the resulting damage by fires...could not be allowed to
continue," he
said.
He said in 2004 about 10 925 351 hectares of land
were destroyed while 2005
recorded 11 504 947 hectares of land damaged in
veld fires.
"In the timber plantations more tan 12 percent of the
national prime forest
resource was destroyed and the equivalent of three
years' harvesting has
been lost.
"Consequently timber production is
reducing, export declining and foreign
currency earnings diminishing. Such
loses come at a time when the nation is
in dire need for foreign currency,"
he said.
He also chronicled how similar uncontrolled veld fires claimed
seven lives
of school children in Bulawayo last year.
"My ministry
has established that veld fires are mainly caused by
irresponsible behaviour
by some of us. We have noted with concern that
during land clearing people
prefer to burn in the late afternoon and leave
the fires unattended during
the night," he said.
Cde Nhema warned farmers against smoking out bees
and using grass as torches
in the process.
Cde Nhema said some veld
fires were caused by some people who use
traditional hunting methods of
burning grass to easily spot prey while some
start fires at bus stops to
warm themselves and leave the fires unattended
on boarding the
buses.
He also took a swipe at tobacco smokers, including drivers who
throw away
smouldering stubs and consequently start fierce veld
fires.
"These actions result in uncontrolled fires that cause serious
damage to our
farming, plantation and wildlife industries and are a cost to
the national
economy and hinder Zimbabwe's economic recovery efforts," he
said.
He urged chiefs to take leading roles in environment management
saying they
were the custodians of natural resources in their
areas.
Cde Nhema said the A1 and hA2 farmers should organise themselves
and
construct fireguards around their properties and establish fire-fighting
teams.
"I am convinced that the launching of this National Fire
Protection Strategy
in this province marks the beginning of a Mashonaland
Central Province's war
against uncontrolled veld fire," he said.
The
province's Resident Minister and Governor Cde Ephraim Masawi whose
speech
was read on his behalf by the district administrator Mr John Chihobo
enlightened the minister on various environmental problems bedeviling the
province including gold panning and the need for a tertiary school on
environment
The minister, besides suggesting home-grown solutions to
the problems,
pledged to work with the Bindura University of Science
Education (BUSE) and
establish a department for environment
education.
Bindura Mayor, Advocate Martin Dinha who was among the invited
guests also
highlighted the problem of gold panning in the province but said
environment
programmes were proceeding well.
The Herald (Harare)
July
20, 2006
Posted to the web July 20, 2006
Harare
Senior
officials in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban
Development face arrest on allegations of corruptly allocating 300 houses
and 115 residential stands to undeserving people at Whitecliff under
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle.
A police officer testifying in the
corruption case of Harare West Acting
District Administrator Nelson Mawomo
told a magistrates' court on Tuesday
that he had a list with more officers
implicated in the scam.
The investigating officer said several officials
allegedly connived with
Mawomo (27) to allocate stands and houses to
undeserving people including
children below 15. Mawomo was not asked to
plead to corruption charges when
he appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs
Faith Mushure.
He was remanded in custody to next Tuesday after his bail
application was
thrown out.
Mrs Mushure said she could only consider
Mawomo's bail request when his
alleged accomplices have been
arrested.
Prosecutor Mr Servious Kufandada alleged that Mawomo, who
was responsible
for the allocation of residential stands and houses
allegedly flouted the
ministry's policy. It is the State's case that in May
this year, the
ministry directed that houses allocated to council and civil
servants
earning more than $10 million under the scheme be repossessed and
allocated
to people affected by Operation Murambatsvina.
The Harare
Metropolitan Province Resident Minister was supposed to authorise
the
allocation.
But according to the State, Mawomo disregarded the policy and
corruptly
allocated the stands and houses, contravening sections of the
Prevention of
Corruption Act.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Grey Samakande
OVER the past few days I
have been pondering on a recent speech by
Ignatius Chombo, the local
government minister on the Careers Guidance Day
at Kutama High School last
week. "Zimbabwe needs versatile and business
minded youths," the Minister
retorted. To me, that is only but a pack of
nonsense coming from a cabinet
minister.
To start with, many youths from underprivileged families
cannot afford
college or university fees. Those who can afford to send their
kids to
colleges are not sure of their future in an unstable country with
the
highest inflation in the world. After completing university or college
training, there isn't much for the youths to do.
There are no
jobs and no financial resources to assist them to start
new businesses or to
embark on meaningful projects that make them
self-sufficient. Most of them
are left with no option but to leave the
country to look for greener
pastures in neighbouring countries and overseas.
This mass exodus is
draining the country of the youths who form the backbone
of the country's
economy.
He wants the youths to drift from seeking employment to
becoming
employers. What a shameless dream. How can such miracles happen in
the
current economic environment where the youths do not even know whether
there
is any future for them or not.
He went own to say that
these youths are failing to mobilise their own
resources to break into
meaningful business enterprises. What resources have
they got? He seems not
to be aware of the current hardships facing every
Zimbabwean both employed
and unemployed or in business, let alone the youths
who just left school.
The Zimbabwean crisis is deepening by the day.
In a report released
last month, the Brussels-based International
Crisis Group (ICG) said that in
April 2006, inflation officially topped
1,000 percent, helped by the
decision to print 230 million dollars worth of
Zimbabwean currency to pay
international debts and sustain operations.
"Unemployment is over
85 percent, poverty over 90 percent, and foreign
reserves are almost
depleted. Over four million persons are in desperate
need of food. HIV/AIDS
and malnutrition kill thousands every month," the
report said. Agriculture,
the major source of foreign currency earnings, has
been particularly
hit-hard. There are severe shortages of basic consumer
items, and the prices
of fuel and food are beyond the reach of many.
Ralph Black of the
Association of Zimbabweans Based Abroad says the
Committee for Development
Policy recommendation to the U.N.'s Economic and
Social Council to declare
Zimbabwe a Least Developed Country (LDC) signals a
renewed effort by the
international body to engage in reaching a resolution
to the multilayered
crisis that has crippled what was once "Africa's
breadbasket".
An LDC status is considered by some as an admission of failure of a
country's economic policies. And in the case of Zimbabwe, President Robert
Mugabe has refused to accept failure. Surely, how can our youths survive in
this situation? It's time the government learn to accept failure to pave way
for development.
Soon after independence, the government went
on to build schools,
hospitals and clinics. However, all these facilities
were eroded by the
government's archaic policies. Today, the schools and
hospitals are still
there, but due to the economic crisis, there is no
medicine in hospitals,
people can't afford to pay for treatments and the
tuition fees charged in
schools is out of reach.
To make
matters worse, there are very few professionals left to
provide services to
the people.
The government has got very little concern about our
valuable youths.
The only time they realise that they have got youths in the
country is when
elections are approaching. They know that the youths have
nothing to do, so
they use them to brutalise and intimidate people to vote
for Zanu PF and
this was evidenced by the creation of the Border Gezi Youth
Camps. The rest
is history.
The government needs to show
commitment and provide the necessary
support and resources to our brothers
and sisters before they expect any
versatility from them.
Zimbabwe's next generation deserves better.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 07/20/2006 09:10:45
ZIMBABWE President Robert
Mugabe is refusing to pay fees for his son,
Chatunga, insisting that they do
not match the Consumer Price Index, we can
reveal.
This week,
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere wrote a letter to Hartman
Primary
School instructing them to cut this term's school fees from some
$109
million to $53 million.
The order came from Mugabe, senior Ministry
officials said.
The letter, seen by New Zimbabwe.com, was delivered to
the school on
Wednesday afternoon.
The directive comes barely two
weeks before the end of the second term.
Chatunga, 9, is the youngest of
Mugabe's three children.
In the letter, the Ministry argues that
Hartman's school fees are not based
on the Consumer Price Index
(CPI).
But the school authorities dispute this, and say their fees are
not only in
line with the CPI but are also comparable with other similar
private schools
struggling to maintain standards against inflation of almost
1200%.
Government sources told New Zimbabwe.com Wednesday that the reason
for the
directive was that Mugabe refused to pay the $109 million, saying it
was
"far too much".
Said a top ministry official: "Mugabe was
particularly miffed because he
said he did not understand why Hartman was
charging a fee that is much
higher than the $25 million charged by Kutama
Boys where his other son,
Robert Junior, goes."
The matter has been
on the boil for a while.
The sources say the fees dispute is now likely
to go to court because all
other parents have paid the fees -- except
Mugabe.
Concerned parents who have contacted the Ministry of Education
say they do
not understand why Mugabe is trying to ruin the education of
their children
just because he wants to flex his muscles as
President.
Some parents have appealed to the Ministry to persuade the
President to take
his son elsewhere if he cannot afford the school fees, the
sources said.
Senior officials in the Ministry of Education are said to
be sympathetic
with parents and the school, but they feel helpless because
the directive
has come from the President through Chigwedere.
A
source said: "The reason the directive has come almost at the close of the
term is because the Ministry was hoping that Mugabe would swallow his pride
and pay the overdue school fees for his son, but that has not
happened."
Zimbabwean schools have increased fees, in cases by over 400
percent, in a
bid to compete with inflation which is racing towards the
1200% mark. The
government has sought to impose a fees cap in all public
schools.
Only private schools, like Hartman, have remained outside the
direct control
of the government. A decline in standards has forced most
parents who can
afford to take their children to private schools.
The
school declined to issue any statement following New Zimbabwe.com
enquiries.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By a Correspondent
HARARE -
POLICE in Zimbabwe last week arrested two foreign nationals
from German and
Austria for throwing small translucent plastic balls into
the bushes of
Nyamapanda, near the border with Mozambique.
According to the
state-controlled Herald newspaper, the plastic balls,
which the two
foreigners, Dr George Ritsell and Austrian Axel Gallpinger,
said were meant
to bring good tidings to the long-suffering people of
Zimbabwe, were
allegedly embedded with copper wires.
The two told police they had
planted similar devices in Lesotho,
Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia all in
an effort to bring good fortune and
good rains to the people of these
countries.
The Herald says the duo, that entered Zimbabwe through
the Beitbridge
border post from South Africa, had also thrown the small
plastic balls in
Beitbridge, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza among other
places.
A Tata double cab they were travelling in was impounded. On
board were
more than 1 000 other such objects. The vehicle was taken to
Marondera
Police Station.
Forensic examinations of the balls
are in progress at the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters
in Harare.
Mail and Guardian
20 July 2006 03:16
The
Zimbabwe Independent's news editor, Dumisani Muleya, has
been awarded the
Free Press Africa Award at the CNN MultiChoice African
Journalists Awards
2006 for his series of stories revealing the covert
takeover of three
privately owned newspapers by Zimbabwe's intelligence
services.
Daily Mirror photographer Desmond Kwande
scooped the Mohamed
Amin Photographic Award for his snaps of victims of
Operation Murambatsvina,
the botched urban clean-up programme that left an
estimated 700 000 people
homeless, according to the United
Nations.
The two journalists received their awards at a
ceremony in
Mozambique last Saturday.
Anna Umbima, in her
citation on Kwande's work, said: "The
particular photo that took our
attention is of a man sitting on his bed,
with a few scant possessions
around him and devastation everywhere. The home
that he once had [is] gone.
I think what makes it even more poignant is a
child next to him, almost
oblivious to this destruction.
"It leaves you thinking: Where
did that family go that night and
where are they now? When you look at this
man sitting on this bed, there is
a look of total hopelessness on his face.
It leaves you thinking -- what is
the future for this family? But then what
is the future for Zimbabwe?"
Muleya, winner of several
international awards, was in the
running for the prestigious CNN MultiChoice
African Journalist of the Year
2006.
That award was won
by Nigerian Shola Oshunkeye for his story
"Niger's graveyard of the living",
on the famine in Niger.
However, Muleya still won the Free
Press Africa Award for his
investigative work on a publicly funded takeover
of the Daily Mirror, Sunday
Mirror and Financial Gazette newspapers by the
Central Intelligence
Organisation.
The scandal is now
commonly referred to as "Mediagate" in
Zimbabwe.
At least
1 530 journalists from 43 African countries entered for
the
awards.
Chris Cramer, MD of CNN International, said: "This
year has been
no exception in unearthing a wealth of voices, some old, some
new, from
around Africa, each with a compelling story to tell, and each
demonstrating
a quality of journalism, and in some cases a resourcefulness
and bravery in
pursuing the story in the first place, and that's my deepest
admiration."
The CNN African Journalist of the Year Award was
founded in 1995
by Edward Boateng (formerly African regional director for
Turner
Broadcasting System, CNN's parent company) and the late Mohamed Amin
to
recognise and encourage excellence in journalism throughout
Africa.
By Violet
Gonda
20 July 2006
The Southern African Development
Community (SADC), especially South
Africa, were urged at a seminar in
Pretoria on Wednesday to take more
decisive action on Zimbabwe.
Sydney Masamvu, analyst at the International Crisis Group in Southern
Africa
said the delegates, who included South Africa's Home Affairs
Minister,
diplomatic missions, NGOs' executive directors and human rights
groups,
converged to discuss the displacement of Zimbabwe.
He said there
were various views on the approach to be taken to unlock
the Zimbabwean
crisis but there was general consensus that there should be
continued
isolation to pressure the Mugabe government to negotiate with its
internal
actors. They also urged the international community to fully assess
what has
been achieved by the targeted sanctions, as the crisis is worsening
and
there is criticism that not much has been achieved.
It's reported
political analysts were in agreement that there is
growing frustration with
the lacklustre attitude of neighbouring countries
towards Zimbabwe, despite
many of them receiving a flood of refugees fleeing
the crisis.
ICG Director Peter Kagwanja told delegates President Mbeki's quite
diplomacy
had failed to create favourable political, economic and social
conditions.
Professor Adam Habib from the Human Sciences
Research Council argued
that conditions exist for South Africa to play a
leading role in
facilitating negotiations.
It's reported that
delegates like Kagwanja singled out Zimbabwe's
neighbour saying: "Continued
engagement between Zimbabwe and South Africa
means that South Africa is
sacrificing its own foreign policy ideals, the
very foundation of its own
nationhood, and therefore I think that with or
without the context of quiet
diplomacy, South Africa now needs to stand up
for the values that are at the
heart of its own nationhood."
Masamvu said although the
international and regional bodies can play a
role, the question that was
uppermost at the seminar was that in the final
analysis South Africa and the
West have done what they can do within their
mandate but: "What are
Zimbabweans doing in Zimbabwe to force the regime to
the negotiating table?
That is the million dollar question which we have to
address."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 July 2006
Police in Johannesburg have launched
an intensified anti-crime
campaign and the first victims of this crackdown
were Zimbabweans who were
arrested in the crime-infested Hillbrow
area.
At least 500 Zimbabweans were picked up in midnight raids
this past
week in an operation that is expected to be rolled out over the
next six
months. Authorities in South Africa said the raids were part of a
national
crime fighting strategy.
This follows an upsurge of
violent crime in that country that has seen
police and criminals clash in
open gun battles. There was also growing
concern among South Africans that
foreign immigrants were allegedly behind
the serious spate of
crimes.
Thuso Khumalo, a Johannesburg based Zimbabwean journalist,
said an
unprecedented 600 law enforcers and officials from the departments
of home
affairs and correctional services have been taking part in the
overnight
stings.
The majority of those arrested were sent to
the Lindela holding camp
and immigration officials are already working on
their deportation papers.
About a hundred of those arrested were asylum
seekers from Zimbabwe.
'The problem with the raids is that innocent
legal immigrants have
been caught up in this campaign and it's proving a
nightmare for many to be
released from detention,' Khumalo
said.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news