Zim Online
Sat
22 July 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
on Thursday told
Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman and
Botswana
President Festus Mogae that fresh efforts to unlock a six-year old
political
crisis in Zimbabwe will not succeed until President Robert Mugabe
embarked
on extensive political reforms.
Tsvangirai, whose
faction of the splintered Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) opposition
party is considered the main threat to Mugabe's
government, met Mogae in
Gaborone last Thursday to brief him on the
escalating crisis in Zimbabwe
ahead of a meeting of SADC leaders in Maseru,
Lesotho next
month.
Mugabe is expected to use the SADC summit to unveil a fresh
initiative
by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa to mediate in what
he says is a
bilateral dispute between Harare and former colonial master
Britain.
Speaking to ZimOnline yesterday, MDC spokesman, Nelson
Chamisa said
Tsvangirai told Mogae that his party will press ahead with
plans to stage
anti-Mugabe mass protests to force the Zimbabwean president
to resolve the
crisis.
Chamisa said: "The two
leaders discussed several possible alternatives
to resolve our country's
deepening economic and political crisis. Mkapa's
much talked about mission
was discussed as part of the alternatives.
"But Mr Tsvangirai made
it clear that Mkapa's mission was doomed as it
was premised on the wrong
footing. "Zimbabwe's problems are not a result of
differences between Mugabe
and Britain, but rather stem from poor
governance, lawlessness and disregard
for basic democratic and economic
fundamentals."
Earlier this
month, Mugabe told the media that Mkapa would mediate in
the conflict
between Harare and Britain.
But the MDC and major Western
governments have poured scorn on the
Mkapa initiative saying the initiative
was misplaced and doomed to fail.
"We understand SADC wants to be
part of the Mkapa initiative so it was
important to update the chairman on
the real issues at stake so that
precious time is not wasted on futile
mediation attempts," said Chamisa.
Mugabe wants SADC to bless the
Mkapa initiative after blocking an
initiative by United Nations secretary
general Kofi Annan. Under the
initiative, the UN chief would have asked
Mugabe to leave power in return
for substantial aid for Zimbabwe and
guarantees the Zimbabwean leader would
not be prosecuted for crimes
committed while in office.
Meanwhile, reports from Botswana quote
Tsvangirai as having told the
Press there that Mogae had promised him that
Zimbabwe will be on the agenda
of the SADC summit in Lesotho.
The regional grouping has in the past shied from discussing Zimbabwe
and has
firmly rejected calls by Western governments and regional human
rights
groups to adopt a more robust approach towards Mugabe's government. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 22
July 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe police were on Friday reportedly
questioning one of
the country's richest men also regarded as a close
associate of President
Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party, John
Bredenkamp, over allegations that
he had violated the country's Citizenship
Act.
The Act bars Zimbabweans from holding dual citizenship.
Bredenkamp is
believed to hold both a Zimbabwean and a British
passport.
Other reports from Harare suggested that Bredenkamp had
been arrested
and was expected to spend the weekend in police
cells.
But ZimOnline was unable to independently confirm whether
Bredenkamp
was arrested or was even being questioned by the police, with the
businessman unavailable to answer queries while police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena said he was unable to immediately confirm or deny the
matter.
Bredenkamp, who at one time helped the white supremacist
government of
Ian Smith that bust sanctions during Zimbabwe's liberation
struggle but
quickly befriended the ZANU PF government at independence, was
reportedly
picked up by the police from his offices in Harare's Milton Park
suburb.
The business tycoon, who has interests in mining, transport
and
farming and is also regarded among the richest people in Britain, is
regarded within Zimbabwe's political circles as more closer to former
parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa was for
many years regarded as heir apparent to Mugabe but
was last year sidelined
at the eleventh hour when the veteran leader
handpicked Joice Mujuru to the
posts of second Vice President of ZANU PF and
the government.
The positions place Mujuru, wife of powerful retired army general
Solomon
Mujuru, a step ahead to succeed Mugabe when he and first
Vice-President
Joseph Msika step down as expected in 2008.
Mnangagwa and Mujuru
are bitter rivals to control ZANU PF in the
post-Mugabe era and analysts
believe the targeting of Bredenkamp could be
part of the power struggles
between the two camps. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 22 July
2006
HARARE - The government has gazetted a new levy that seeks to
tax the
income of insurance companies and funeral assurers.
The
Insurance and Pensions Commission (Levy) Regulations 2006 were
published by
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa in a Government Gazette
released
yesterday.
Under the regulations, life assurers, short-term
insurance firms,
pension funds and funeral assurance companies will be
required to pay a levy
calculated on their annual income.
This
will include a fixed annual levy of Z$100 million per company in
each of
these categories.
This is not the first time the Zimbabwean
authorities, in desperate
need for money to bankroll their programmes, have
levied sectors they
perceive to be performing well.
It has in
the past levied tobacco growers and merchants through a
tobacco levy as well
as workers and employers in the private sector through
an AIDS levy
introduced in 1999 and 2000, respectively. - ZimOnline
Mail and Guardian
Terry
Leonard | Johannesburg, South Africa
21 July 2006
04:34
Times are hard and getting harder in Zimbabwe, where
people too
proud to cry about their troubles could soon find it too
dangerous to joke
about them.
Zimbabweans faced with
hunger, joblessness, the world's highest
inflation rate and shortages of
every basic commodity ease their burden with
jokes, often spread by e-mail
or SMS in a country where laughter at the
president's expense is a
felony.
Parliament next month will debate proposals to give
the secret
police extraordinary powers to intercept, read or listen to the
mail,
e-mail, telephone or cellphone communications of any of its citizens
without
the approval of any court.
The government denies
any sinister intent, saying the goal is to
get its anti-terrorism
legislation in line with international practice. But
Zimbabwe is not on the
front lines of the war on terror, and government
agents could use the
proposed powers to monitor the communications of the
political opposition,
journalists and human rights activists who have been
critical of President
Robert Mugabe.
Secret police and intelligence agents could
violate
attorney-client privilege, track financial transactions and
negotiations and
eavesdrop on the private lives of anyone in the country.
Any time a
Zimbabwean visits a website, makes a deal or tells a joke, Big
Brother could
be listening or watching.
"The purpose of
the Bill is to monitor and block communications
for political reasons and to
use information they get to persecute
opponents," said Lovemore Madhuku, the
chairperson of the National
Constitutional Assembly, a civil society group
very critical of repressive
laws and actions of Mugabe's
government.
"It is part and parcel of the process of
controlling dissent and
stifling democratic debate," he said in a telephone
interview.
The government contends the Bill is part of a
package of
measures in the global war on terrorism already enacted by other
countries
with little or no opposition.
A similar law was
passed quietly in neighbouring South Africa
with the important difference
that a court must approve any interception. In
Zimbabwe, that authority
would rest solely with Mugabe's minister of
transport and
communications.
With a package of other security and media
laws, Zimbabwe
already has done away with freedom of press and speech.
People cannot
legally protest against the government, hold political rallies
or meetings
without prior police approval. Clergymen have been arrested for
holding
prayer vigils without prior police consent.
Jokes
Jokes about the president are no laughing matter to the
government, which has arrested people for insulting the president. It is
also illegal to say or write something that can "falsely" bring the
government into disrepute.
"Jokes about Mugabe are a
crime," Jim Holland, the chief
executive of Mango, a Zimbabwean internet
service provider, said in a
telephone interview. "But people send these
jokes all the time on cellphones
or e-mails."
According
to one popular such joke, a Zimbabwean police officer
stops a motorist and
asks for a donation to help pay a heavy ransom demanded
by terrorists who
have abducted Mugabe and threatened to douse him with
petrol and set him
alight. The motorists asks what other people are giving
and the police
officer replies that, on average, about two or three litres.
In another, a man tired of waiting endlessly in line at a closed
petrol
station announces he has had enough and is going to State House to
shoot the
president. He returns a short time later, complaining that the
line there
was even longer.
Holland believes the proposed law will have
a chilling effect on
such humour, but that the real dangers lie in the
government's ability to
target its legitimate opponents and monitor
sensitive business and financial
communications.
"It is
troubling in a country like this with its record on
corruption that the
government could monitor financial transactions or even
internal
communications ahead of a company making a tender offer," Holland
said.
He said that in early discussions about the
proposed Bill one
man who would be involved in any government monitoring
effort told a
gathering there was no cause for concern because the proposed
law was only a
threat "to criminals and human rights
activists".
Holland and the chief executives of other
internet service
providers have agreed that if the law is passed, they will
challenge it
immediately in the courts on grounds it violates constitutional
guarantees
of freedom of expression.
But lawyers here
note the government has intimidated and driven
off independent jurists and
packed the courts with judges friendly to the
government. It also has
pointedly ignored court rulings it dislikes. --
Sapa-AP
Mail and Guardian
Michael Hartnack | Harare, Zimbabwe
21
July 2006 03:55
Only 40% of the 11-million hectares of land
seized from whites
since February 2000 have been taken over by black
farmers, President Robert
Mugabe was quoted as saying on
Friday.
Mugabe told an annual gathering of 100 traditional
tribal
leaders in the northern resort town of Kariba that the government had
resumed allocating land after a temporary halt to allow an audit into
alleged corruption, according to state radio and the official Herald
newspaper.
He urged new applicants to come
forward.
"There is a lot of land that was not taken," he was
reported as
saying.
Mugabe said that in the past, some
people were given land on the
basis of their ambition, but this was no
longer enough.
"You need capability, money and labour. Not
everyone can be a
farmer," he was quoted as saying.
The
confiscation of 5 000 white-owned farms in the past six
years is widely
blamed for causing a crash in agricultural production,
exports and the value
of Zimbabwe's currency.
However, official spokespeople have
dismissed repeated reports
that many of the farms have become derelict, with
irrigation equipment
looted for scrap, trees felled for firewood and
buildings vandalised for
bricks, roofing materials, windows and door
frames.
Farming experts have disputed Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made's
claims that 230 000 formerly landless black families have been
successfully
resettled.
Mugabe ordered the seizures after
losing a referendum on a new
Constitution that would have entrenched his
rule indefinitely. He blamed
whites for orchestrating opposition to his
government, in power since 1980
independence. Western observers alleged
widespread rigging and intimidation
in recent presidential and parliamentary
elections in which he claimed
victory.
Black Zimbabweans
were invited in 2000 to apply for subdivided
farms, and state-controlled
newspapers published names of hundreds of
thousands of "lottery winners"
under headlines such as "Oooh la la."
In another sign of the
woes facing farmers, the government said
that winter wheat yields would
likely be affected by power cuts that had
disrupted
irrigation.
"The crop is suffering badly from these power
cuts. That is
likely to have an adverse effect on the yield," a senior
agricultural
official, Shadreck Mlambo was quoted as saying in the
Herald.
The newspaper said that only 53% of the targeted area
had been
planted. It cited the shortage of critical inputs such as
fertiliser, the
erratic supply of fuel and delayed payment for grain. --
Sapa-AP
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyele & Patience Rusere
Washington
DC
21 July 2006
Top officials of seven Zimbabwean
opposition parties were scheduled to
converge in Bulawayo on Saturday to
exchange ideas and present themselves to
voters.
The Bulawayo Agenda
advocacy group invited the presidents of both factions
of the Movement for
Democratic Change, the Zimbabwe African People's
Union-Federal Party, the
United People's Party, the Democratic Party, the
United People's Movement,
and the Patriotic Union of Matabeleland.
However, MDC founding President
Morgan Tsvangirai told the group that a
confllicting political engagement
would prevent him from attending. Bulawayo
Agenda Program Director Xolani
Zitha said one of Tsvangirai's lieutenants
was expected. He added that the
Bulawayo Agenda is not affailiated with any
particular political
party.
Senior political science lecturer John Makumbe of the University
of Zimbabwe
said the exclusion of other opposition parties such as
Zanu-Ndonga, the
United Party and the National Alliance of Good Governance,
among others,
would not diminish the significance of the gathering, as the
main parties
would be represented.
Separately, members of the Crisis
Coalition In Zimbabwe, an umbrella
organization for hundreds of civic
groups, passed a vote of no confidence in
the diplomatic talks which
President Robert Mugabe has proposed between
Harare and London, with former
president Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania serving
as his mediator.
Civil
society groups say mediation by Mkapa and talks with London will not
address
critical issues of poor governance at home.
The Crisis Coalition said its
members will gather next week to seek
alternatives to the Mkapa process. The
Crisis Coalition and the Christian
Alliance of religious leaders will meet
in a one-day convention July 29 to
discuss how to press Harare for a redraft
of the constitution as an
essential preparatory step to a fresh round of
elections.
The organizers of this so-called ''Save-Zimbabwe'' convention
have invited
ZANU-PF Information and Publicity Secretary Nathan Shamuyarira,
also a
member of the party's Politburo, according to Crisis Coalition
spokesman
Itayi Zimunya.
He said in an interview with reporter
Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that civil society groups
meanwhile will pursue resistance to the
authorities at lower levels - for
instance mobilizing Harare residents
against the city commission that the
central government appointed to replace
an opposition-dominated city
council.
The Herald (Harare)
July 21,
2006
Posted to the web July 21, 2006
Harare
POWER cuts
currently being experienced in the country might reduce the
expected winter
wheat yield, the Department of Agricultural Research and
Extension Services
(Arex) has warned.
Arex director Dr Shadreck Mlambo yesterday said the
winter crop had been
badly affected by the power cuts and hinted that this
might significantly
result in reduced yield.
Dr Mlambo said the power
cuts were disturbing irrigation operations on the
farms, hence affecting
crop growth.
"The crop is suffering badly from these power cuts. That is
likely to have
an adverse effect on the yield," Dr Mlambo said.
The
revelations come as a major setback to the winter wheat programme after
farmers failed to meet the targeted 110 000 hectares.
A validation
exercise report of the 2006 winter wheat programme revealed
that of the
targeted hectarage, only 53 percent was planted in the country's
eight
provinces, translating into 57 835,8 hectares.
The report cited the
shortage of critical inputs such as fertilizer, load
shedding, erratic
supply of fuel and delayed payment for grain delivered to
the Grain
Marketing Board as some of the factors leading to the missing of
the
targeted hectarage.
This means the estimated production will be about 218
046 tonnes and implies
a deficit of 168 954 tonnes. Zimbabwe consumes about
400 000 tonnes of wheat
annually.
Dr Mlambo said that apart from the
problem of the power cuts, the general
condition of the crop around the
country was satisfactory.
He said in some areas, the wheat had reached
milk stage.
This is the stage when the wheat was likely to be attacked by
the quelea
birds and Dr Mlambo advised farmers to report the presence of the
birds as
soon as they discover them.
He said his department and the
National Parks and Wildlife Management
Authority were already on the ground
fighting the birds, which are wrecking
havoc in Chisumbanje and Matabeleland
South where they are threatening
sorghum yields.
He said his
department had received a major boost in the fight against the
migratory
birds after it received Queletox, a chemical used in the fight
against
quelea birds from a local non-governmental organisation.
The Herald
(Harare)
July 21, 2006
Posted to the web July 21,
2006
Harare
MASVINGO Provincial Hospital yesterday stopped
accepting corpses from
outside the hospital following the closure of one of
the two mortuaries at
the hospital and the failure of the existing one to
accommodate more bodies.
In the past three weeks, the existing mortuary
has constantly been carrying
between 40 and 80 corpses, far more than its
carrying capacity of six
bodies.
As if that was not enough, the
morgue has been experiencing intermittent
refrigeration
breakdowns.
The other one, which was built before independence and also
had a carrying
capacity of six bodies, was closed down after the
refrigeration system
collapsed.
When The Herald visited the morgue
yesterday in the company of officials
from the Masvingo United Residents and
Ratepayers Association (Murra), a
strong stench wafted from the mortuary and
swarms of flies hovered at the
mortuary entrance.
There were 39
bodies crammed in the mortuary yesterday.
Hospital Superintendent Dr
Ammadeuof Shamu conceded that the mortuary was
always overcrowded adding
that some of the bodies were actually decomposing
owing to lack of space and
the recurrent breakdown of the refrigeration
system.
"At the moment
there are 39 bodies in the mortuary and over the past few
weeks the number
of corpses has been rising to 79 per day and some of the
bodies were
decomposing owing to the frequent breaking down of the morgue
refrigerators.
"We have since stopped taking bodies from outside the
hospital due to the
limited capacity of our morgue which has a capacity to
carry only six
bodies," said Dr Shamu.
He revealed that the high
deaths of people owing principally to the HIV and
Aids pandemic had further
exacerbated the situation adding that there was
need to build a completely
new and bigger mortuary.
He also appealed to relatives to make quick
arrangements of collecting their
deceased relatives as a way of mitigating
the effects of overcrowding at the
mortuary.
Murra Chairman Cde
Eddison Zvobgo (Jnr) said it was crucial that the private
sector and the
Masvingo community at large take urgent action to avert
further
deterioration at the provincial hospital mortuary.
Cde Zvobgo said it was
imperative that people do not just wait for the
Government to provide social
services like health but also take an active
role and assume some
responsibility.
The Herald
(Harare)
July 21, 2006
Posted to the web July 21, 2006
Walter
Nyamukondiwa
Chinhoyi
VISITING Danish Red Cross Society
representative, United Nations and
Japanese Red Cross Society officials
yesterday toured humanitarian
assistance projects in Zvimba Communal
Lands.
Mrs Birgit Wichmann toured home-based care (HBC) projects that
were
assisting people affected by HIV/Aids in Zvimba. The projects were
being
coordinated and funded by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society through
assistance
from international organisations such as the various arms of the
United
Nations and Red Cross Societies from Japan and Denmark.
Mrs
Wichmann said she was here to assess some of the projects the local
chapter
of the Red Cross was involved in.
"I can't say much but I am here to see
the projects on the ground," she
said.
The team visited child-headed
families, which were being assisted by the Red
Cross through provision of
shelter and inputs to assist them to be
self-sufficient.
Most of the
children lost parents to the Aids pandemic.
The team also toured
Kumboyedza Support Group, which is made up of 13
members who are living
positively with the HIV virus.
Zimbabwe Red Cross Society HIV and Aids
co-ordinator Mrs Janet Muteiwa said
the projects were designed to support
ailing people through provision of
psychological social support and food
among others.
This support, she said, would be extended to children by
paying school fees
should their parents die.
The Red Cross is
supporting four projects in the province. Zvimba has a
population of about
209 000 people with about 20 200 home-based people
getting support owing to
the HIV and Aids scourge.
Mmegi, Botswana
BAME
PIET
Staff Writer
7/21/2006 3:47:46 PM (GMT +2)
Government has decided to abandon electrifying the fence along the
Botswana-Zimbabwe border and instead diverted the funds - P8 million to put
more security personnel along the border, Assistant Minister of Agriculture
Peter Siele told parliament yesterday.
He was responding to
a question from MP for Bobirwa Shaw Kgathi who
enquired if there is a change
of plan regarding the construction of the
fence and what circumstances led
to the sudden decision to renege on initial
plans and commitments to put up
the fence. He further wanted the minister to
state whether he does not find
it necessary to explain to the people along
the border the reasons and
rationale for his decision to withdraw the plan.
Siele said that he and Vice
President Lt Gen Ian Khama visited the area and
addressed a total of 12
kgotla meetings. "I also intend to brief the
Parliamentary Caucus on a
number of issues under my portfolio including the
Foot and Mouth disease
outbreak and its control, which will touch on the
Botswana/Zimbabwe border
situation," he said.
Meanwhile Botswana Unified Revenue
Services (BURS) engaged a
consultant in April this year to develop
integrated organisational and pay
structures and is expected to report back
by end of next month. Assistant
Minister of Finance and Development Planning
Duncan Mlazie was responding to
a question by MP for Lobatse Nehemiah
Modubule who wanted him to explain why
BURS salary structure for junior
officers has not been put in place.
The Herald
(Harare)
July 21, 2006
Posted to the web July 21,
2006
Harare
AIR ZIMBABWE requires more than $600 billion to revive
its cargo operations,
it has been established.
A cargo firm is one of
the five strategic units formed as part of the
national airline's unbundling
exercise. The others are Air Zimbabwe
(Private) Limited, Air Zimbabwe
Technical, National Handling Services and
the National Distribution
Company.
Board chairman Mr Mike Bimha refused to confirm the figure, but
said on
Tuesday that the airline was in talks with the Ministries of
Transport and
Communications, and Finance and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) on
possible funding to resume cargo operations.
Zimbabwe has
been without a dedicated cargo airline since Affretair was
liquidated in the
1990s.
"The revival of the cargo business is still in the pipeline and
the issue of
funding and other key factors is being sorted out," said Mr
Bimha.
Altogether, Air Zimbabwe requires a total of US$44 million ($4,4
trillion)
for its recapitalisation programme and to settle its foreign
debts.
Mr Bimha said the resumption of the cargo airline was crucial to
economic
recovery and will benefit the export sector, mainly the
horticultural
sector.
"The revival of the cargo industry is strategic
to the economy as it will
also benefit exporters, especially those who are
into perishables," said Mr
Bimha.
The perishables include flowers,
fresh fruit and vegetables mainly to the
European market. In the short to
medium term, Zimbabwe anticipates an
upsurge in the volume of exports to
Asia.
Despite a virtual monopoly in the domestic market, Air Zimbabwe has
been
struggling financially in recent years and often come under attack in
recent
years as a hotbed of corruption and mismanagement.
The board
of directors led by Mr Bimha, which assumed office a year ago, was
mandated
to turn around the fortunes of the airline but faces daunting
challenges
including ageing equipment, breakdowns, and perennial shortages
of foreign
currency, fuel and spare parts.
To compound its woes, Air Zimbabwe has
been barred from landing in Algeria
and an unnamed West African country over
unpaid debts of US$8 million and
faces the additional humiliation of having
its aircraft attached.
However, on Monday this week, the airline launched
a code-sharing
partnership with Air Malawi, with a successful debut flight
between Harare
and Dubai via Lilongwe, Malawi.
It is also exploring
strategic alliances with Zambia Skyways, Mozambican
Airlines, Angolan
Airlines and South African Airways to help reduce
operating costs while
providing a wider route network and passenger
convenience.
In March
this year, it started quoting fares in US dollars but using the
interbank
exchange rate for passengers paying in local currency.
Last week, it
increased airfares by up to 150 percent citing high
operational costs.
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 7:00 AM
Subject: JAG Open Letter Forum No 432
dated 21 July 2006
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1
Dear Family and Friends,
It is estimated that well over three
million Zimbabweans have left the
country for political and economic reasons
in the last six years. This
represents almost a quarter of our population.
For the people who have
stayed in Zimbabwe, either by choice or because they
have no choice, it is
hard to understand what it must be like to live in
exile. From here, we wish
we were somewhere with single, double or even
triple figure inflation. We
dream of being able to afford the most basic
things again -everyday things
once taken for granted and now just permanently
off the shopping list
because they are simply too expensive. We long for an
end to fear and
oppression and ache for the time when we will again be able
to afford to
travel to the beautiful places in our own country. We long to be
able to
speak freely again, to stop whispering and looking over our
shoulders
wondering who is listening, who is a spy, who we can trust. Mostly
though,
we long for our families and friends who have gone, we miss the
community
life, the gatherings and the laughter.
And for the people
who have left, the aches and longings of being strangers
in strange lands are
probably even harder. The longings are for familiarity,
for friends and
family left behind, for the climate and countryside, and for
the laughter in
the wind of the country that will always be home. Recently
someone living in
exile said how much they missed the colours of Zimbabwe
and it made me
realise how we take the richness and beauty of Zimbabwe
for
granted.
Winter is almost over now although we are still waking
to blankets of frost
sprinkled on the ground in the early mornings. The days
are mostly clear,
bright and sunny and the skies are a brilliant blue. The
grass is golden and
yellow in the fields and in the vleis and stream beds the
red hot pokers
have almost finished flowering. In the bush the lucky bean
trees are just
opening their clusters of red flowers and in our towns
the
poinsettias are covered in scarlet. In the highveld the Msasa trees
have
begun shedding their load and the ground is covered with hard, curly,
deep
brown pods, their shiny dark brown seeds lying in the sand waiting for
the
rain when they can start the cycle all over again. And to end our days
are
the sunsets which are filled with spectacular colour: pink and then
lilac,
and at last orange and polished copper.
These are the true and
permanent colours of Zimbabwe, refreshed and replaced
every day. They are the
colours of home and frankly, for many of us, it is
the simple things like
this that somedays prevent total and utter despair at
the horrific situation
we are living in. The other colours that are
temporarily Zimbabwean - brown,
purple and green - they
are just imposters. They are the colours of our bank
notes which aren't
really bank notes and which have expiry dates. They are
the colours of
inflation, oppression and despair and hard as it is to
believe, we know they
will be gone - we pray it will be soon. Until next
week, thanks for reading,
love cathy Copyright cathy buckle 15 July
2006
http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com ; www.africabookcentre.com
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Letter
2
Dear Jag,
Please could anyone who knows the current address for
Tokkie Van Der Merwe
who used to farm Threeways in the Lowveld.
Many
thanks,
Ken
Worsley.
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
VOA
By
Blessing Zulu
Washington
21 July 2006
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is considering lopping three zeros off the
nominal
value of the Zimbabwean dollar and eventually issuing a new currency
to ease
some of the calculation and accoujnting problems created by
hyperinflation.
A source at the central bank, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said a
team of bank and Finance Ministry officials will soon
travel to Mozambique
to speak with their peers there about their experience
in overhauling the
Mozambican metical.
Lengthy strings of zeros are
clogging software, hand-held calculators, cash
registers and gas pump meters
as Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate nears
1,200%. Businesses must routinely
deal with sums in the hundreds of millions
or billions, while corporate
investments and national budgetary accounts are
measured in the
trillions.
The central bank source said legislation could be presented to
Zimbabwe's
parliament soon to authorize redenomination of the currency. Such
operations
were carried out in recent years in Argentina and Brazil in their
successful
battles against inflation.
But Harare economist James Jowa
warned that eliminating zeros would not
eliminate underlying issues that
drive Zimbabwe's inflation, like massive
budget overruns.
For another
view on the possible redenomination strategy, VOA reporter
Blessing Zulu
turned to economist Eric Bloch, who has been an advisor to the
Reserve
Bank.