The Telegraph
By Michael Gwaridzo in Harare, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated:
12:18am BST 22/07/2007
President Robert Mugabe has promised
Zimbabwean army chiefs that he
will step down after next year's presidential
and parliamentary elections.
Mugabe, 83, who has led Zimbabwe since
it gained independence 27 years
ago, is said to have made the promise at a
meeting with senior military
officers two weeks ago, during which he
appealed for their help in securing
a victory for his ruling Zanu PF
party.
With his country facing unprecedented economic turmoil,
Mugabe is
facing intense pressure to step down, both from within his own
party and
from the heads of the intelligence services and armed
forces.
He was warned by his intelligence chief, Happyton
Bonyongwe, in May
that if he stood for president again he would lose,
because voters were
suffering as a result of Zimbabwe's economic
crisis.
A senior army source said: "Mugabe told army chiefs that he
is going
to leave office next year and requires the help of the army to
secure
victory. The president said next year's election was a do-or-die
poll, and
Zimbabwe needs to win the election to shame what he called
'Western
governments bent on re-occupying us'."
Observers
believe Mugabe wants to win the election in order to
preserve his dignity,
but may then seek to pass the country's leadership to
a favoured successor.
However, he still faces what in a functioning
democracy would be the
insurmountable task of securing the votes needed to
win.
Last
month, in a bid to quell dismay at the hyperinflation that has
led to shops
raising their prices several times a day, Mugabe ordered the
police and army
to enforce Operation Reduced Prices, under which businesses
were told to cut
prices by 50 per cent.
But his attempt at populism backfired as
traders were compelled to
sell goods at less than cost price. Hundreds who
failed to comply were
arrested and fined. The edict made it economically
unviable to sell many
goods and, after a wave of panic buying, basic
commodities disappeared from
the shelves.
Last week came signs
the government had embarked on a partial backdown
when the state-controlled
Herald newspaper reported that an official task
force on price monitoring
and stabilisation had agreed to a 400 per cent
increase in the price of
cooking oil. A 750ml bottle of cooking oil had been
priced at 22,000
Zimbabwean dollars (7p), and the product had become almost
impossible to
obtain.
According to South Africa's SABC News, the government has
also agreed
to talks with manufacturers to discuss prices that will be
acceptable to
both sides. The move marks a considerable shift in the
government's
position. Earlier in the week vice-president Joseph Msika was
quoted as
saying the government was "at war" with business.
Meanwhile, however, shortages of food and fuel are expected to worsen
after
the government announced a crackdown on food imports from South
Africa. From
August 1, permits will be required for anyone importing
groceries worth more
than $200. The government has also banned the use of
fuel
coupons.
Conditions inside the country are now so bad that even
middle-class
Zimbabweans have been forced into desperate measures to
survive. Nancy
Chaguma, a qualified chartered accountant in her twenties,
told The Sunday
Telegraph that she has been forced to turn to prostitution
to provide for
herself and her brothers and sisters.
"The
economic situation is Zimbabwe is so dire," said Miss Chaguma.
"And one has
to be enterprising to survive. I didn't become a prostitute by
design and I
know the risks of the profession. Although I insist on using
protection
every time, I consider myself dead already, because Mugabe has
turned us
into scavengers in a land that was once of milk and
honey."
Monsters and Critics
Jul 22, 2007, 17:15 GMT
Johannesburg -
The deteriorating political and economic situation in
Zimbabwe was described
as 'intolerable and unsustainable' by former UN
secretary general Kofi Annan
Sunday.
Speaking about the ongoing conflict in Africa that made
continent- wide
peace a still 'distant goal,' Annan remarked: 'The ever
downward spiral of
Zimbabwe, for example, is both intolerable and
unsustainable; we all have a
stake in resolving the crisis.'
The
Ghanaian diplomat, who stepped down as UN head in January, was
addressing
Africa's progress in the areas of peace and security, development
and human
rights through the fifth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the
University of
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
The lecture, which was inaugurated four
years ago, has been previously given
by former US president Bill Clinton,
South African Anglican Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, Kenyan environmentalist
Wangari Maathai and South African
President Thabo Mbeki. Tutu, Annan and
Maathai are all Nobel Peace Prize
laureates.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
Reuters
Sun 22
Jul 2007, 13:42 GMT
By Paul Simao
SOUTPANSBERG MILITARY BASE,
South Africa, July 22 (Reuters) - Clouds of
flies swarm the courtyard where
some 75 exhausted Zimbabweans sit quietly,
munching on loaves of bread and
staring through the metal enclosure of their
temporary South African
home.
A police officer jots down the names of new arrivals and escorts
them into a
tin-roofed barrack lined with barbed wire, meagre protection
from the strong
afternoon sun.
"They are going back," the officer,
who would not give his name, said at
this detention centre on the
Soutpansberg military base in Musina, 12 km
from the Beitbridge border
crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
These would-be-migrants are
the unlucky ones among a growing tide of
refugees escaping an economic
crisis that has devastated Zimbabwe and
threatens to engulf other nations in
the region, principally South Africa.
Up to 4,000 Zimbabweans are jumping
the border each day, according to
farmers and other local residents working
with South Africa's military and
police to enforce the porous frontier
between the two countries.
They say the refugee crisis has worsened in
the past month since Zimbabwe's
government began enforcing a radical price
rollback scheme intended to stem
soaring inflation -- unofficially estimated
at 4,500 percent.
The measures have prompted stores to stop stocking
milk, bread and other
basic consumer items, pushing the economy toward
collapse and forcing many
Zimbabweans to cross into South Africa to buy food
and petrol or look for
work.
Those caught doing so illegally spend a
brief spell in a detention centre,
where they are fed and receive basic
medical treatment, before being
returned home. For many it is a minor
setback, a prelude to the next
attempt.
"About half tell us they will
try to cross again," said Andrew Gethi,
operations officer with the
International Organisation for Migration, an aid
group that runs a relief
shelter for deportees on the Zimbabwean side of
Beitbridge.
TEA,
BREAD, BIG-CITY DREAMS
Mike Magadzire lurks in the no-man's land
straddling much of South Africa's
border with Zimbabwe, darting into the
bush at the approach of a passing
vehicle and returning when the coast is
clear.
The 20-year-old is typical of the growing number of Zimbabweans
scaling
10-foot razor wire fences and braving arrest to cross into South
Africa,
where a booming economy awaits.
Like most in Zimbabwe, a
former British colony where unemployment has
reached 80 percent, Magadzire
has no job or other means of support. How does
he survive?
"Tea and
bread once a day," he said.
He hopes to escape this hard life into South
Africa where, like millions of
other Zimbabweans, he has family -- in his
case, a brother working in
Johannesburg. "Get to Jo'burg," he said, his face
lighting up at the
thought.
The dream, however, has become a
nightmare for others who have preceded him.
There are growing reports of
robberies, rapes and even murders at the hands
of smugglers paid to
transport refugees over the border, usually under the
cover of
darkness.
Refugees who evade arrest often face an equally harrowing
journey to
Johannesburg, where many of the estimated 3 million illegal
Zimbabweans
living in South Africa have found work as gardeners, maids and
construction
workers.
Some penniless Zimbabweans have been picked up
while walking the 520-km
route to South Africa's largest city. They also
face growing intolerance in
their adopted land, where there is a tendency to
blame the newcomers for a
recent spike in crime.
"They steal
everything in their path," said a South African farmer in Musina
who asked
not to be identified.
Pressure is building on South Africa's government
to respond more
effectively to the crisis. The country's main opposition
party has proposed
setting up camps to accommodate the refugees, an idea
rejected by
immigration officials.
A suggestion to turn on an
electric fence that runs along the border -- it
is currently switched off --
has been dismissed as inhumane and not in line
with South Africa's liberal
policies regarding asylum.
Some officials are hoping the crisis can be
defused by South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who is trying to broker a
political agreement between
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government
and Zimbabwe's biggest
opposition party.
Leaders of other southern
African nations asked Mbeki to mediate in March
after Zimbabwe police beat
dozens of government opponents in a crackdown
that drew sharp criticism from
the international community and renewed calls
for an end to Mugabe's 27-year
rule.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: July 22, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: When traditional
healer Rotina Mavhunga claimed in April
that she had discovered deposits of
refined gasoline seeping from rocks near
a spiritual shrine, the find was
heralded as manna from heaven.
Long-suffering Zimbabweans jumped on the
news as a welcome respite from
their daily economic gloom - including an
acute gasoline shortage - and the
government investigated reports that the
liquid had powered a diesel
vehicle.
But on Sunday the bubble burst
when state media reported that police had
arrested 50 followers of Mavhunga.
The tribal healer herself was on the run.
Government spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira conceded that there were no fuel
deposits, according to the
ruling party newspaper The Voice.
"Nothing convincing was found, meaning
there were no deposits of diesel in
the area," the paper quoted him as
saying.
The healer made headlines with her claims that she had found
the gasoline
near an ancestral shrine in the Chinhoyi district, 100
kilometers (60 miles)
northwest of Harare, state radio said.
The
witchdoctor told her followers the fuel could last hundreds of years and
was
"a gift from ancestral spirits who saw their children suffering because
of
the shortages of fuel," the state Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece,
said.
Traditional healers are held in high regard in Zimbabwe, like
many other
African nations, and superstition runs high.
Three top
politicians, Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, Defense Minister
Sydney
Sekeramayi and Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, in charge of
police, went
to the district to investigate the claims - a sign that the
government took
them seriously.
But after their visit, "experts said it was
scientifically implausible that
diesel would gush out of any rock," the
Voice said.
From the outset, fuel industry executives said the only
source of the gas
could have been secret underground tanks abandoned by the
white-led
colonial-era military in the last days of the guerrilla war that
swept
President Robert Mugabe to power at independence in 1980.
The
Sunday Mail said it was not clear under which laws Mavhunga or her
followers
were to be charged.
Zimbabwe is in the grips of an economic crisis, which
worsened after the
government on June 26 ordered sweeping price cuts of
around 50 percent on
all goods and services, and cuts of more than 70
percent on gasoline,
bringing the price down to half the cost of importing
it.
Gas stations have run dry and have been unable to replace fuel
stocks.
Chaotic lines of vehicles were seen at designated gas stations
Sunday as
drivers tried to cash in gas coupons, which are to be phased out
Aug. 1.
Many vehicles were overloaded with empty fuel drums.
The fuel
dealers rationed customers to 50 liters (about 12 gallons) each and
warned
of the dangers of storing gasoline at home.
Gas shortages have crippled
transportation services and shortages of basic
goods continued to worsen
Sunday. Supermarket shelves remained bare of
cornmeal, meat, bread and other
staples.
Pharmacies were running out of medication, and bars were running
out of
liquor.
At least 3,000 executives and business managers have
been arrested and fined
for violating the government's new price rules since
June 26, and officials
have threatened to seize businesses that scale down
their operations.
Official inflation is given at 4,500 percent, the
highest in the world, but
private financial institutions estimate inflation
closer to 9,000 percent,
factoring out reductions on goods that are no
longer available.
First Post
Moses Moyo in
Harare
The two men who engineered the honey trap that caught Bulawayo
Archbishop
Pius Ncube in bed with Rosemary Sibanda have now told me: "We are
very
bitter. We were promised big money when the job was done, but we've
received
nothing."
The men are private investigator Ernest Tekere and
the woman's husband,
Onesimus Sibanda. It was Sibanda who first approached
Tekere with the plan
to film the Archbishop (left) secretly.
The
result was a dramatically revealing and explicit videotape, showing
Ncube
and Mrs Sibanda making love on the Archbishop's bed. The tape was
played on
national television, and stills from it appeared widely in
government
newspapers, thus saying: "Pius has been embarrassing our leader
for years
with impunity. Now is our effectively silencing the courageous
Archbishop's
attacks on Robert Mugabe's government.
Tekere told me: "I was first
approached early this year by Sibanda, who was
accompanied by someone who
called himself Commander Dube. Both men I knew to
be members of the ruling
Zanu PF party in Bulawayo. They told me what they
wanted me to do, and I
refused. I am a committed Christian."
Two weeks later Sibanda and Dube
approached Tekere again. The investigator
secretly recorded the meeting, and
he played me a tape of Dube saying: "Pius
has been embarrassing our leader
for years with impunity. Now is our
opportunity to nail him and silence him
for good."
Tekere said he was still reluctant, until the men made him a
cash offer of
US$10,000. "Who in Zimbabwe can possibly refuse such a sum? I
have my family
to maintain. So I accepted."
He was paid US$2,000 up
front, with the balance to be paid as soon as the
assignment was completed.
It never materialised. "They told me the country
is short of foreign
exchange at the moment, and they would try and pay me
later. But I know they
are conning me." When I spoke to Mr Sibanda, he was
also disappointed. "I
was promised US$5,000 to arrange things, and I was
also told I would get a
non-constituency parliamentary seat next year. I
have been given no money,
and I think all their promises are worthless." But
Tekere is not giving up
on the US$8,000 he believes he is owed. "I have
investigated several of the
top men in Zanu PF in the past. I have tapes of
their own extramarital
affairs. If my money doesn't come I will release
those tapes to
the
foreign media." I suggested that might be dangerous. "Let them kill
me if
they can. I want my money." Archbishop Ncube has still not denied the
relationship with Mrs Sibanda.
FIRST POSTED JULY 22, 2007
The Australian
Many investors are
willing to take the bet on a post-Mugabe recovery.
William Wallis reports
from London with Alec Russell in Johannesburg | July
23, 2007
FOREIGN
investors tend to avoid imploding African economies. But a small
crew are
bucking the trend in Zimbabwe, lured by plunging asset prices and a
belief
that once 83-year-old President Robert Mugabe goes, recovery could be
swift.
Leading the charge is Lonrho, the conglomerate that has been
seeking to
rebuild the African empire created by the late Tiny
Rowland.
It announced on Friday that it had raised an initial pound stg.
32.3 million
($75.5 million) from shareholders towards a new subsidiary --
Lonzim -- to
buy up assets in Zimbabwe with a "significant opportunity for
future
growth".
David Lenigas, Lonrho's executive chairman, told the
Financial Times that he
aimed to raise a total of pound stg. 100 million for
the company through a
share offer to be launched in London soon.
He
said demand for Lonzim shares was coming from Europe, South Africa and
the
Middle East. But it had been strongest among institutional investors
including US pension and hedge funds.
Mr Lenigas thought this was
driven by a broader appetite for African risk.
"They see Africa as the
last big investment frontier. Africa is where Asia
was 30 years ago," Mr
Lenigas said.
Looking beyond current figures for Zimbabwe -- 15,000 per
cent inflation and
an economy shrinking by 12 per cent a year -- he said the
country's
infrastructure, skilled workforce and farming potential provided
the basis
for a solid recovery.
Lonzim would focus on recapitalising
companies that had been starved of
credit, buying up and rehabilitating
hotels and game parks.
It would also target commercial property and build
stakes intransport,
construction and aviation.
"We are trying to hold
these things together and wait for recovery," Mr
Lenigas said.
Lonrho
-- whose name derives partly from the old British colony, Rhodesia --
has a
long history in Zimbabwe. But others with less experience are betting
on the
country, too.
Botswana-based Imara asset management launched a $US13.5
million ($15.3
million) fund to invest in Zimbabwe earlier this year, the
day after Morgan
Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, emerged battered from a
Harare jail.
It is a "punt", concedes Mark Tunmer, Imara's chief
executive.
But he adds that the country's natural and human resources are
still there
and people are "prepared to put their cash down on that in the
expectation
of a return to free markets".
One such punter is Sean
Jackson, a British entrepreneur based in Cambridge,
who invested in land in
Poland in the aftermath of communism there. His
stake has increased by about
20 times since then, he says. He is now looking
at Zimbabwe as a similar
long-term investment opportunity.
Kola Karim, chief executive of
Shoreline Energy International, a Nigerian
group, says he hopes to seal two
deals in Zimbabwe in the next month -- both
with European companies who have
had enough there.
"We are not going to asset-strip. We can buy big
international names for
cheap and stay in partnership with locals to drive
the business as we have
done, for example, in Tanzania and Uganda," he said.
In one case he hoped to
acquire a company for roughly a tenth of its 1997
value.
There is concern among some Zimbabwean businessmen that properties
will be
sold off at rock-bottom prices.
"But the investors are not
seen as vultures," said the chief executive of a
Bulawayo-based small
manufacturing firm. "It gives us hope for the future
that people from the
outside are interested."
At a Bulawayo business forum this week, many
members seemed determined to
batten down the hatches and not to
sell.
There may be other disincentives to investors on the way. Possibly
the
greatest would be the Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill, which the
Government has promised to pass into law within a month. This would
authorise the authorities to seize 51 per cent of the shareholding of
foreign firms in order to "empower" black Zimbabweans.
Dianna Games,
director of Africa@Work, a southern African
business
consultancy, expressed caution, saying that the bill -- and
recently
enforced price cuts on many commodities -- had changed the climate
from one
of an "investment opportunity to a bit of a fire
sale".
"There is a lot of talk around dinner party tables (in South
Africa and
Zimbabwe)" about opportunities, she said. But it was far from
clear that the
situation would be transformed when Mr Mugabe finally left
power.
Business Report
July 22, 2007
By Tonny Mafu
Johannesburg - Bulk
grocery buyers from Zimbabwe have streamed into the
South African border
town of Musina, making purchases of up to R20 000 a
visit.
This comes
in the wake of severe shortage after the Zimbabwean authorities
enforced
price cuts this month. Retailers across the country were left with
empty
shelves, after consumers cleaned out all stock at reduced prices.
The
shortage of basic groceries has increased the number of shoppers
crossing
the border into South Africa. Musina's retailers of household goods
have
experienced a huge increase in sales.
One beneficiary of the wave of
Zimbabwean buyers is Spar, the largest
retailer in the border town. Pieter
Koekemoer, the store manager, says sales
have increased by 75 percent in the
past three weeks. The increase in
turnover has been driven by bulk buyers,
who are also known as runners.
These customers can buy goods worth up to
R20 000 at a time. Their purchases
include cooking oil, sugar, bread and
soap. Spar's bread sales have doubled
in the past month to 5 000
loaves.
Koekemoer says there has also been a rush to beat a deadline set
for July
31, after which Zimbabweans will require a licence to buy in bulk
for resale
back home.
The Zimbabwean government has accused
businesses of profiteering on the
country's spectacular meltdown, now in its
seventh year.
The economic crisis has seen inflation soar to about 4 500
percent, the
highest in the world. This has been aggravated by a strong
black market in
foreign currency and consumer goods.
Authorities have
also recently banned the private purchase of fuel in
foreign
currency.
In the past few weeks, Koekemoer says, buyers from Zimbabwean
hotels and
lodges have been crossing the border to make bulk purchases of
luxury goods
such as olive oil, olives and tuna.
Zimbabweans in
transit from regions such as Gauteng, uncertain of the
availability of
consumer goods at their destinations, have been "buying as
much as they can"
of groceries on their way home.
Benefits to businesses from the shopping
spree have also extended to
employment. Koekemoer says Spar has hired 12
more workers to help with the
increased volume of customers.
On why
shoppers are choosing Spar, Koekemoer says bulk buyers get discounts
of
about 5 percent for purchases of R3 000 or more.
"It is
frightening how much money these people can carry and it is difficult
to
understand where they get it [the money]," he says.
This view is echoed
by Mashudu Mulea, the manager of the Musina branch of
Ellerines. He says
more than half of the furniture store's cash sales
consist of purchases by
Zimbabweans.
"They are boosting our cash flow as they buy [for] cash," he
says. These
customers buy items worth between R2 000 and R3 000 each visit.
Goods bought
include fridges, stoves, appliances, home theatre systems and
bedroom
suites.
Koekemoer says some Zimbabwean buyers use foreign
credit cards from as far
afield as Ireland to pay for their purchases. "They
have foreign bank
accounts," he notes.
Retail stores are not the only
businesses riding high on the Zimbabwean
crisis; KFC Musina is also making a
meal of the troubles.
According to the fast-food outlet's manager,
Johannes Mahafha, weekly sales
have increased by a third from R30 000 to R40
000. Zimbabweans buy fried
chicken and other meals from KFC while they wait
for transport to take their
groceries home. These shoppers account for half
of the store's sales.
Mahafha says KFC sells bigger meals when the
Zimbabwean crews head home.
"Normally when they go home they get the larger
take away priced for about
R90," he says. During each sitting, shoppers
order a meal worth between R20
and R30.
Jane Murimbi, a shopper from
a township in Masvingo, says she comes to
Musina on a monthly basis. There
have been no groceries at all back home in
the past month, she says, and
"things are relatively cheaper at Musina
Spar".
Murimbi says she
makes a profit of about 66c in the rand when she resells
the groceries back
home in Masvingo after making the 500km round trip to
Musina.
"I am
earning a living through this buying and selling" she says.
Meanwhile,
Mulea says Zimbabweans buying furniture are able to get a refund
of the
value added tax (VAT) paid at the point of sale. The SA Revenue
Service
refunds them at the border. VAT is equal to 14 percent of the value
of
purchases, but it does not apply on some groceries, such as bread,
cooking
oil and soap.
Murimbi says refunds make it cheaper for bulk purchases.
The Telegraph
By
Stephen Bevan in Musina, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:56pm BST
21/07/2007Page 1 of 2
Like the thousands of others who
trekked across the border this month,
Kudakwashe Vandira brought nothing but
the clothes he was wearing and the
vague hope of a better life.
What little spare cash he had saved up had been stolen by the guma
guma -
the gangsters who prey on desperate Zimbabweans as they try to flee
illegally into South Africa.
"We paid someone 100 South African
rand (£7) to take us from the
Zimbabwean side to the South African side, but
then we met robbers and they
took all our money," said Mr Vandira, 20, a
jobless builder who was seeking
work to support his elderly mother back
home.
"They had a pistol and clubs and they beat my friend, so his
tooth has
been knocked loose. Yes, it's a risk but it is better than being
in
Zimbabwe."
Grim stories like Mr Vandira's are now all too
common in Musina, a
former mining town that is the first place refugees
reach after the 12-hour
trudge from the border. While most "illegals" then
head on to Johannesburg
and other big cities, many of the most destitute
remain in Musina, stranded
because they lack the price of the
fare.
Most either camp out in the bush or live in squats on the
edge of
townships, unable to earn a living legally, where they are blamed
for a
massive wave of petty crime and theft. Unless they get deported by the
border police, however, none ever contemplate going back.
Instead, with Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe's presidency slipping ever
deeper
into economic crisis - characterised by 4,500 per cent inflation and
growing
shortages of basic foods and fuel - the flow of migrants has grown
from a
trickle to a flood.
So severe is the problem that the United Nations
and South African
government have begun drawing up new contingency plans for
a sudden mass
exodus of people over the border. The Sunday Telegraph
understands that the
blueprint includes provisions for setting up a refugee
camp in Musina, and
giving Zimbabweans official refugee status for the first
time.
The issue is highly sensitive for the South African
government, as
according refugee status to immigrants would give them an
automatic right to
stay in the country. Crucially, it would also be an
explicit admission that
the situation in Zimbabwe had reached crisis point,
something that Thabo
Mbeki's ANC-led administration has long refused to
admit.
Last week, the Zimbabwean government was forced to back down
from its
disastrous campaign to force businesses to slash their prices by
half, after
a wave of panic-buying across the country cleared the shelves of
every
supermarket, and companies were driven close to
bankruptcy.
But with Zimbabwe suffering a severe drought, and the
World Food
Programme now raising its estimate of the number of people there
needing aid
from 300,000 to one million, the proportion fleeing is sure to
grow.
Although there are no reliable figures for the number of
people
crossing the border illegally, anecdotal evidence suggests that they
are
coming in their hundreds, if not thousands, every day. One recent report
suggested that South African border police were arresting and deporting 500
daily. An estimated three million Zimbabweans - nearly a quarter of the
population - are thought to be already resident in South
Africa.
Once a quiet backwater, Musina now has the feel of a gold
rush town as
local businesses grow rich on the back of trade with the people
of its
increasingly desperate neighbour. Zimbabweans with the correct
paperwork
cross the border every day to buy staples such as bread and fuel,
which are
either unavailable at home or cost many times the price. A new
four-lane
highway being built between Musina and the border crossing is
testament to
the flourishing trade along the route.
The profile
of those coming over is changing, however, according to
Hannes Nel, whose
fruit farm is near the border. "Before, it was men looking
for work," he
said. "Now it's family groups, women with children, even old
people. It's
all sorts."
Professional hunters - a lucrative business in this
sparsely populated
area of thick bush, rolling hills and dramatic rock
outcrops - and local
farmers complain that the "illegals" cut their fences,
destroy their snares,
break pipes for water and are also responsible for
burglaries and murders.
The presence of so many clearly desperate people is
also blamed for
frightening away foreign tourists.
Despite the
problems, official efforts to stem the flow of illegal
immigrants seem
half-hearted on either side. The border is marked by three
impressive-looking fences, including an electric one in the middle, but it
is easily evaded by pushing sticks under it until wires touch and it
short-circuits.
No border guards patrol the Zimbabwean side,
while there are widespread
reports of illegal immigrants paying South
African soldiers and police to
look the other way as they cross.
Nor,
despite dramatic reports of immigrants wading through fast-flowing
waters
dodging crocodiles and hippos, is the mighty Limpopo river, along
which the
border runs, any real barrier. For 10 months of the year the
Limpopo is
virtually dry, and all the immigrants have to do is walk across
its sandy
bed.
Joe Nyati, 18, another Zimbabwean illegal immigrant, told how he was
caught
by South African police last month as he crossed the border after
dark, for
the first time. After spending the night in a former barracks
which has been
converted into a holding centre, he was deported back to
Zimbabwe the next
day.
"The same night I crossed again," he said.
"I was coming across the river at
night with my friend when the guma guma
attacked us. There were 15 of them,
all young men, they had guns and
knives.
"They took everything except my underwear. But after they had
gone, we
carried on to the fence and climbed over."
Now Mr Nyati
works illegally in Musina as a garden boy, earning 200 rand
(£14) a month.
It is a telling indication of just how bad things are in
Zimbabwe that he
should be prepared to take such risks for so little reward.
"I finished
school two years ago but there was no work," he said. "It's easy
to stay
here and if they catch me and deport me, I'll just come back the
same
day."
The call to set up refugee camps locally has already been taken up
by South
Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance party. In a letter to the
home
affairs minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the party's deputy home
affairs
spokesman, Les Labuschagne, said: "Refugee camps would be the only
way to
make sure that these people are adequately housed and fed until they
are
able to return to Zimbabwe."
The South African government,
apparently reluctant to acknowledge the
problems caused by Zimbabwe's
economic freefall, has dismissed the
Democratic Alliance party's letter as
"nothing but cheap political point
scoring".
A home affairs ministry
spokesman said: "Refugees are supposed to be
integrated into our communities
and not kept in camps as the DA proposes."
He added that such measures would
only be introduced in the event of a major
calamity.
Jack Redden, a
spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees in South
Africa, confirmed, however, that "revisions" were under
way to existing
contingency plans, drawn up in conjunction with the South
African
government, in case of a major refugee crisis.
He refused to say what the
plan said about setting up refugee camps, but the
head of the local
municipality, Abram Luruli, confirmed a site had already
been identified on
a disused army base, six miles from Musina.
For some of those leaving
Zimbabwe, such camps will come too late. Ennie
Lelushi runs the Child
Resource Centre, a day care facility for orphans and
vulnerable children on
Musina's outskirts. Almost half the 479 children she
has on her books are
Zimbabwean, some of them brought in by guma guma who
double as people
traffickers.
"If you don't have the money to pay them, they'll do bad
things to you," she
said. "One boy told us that when he came over the
border, he was with a
mother and her baby. The guma guma said the child
would cry and give them
away, so they took it, killed it and threw it in the
river."
Business Report
July 22, 2007
By Peta Thornycroft
Lubumbashi - Why
was fugitive Billy Rautenbach deported from the Democratic
Republic of Congo
(DRC) to Zimbabwe on Thursday? Why not last week or the
week before, when he
was flying to and from Lubumbashi?
An international warrant for his
arrest was issued months ago as South
Africa wants him to stand trial on
allegations of massive fraud.
Many in Lubumbashi believe Rautenbach -
long accused of stealing cobalt from
Gecamines in his days as the state
mining company's chief executive - has
been felled by a furious fight over
the jewel in the DRC copper crown,
Katanga Mining.
There are two
camps trying to buy control of the company, which is just
coming on
stream.
The first is a relative newcomer to the DRC, Israeli company Dan
Gertler
International (DGI). Its principal, Dan Gertler, has his head office
in Tel
Aviv.
Then there is British firm Central African Mining and
Exploration Company
(Camec), which, in anticipation of Rautenbach's problems
with South Africa's
National Prosecuting Authority, bought his DRC assets
last year.
On Thursday Rautenbach flew out of the DRC on his executive
jet for the last
time - in this phase of his life - after nearly a decade of
wheeling,
dealing, threatening, and perhaps doing the normal round of
"favours" in
Harare and Lubumbashi.
To his credit, unlike some whose
only mining activity in the DRC is on the
world's stock markets, Rautenbach
also does real mining. He digs out the
earth, processes the ore, and exports
the valuable metal; he also pays taxes
and earns valuable foreign currency
for Kinshasa.
Now he has gone to ground on his estate in the exclusive
Umwinsidale suburb
on the outskirts of Harare, and is not answering his
phones.
Perhaps Rautenbach, who is one of the largest shareholders in
Camec, is
musing more on his vast wealth and whether the Zimbabweans will
expedite his
extradition, than on being kicked out of Lubumbashi.
On
Thursday Andrew Groves, the chief executive of Camec, in his normal
volley
of bombast, denied that Rautenbach had been forced to fly out of
Lubumbashi
as a prohibited immigrant, as claimed by Moise Katumba, the
governor of
Katanga.
"He has been in and out regularly on business and will be back
again. This
is all political and we know the press is putting out lies. We
know who they
[the press] are working for.
"Camec doesn't need Billy
Rautenbach. We did at the beginning but now we
have a fully competent staff
running the operations. He is just a
shareholder now," Groves
said.
He added: "We are looking forward to George Forrest becoming
chairman of the
company."
Forrest is the chief executive, and the
largest shareholder, of Katanga
Mining, which is listed on the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
He has a long and chequered history in the DRC. He is a street
fighter and
survivor, who actually lives in Lubumbashi, is active in mining
and employs
thousands of Congolese.
He is extraordinarily rich, and
his early wealth is mired in the nasty
histories of Angola and the DRC, but
today he is genial and wants the DRC to
prosper. His three sons have
remained in the country, work in his firms and
are there to
stay.
While Forrest will say nothing on the record, his associates claim
that he
has decided to get into bed with Camec to stave off the assault he
believes
is coming from Gertler, Camec's rival for Katanga
Mining.
"Katanga Mining is in good shape. It is the only game in town
right now,"
Forrest said in an interview in Lubumbashi this week. This is at
least part
of the reason the battle for his company is heating
up.
When Camec began its raid, buying 23 percent of the shares in Katanga
Mining, the latter's major Canadian shareholders took measures to stop an
attempted takeover. At that time, DGI had bought 17 percent in Katanga
Mining.
Gertler got into DRC when he took a majority stake in state
diamond firm
Société Minière de Bakwanga for $15 million (R103.6 million),
but that
project is not going well.
Then, in a record two weeks of
negotiations in 2004, Gertler secured a
stunning joint venture in Katanga
with Gecamines. Now called Nikanor, it
owns cobalt and copper deposits as
well as a concentrator plant and is
already on stream.
Gertler was at
President Joseph Kabila's wedding before elections last year,
and is
reportedly close to important people in Kinshasa.
He vastly overpaid
Zimbabwean businessman John Bredenkamp for his assets in
Katanga.
Bredenkamp knew nothing about mining, his world has always
been tobacco and
military hardware. He got the mining assets for free in the
first place, a
gift from the late DRC President Laurent
Kabila.
Bredenkamp was on the rack, down to his last $20 million or so,
his
properties in Europe were mortgaged, and he had to flog off or lease out
a
couple of his aircraft.
He needed to sell DRC mining properties,
including the world's richest
cobalt deposit, Mukondo.
Bredenkamp was
owed about $10 million for supplies he provided to the
Zimbabwe National
Army, which fought on Kabila's side in the war in the late
1990s. He had
been the guarantor of payment for Russian helicopters for
Kabila.
So
Kabila's gift was part in lieu of unpaid debts and partly to compensate
the
Zimbabwe government.
Rautenbach also got into the DRC as part of Kabila's
obligations to
Zimbabwe.
Whether either men ever paid off the
Zimbabwe government, which provided the
army and critical support to Kabila,
is mired in a dark corner of untold
history in a bleak period of the DRC's
tormented past.
Suffice to say they got into the DRC because they were
Zimbabwean citizens -
seen by Kabila as allies of President Robert Mugabe -
and both men were
protected by powerful forces in Mugabe's ruling
Zanu-PF.
Rautenbach was made chief executive of Gecamines and given
valuable copper
claims in partnership with the Zimbabwe government. He was
forced out of DRC
when Kabila accused him of stealing cobalt. His assets
were taken away and
given to Bredenkamp.
But the tables
turned.
With Harare's influence - and because he went to court and won
the case -
Rautenbach was suddenly handed half of Bredenkamp's assets in
Katanga in
2004, which now included a half share of Mukondo, the cobalt
mountain that
is said to be the richest in the world.
So with
Bredenkamp in a financial crunch, unable to pay creditors in the
DRC, and
knowing nothing about mining, he leased his share of Mukondo to
Rautenbach.
And it did well, exporting 600 tons a month.
Last year Bredenkamp offered
Mukondo and the concentrator to Rautenbach for
about $20 million, but
Rautenbach laughed and offered half that amount. The
two men were at
war.
Suddenly, in June last year, Bredenkamp was summoned to Kinshasa for
an
interview with Joseph Kabila, Laurent's son, who would soon become the
DRC's
first democratically elected president.
A deal was struck in
mysterious circumstances and Gertler massively overpaid
Bredenkamp roughly
$60 million for his cobalt mountain and the concentrator.
Bredenkamp
returned about $8 million, maybe to pay off the Zimbabwe
government, or for
Kabila's election campaign, but he never disclosed
details of that
transaction.
With Bredenkamp flush again and out of the way, Rautenbach
tried to lease
Mukondo and the concentrator from Gertler, who turned him
down even though
maintaining those assets without production cost him about
$750 000 a month.
So the cobalt mountain is dormant, the concentrator is
idle, and
Rautenbach's, or rather Camec's, valuable exports have
ceased.
Camec did not reveal that to shareholders until press reports
forced it to
do so late last year.
Meanwhile, Forrest, the old DRC
fox, was building Katanga Mining, which
comes on stream this year, at a time
of superb copper prices and abundant
skilled personnel, and the confidence
of world markets..
But who will win? It does not look good for Camec
right now, with Rautenbach
out the picture, however much Groves protests
that the Zimbabwean is not
needed any longer.
Camec is a troubled
firm, with questionable ability to develop its assets,
staff problems and,
perhaps most importantly, it has offended powerful
people in
Kinshasa.
After it lost revenue from Mukondo, Camec built a metals
producing plant in
Luita in Katanga, but no one is sure how much it costs to
produce the
metals, and there are serious questions about the longevity of
the hastily
constructed plant.
Forrest gave a clue to the possible
outcome when he said: "Rautenbach is not
only interested in mining on stock
exchanges, he is prepared to get his
hands dirty and actually get involved
in mining in Katanga." - Independent
Foreign Service
Business Report
July 22,
2007
By Tonny Mafu
Johannesburg - The economic meltdown in
Zimbabwe has brought fortune for
some enterprising citizens.
As the
number of Zimbabwean immigrants working in South Africa has
increased, so
have the remittances of money and shipments of groceries over
the
border.
This phenomenon has led to the formation of transport crews who
carry goods,
money and letters on behalf of the working migrants.
One
of the entrepreneurs, who did not want to be named, has been in business
since 2002.
He transports about R20 000 worth of groceries to
Zimbabwe each week. He
also delivers R6 000 to relatives of his
clients.
"I have 100 regular clients, more people have come over," he
says. The
average amount a client sends on each trip is about R600. Each
week about a
dozen people send parcels and money.
While parcels cost
between R50 and R150 to transport, sending money can cost
up to R15 for each
R100. This business can earn transporters R5 000 a trip
after
expenses.
"My position has improved ever since I started this business,"
the
entrepreneur says.
The business has also created jobs for exiled
Zimbabweans. The entrepreneur
originally drove an old Peugeot himself, but
he now employs six people as
drivers and assistants and his fleet has been
upgraded to three new Toyota
4X4s.
"I pay about R6 000 each month for
all three cars," he notes.
When asked why his instalment was relatively
low, he says he paid higher
deposits to the banks.
His earnings are
invested in South Africa, where he recently bought a house
for R620 000. He
pays taxes to SA Revenue Service, depending on the income.
The permit to
transport goods across the border costs about R1 500 a year.
Additional
taxes paid during each trip to Zimbabwe vary between R500 and R1
000.
However, if the Zimbabwean situation returns to normal,
transporters of
goods may see a decline in business.
"I think
business will suffer," the entrepreneur says. "I am planning to set
up a new
venture here."
Jane Murimbi, a trader from the city of Masvingo
near the famous Zimbabwe
Ruins, says cross-border transporters have been
useful for shipping bulk
groceries. She pays R10 for each lot of
groceries.
Compared with conventional movement of parcels to Zimbabwe,
less formal
cross-border operators are a lot cheaper.
The post office
charges about R1 610 for a 10kg consignment. Courier company
DHL levies a
fee of R1 341 for a 10kg parcel, while cross-border
transporters charge
about R200 for the same package. An added advantage is
that they do
door-to-door delivery and recipients get their goods within a
day.
The system hinges on trust, with no contract signed between the
sender and
the carrier.
A number of factors explain the success of
cross-border operators. The
existence of different foreign exchange rates
has led people to avoid using
formal financial institutions. Banks exchange
rands for much fewer Zimbabwe
dollars than the black market, and because of
inflation, Zimbabweans prefer
to hold the foreign currency they get from
relatives abroad and only convert
it when buying goods.
The
Zimbabwean currency has recently plunged to rates of about Z$400 000 to
the
US dollar in the black market, widening the differential with the
official
exchange rate of Z$250 to the greenback.
Sources have said that even
senior government officials were making a
killing by borrowing US dollars at
the official rate, converting these in
the black market and then paying off
the loan at the official exchange rate.
Zimbabwe's inflation rate,
estimated at 4 500 percent, is the highest in the
world. By receiving cash
directly from cross-border operators and hoarding
it, Zimbabweans are
cushioned from inflation, since the exchange rate
normally changes with
inflation.
While the Zimbabwean dollar falls, the purchasing power of
foreign currency
remains more or less unaffected, and in some instances is
boosted. - Tonny
Mafu
Mmegi, Botswana
RYDER
GABATHUSE
STAFF WRITER
FRANCISTOWN: Botswana businesses are making a
kill as droves of cross border
shoppers flood the country's northern most
city to do their shopping as the
Zimbabwe government crackdown on prices
gains momentum.
The Zimbabwe Cabinet Taskforce on Price
Monitoring and Stabilisation
recently ordered businesses to slash consumer
prices by 50 percent or more
"to cushion poor consumers that are at the
mercy of profiteers".
The Zimbabwean media recently reported that
"following government decrees,
consumers are caught up in a mad shopping
spree" which saw the shelves of
many shops emptied, some closing because
they were operating at a loss".
"Consumers have cheered the price cuts
but store shelves have emptied and
left the poor even worse off," reports
the Zimbabwe Financial Gazette online
this week.
Generally, there is
a general outcry against hefty price increases on basic
commodities like
sugar, bread and cooking oil which forces Zimbabweans to
cross the border
into Francistown where they ransack the shops to fill their
shopping
baskets.
The Zimbabwean crisis is no longer limited to fuel shortages, as
the
government-led price blitz forced some traders to close shop. There is
also
a serious shortage of basic commodities in the shops that still
survive.
Titus Mosweunyane, a manager at the local Score Supermarket
rated the
Zimbabweans as among their best customers. "Zimbabweans buy more
than
Batswana because of their situation back home. They share their
troubles
with us that consumer prices on many goods are high back
home.
"They buy stuff like cooking oil, Cremora coffee creamer, bread and
other
cereals for their needs," revealed Mosweunyane.
Mosweunyane
rates Zimbabweans as good buyers because they regularly buy in
large
quantities. A customer might buy a crate of 12 two-litre bottles of
coking
oil which is rare for locals.
"They also buy basic stuff like cornflakes,
sugar and bread which they take
back home," he said.
The managing
director of Meriting Spar Supermarket in Francistown, Archie
Mbakile, also
indicates that he has benefited from the price crack down
across the
border.
It has been almost a month now that Meriting Spar has been
enjoying the
patronage of the Zimbabweans seeking basic goods from the
shop.
"The stuff they buy heavily includes the long green bar soap,
cooking oil,
sugar and bread," said Mbakile.
He remarked that even
some stuff that was supposed to be very cheap in
Zimbabwe like Mazoe orange
crush, which is made in Zimbabwe, is very
expensive as compared to
Francistown. "Basically, they buy all their monthly
grocery needs from
here".
Mohutsiwa Dikgakololo, a manager at Nswazwi Spar in Francistown
says: " They
buy mainly cooking oil and green soap bars. The other thing
they buy a lot
of is bread".
Generally, he said it was not easy to
distinguish a Zimbabwean from the
locals until you talk to them, says the
businessman.
At month end, Zimbabweans who are used to long queues back
home join the
Batswana at almost all the chain shops in town.
Some
use their own transport and others use public transport.
The shopping
windfall also benefits local private car owners and public
vehicle operators
who often transport them to the border village of
Ramokgwebana.
Price
controls in Zimbabwe have also encouraged the expansion of the
black-market.
Zimbabwean traders buy low quality electronic goods in bulk
from the Chinese
shops in Francistown for re-sale back home.
Regulated business continues
to collapse due to the unfriendly price
controls in Zimbabwe, the one time
breadbasket of Africa.
It has become a norm that at month end Porsche
motor vehicles bearing
Zimbabwe number plates compete for parking spaces at
major shopping
complexes with the locals and other visitors.
High
inflation levels in Zimbabwe have grossly eroded the purchasing power
of
most urban and rural households. Three months ago, the country's Central
Statistics Office placed the annual inflation rate at about 3,713.90
percent.
In some quarters, Zimbabwe's run away inflation is estimated
to have reached
about 5,000 percent.
IOL
Basildon Peta
July 22 2007 at 11:37AM
President Thabo
Mbeki's effort to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe is
hanging by a thread
because President Robert Mugabe is refusing to negotiate
a new constitution
with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
The new
constitution is a key item on the MDC's negotiations agenda.
Mugabe
and the ruling Zanu-PF party are represented at the talks by
Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, the respective justice and labour
ministers.
The MDC is represented by Tendai Biti and Welshman
Ncube, the
respective general secretaries of its two factions.
Chinamasa and Goche had failed to arrive in Pretoria almost two weeks
ago
for the start of the substantive negotiations about how to resolve the
current crisis.
However, the two did arrive
this week and met Sydney Mufamadi, the
local government minister, who Mbeki
has charged with running the day-to-day
negotiations, and Frank Chikane, the
director-general in the presidency.
Chinamasa and Goche told
Mufamadi and Chikane that they were under
strict instructions from Zanu-PF
not to discuss a new constitution and
wanted that item deleted from the
agenda.
They said that the present Zimbabwe constitution, which has
been
amended 18 times, was serving the country well. Zanu-PF would be
prepared to
amend it, but not adopt a new one.
They said the
MDC was free to suggest any amendments it wished and
parliament would
consider them. Chinamasa and Goche have since have since
returned to
Harare.
Sources said Mbeki was now desperate to salvage the talks
and had
summoned Biti and Ncube to Pretoria to hear their views on the tough
Zanu-PF
stance.
Biti and Ncube were due to begin meetings with
Mufamadi and Chikane on
Friday before meeting Mbeki this
weekend.
The MDC factions seemed unlikely to budge on the need for
a drafting a
completely new constitution, which they regard as central to
resolving the
Zimbabwe crisis, sources said.
If Mbeki fails to
persuade the parties to break the impasse, he will
have no progress to
report to his regional peers at the annual summit of the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) in Zambia next month.
SADC leaders
mandated Mbeki to conduct the Zimbabwe mediation effort
at a special summit
in Dar es Salaam in March.
Mbeki gave his first progress report to
the SADC at the African Union
summit in Accra, Ghana, last month. At that
time he said that progress had
been made because the parties had agreed on
an agenda.
But on Friday the Zimbabwe Independent reported, once
again, that the
talks were dead because of the impasse over a new
constitution.
Sources close to the negotiations said that although
imperilled, the
talks were not dead in the water.
It is
unclear, however, how Mbeki might salvage them.
Mugabe reportedly
suspects that Mbeki is sympathetic to the MDC demand
for a new
constitution.
But sources believe Mbeki might try to persuade the
MDC to shelve its
demand for a new constitution if Zanu-PF creates
conditions for free and
fair elections next year.
Although the
MDC has argued that free and fair elections and a new
constitution for
Zimbabwe are inseparable, that is not necessarily so,
sources said. Many of
the conditions for an internationally acceptable
plebiscite could be met
without wholesale constitutional review.
They included the
restoration of banned newspapers, international
supervision of the elections
by the United Nations, ending political
violence and amendments to draconian
laws that inhibit opposition political
activity.
Even
opposition demands for an overhaul of constitutional bodies could
be met
through amendments, rather than by writing a completely new
constitution.
"Let's not say collapse yet, but I agree the
talks are hanging by a
thin wire," said one highly placed
source.
The talks are being held behind a veil of secrecy and so no
official
confirmation of the state of play is possible. - Foreign
Service
This article was originally published on page 3 of
Sunday Independent
on July 22, 2007
pe.com
ZIMBABWE: Analysts say
that now might be a wise time to invest.
10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, July
21, 2007
By CELEAN JACOBSON
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG,
SOUTH AFRICA - The risks of doing business now in Zimbabwe are
high: Shelves
are bare and fuel tanks empty following government orders to
slash prices in
half to bring down the soaring inflation rate.
The government has
threatened a takeover of businesses, triggering fears of
a repeat of the
confiscation of farms that started in 2000 and is blamed for
triggering the
economic collapse.
Edgars, a leading South African clothing retailer with
stores in neighboring
Zimbabwe, saw its chief executive in Zimbabwe arrested
last weekend for
"tardiness in changing prices" as the government ordered
last month. He was
released, and while Edgars' management says times are
difficult, it is not
pulling out of Zimbabwe.
In fact, analysts
predict that those who can afford to wait -- even if it
takes years -- will
see good returns on investments.
"Zimbabwe's difficulties are a reality,"
said Goolam Ballim, chief economist
for Standard Bank, one of South Africa's
leading banks with interests in
Zimbabwe.
"But any rebound will
benefit entrepreneurs," he added, saying he was
confident in the ability of
the southern African country rich in minerals to
generate
wealth.
Zimbabwe once had one of the most diversified economies in
southern Africa.
Growth in 1980, when British colonial rule was toppled and
Robert Mugabe
became president, was a record 12 percent, and the country was
the world's
second-largest tobacco exporter, accounting for 30 percent of
the world's
tobacco trade. Now it is a basket case with official inflation
of 4,500
percent -- unofficially 9,000 percent -- the highest in the
world.
Many see the possibility of stability in Zimbabwe pegged to
mediation
efforts led by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki is
trying to get
Mugabe's party and his main opposition, the Movement for
Democratic Change,
to work together to bring the country back from the
brink.
"The mediation is a small window of opportunity," said Brian
Raftopolous,
director of the Solidarity Peace Trust, a human-rights group.
"The biggest
stumbling block to this is of course the Mugabe regime itself
-- it's
determination to make the mediation as difficult as
possible."
"The region is looking at ways to help stabilize the
Zimbab-wean economy,"
he said.
Some analysts believe that for
entrepreneurs with deep pockets and strong
nerves, this is the time to
invest in Zimbabwe, saying tobacco farms and
mineral rights can be picked up
dirt cheap.
They point to examples of the mineral- and oil-rich Congo and
Angola, where
the first hint of political stability saw investments reap
massive returns.
"As prices fall, you are able to buy more assets with
incredible potential,"
said Tony Twine, senior economist at Econometrix, an
economic consulting
firm.
From The Herald, 21 July
President
Mugabe has extended the term of office of Police Commissioner
Augustine
Chihuri by another one year, with effect from September 1 2007.
Commissioner
Chihuri was appointed as police chief in 1993. According to a
notice in
yesterday's Government Gazette, President Mugabe extended Comm
Chihuri's
term in terms of the Constitution and the Police Act. Comm Chihuri
succeeded
Commissioner Henry Mukurazhizha who resigned in 1991.