S.Africa's Mbeki hints at Zimbabwe financial aid
Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:19 AM ET By Marius Bosch PRETORIA (Reuters) - South
Africa is in discussions with the Zimbabwean government and may end up
aiding its struggling southern African neighbor financially, President Thabo
Mbeki said on Sunday.
Local media reports said Zimbabwe had asked for a
$1 billion loan to buy food and fuel and to prevent its expulsion from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) over arrears of $306
million.
Mbeki, briefing reporters after a three-day cabinet meeting,
said South Africa did not want to see a financial collapse in
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is battling its worst economic crisis since
independence in 1980, with unemployment estimated at 70 percent and
inflation in triple digits after a recession which has lasted for more than
five years.
"We don't want a Zimbabwe collapse next door. South Africa
would inherit all the consequences of a collapse of Zimbabwe," Mbeki said.
The South African leader said his country was in talks with the government
of President Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's foreign debt arrears.
"We
are discussing the debt issues, how it should be settled ... It may very
well be that we then agree that South Africa should take whatever portion of
Zimbabwe's financial debt," Mbeki said.
He said the South African
government had been asked by Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
to help in a bid to solve Zimbabwe's political situation and the country's
economic problems.
But Mbeki refused to be drawn on the size of any
aid.
ZIMBABWE'S ECONOMIC CRISIS
The IMF, whose board is likely
to meet next month to review Zimbabwe's economic policies and its IMF debt
repayments, has suspended lending and on Feb. 16 deferred a decision on
whether to expel the country for six months
The IMF said last month it
expects the economic output of Zimbabwe to fall sharply this year and its
budget deficit to widen as food shortages grip the country.
Mbeki
said his cabinet had also discussed how to encourage more investment and
stimulate South African economic growth beyond the current 3-4 percent
annual growth with a government committee due to investigate the matter
further.
"Without higher rates of investment in the South African
economy, you won't get higher growth rates and this committee must say which
are the key sectors we must make that investment in."
Since South
Africa's first democratic elections and the end of apartheid in 1994,
inflation and budget deficits have been reduced to levels normally only seen
in developed economies.
Economic growth has quickened and is likely to
remain around four percent for the next three years. But big income
disparities, high levels of violent crime and unemployment still worry
foreign investors.
Despite strong economic fundamentals, South Africa
still struggles to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), which totaled
about 50 billion rand ($7.60 billion) since 1996.
HARARE, July 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran has provided
Zimbabwe with a loan of 25 million US dollars to boost bilateral trade
between the two countries, the weekly Sunday Mail newspaper
reported.
Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Hamid Moayyer was
quoted as saying that "the Republic of Iran continues to work with the
Zimbabwean government to avail more lines of credit which are crucial for
business growth."
"In 1999, trade figures stood at 13 million
US dollars and this has since risen to 25 million US dollars presently and
we envisage that this will soar to about 1.5 billion US dollars by 2010,"
the Iranian ambassador said.
Most projects in Zimbabwe
funded by Iran have gone to the Industrial Development Corporation, which
this month sealed investment agreements that will result in the
commissioning of a tractor-manufacturing plant. Enditem
S Africa 'might pay Harare debt' South African
President Thabo Mbeki has indicated South Africa might repay some of
Zimbabwe's foreign debts. Speaking in Pretoria, Mr Mbeki said his
country could help pay off Zimbabwe's near $300m (£172m) loan from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said it was in South
Africa's own economic interests to assist.
South Africa is
Zimbabwe's closest ally and has resisted international calls to pressure
Harare to end many of its controversial policies.
Earlier this
month, the IMF gave Zimbabwe six months to meet its obligations or face
expulsion.
The country is on the brink of economic ruin, widely
blamed on President Robert Mugabe's autocratic rule.
President
Mugabe is currently in the Chinese capital, Beijing, where he is reported to
be trying to obtain a new loan from the Chinese authorities to help Zimbabwe
tackle its economic crisis.
Expulsion threat
Mr Mbeki
said it would be "incorrect and counter-productive" for Zimbabwe to be
expelled from the IMF.
"It may very well be that South Africa may
take whatever portion of Zimbabwe's debt.
"We don't
want Zimbabwe collapsing here next door because South Africa would inherit
all the consequences, and we don't want that," he said.
But he
stressed nothing had been decided and talks with Harare were
continuing.
Mr Mbeki avoided criticising Zimbabwe's
controversial slum clearance programme, which has left some 300,000 people
homeless.
Rather, the president welcomed calls by UN envoy Anna
Tibaijuka for greater outside help for Zimbabweans affected by the crackdown
to recover.
"It would be very, very good indeed if the United
Nations engages in this process to help Zimbabwe solve the problems it
faces," he said.
His comments came two days after the UN published
a damning report on Zimbabwe's so-called Operation Drive Out trash, calling
it a violation of international law.
Zimbabwe's future: Made in China By Michael Wines The New York
Times
MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005
JOHANNESBURG
His new 25-bedroom palace is covered with midnight-blue Chinese roof tiles.
His air force trains on Chinese jets. His subjects wear Chinese shoes, ride
Chinese buses and, lately, zip around the country in Chinese propjets. He
has even urged his countrymen to learn Mandarin and nurture a taste for
Chinese cuisine.
That President Robert Mugabe rules Zimbabwe is
irrelevant. Tightening his embrace of all things Chinese, the 81-year-old
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's canny autocrat for 25 years, arrived in Beijing on
Saturday for six days of talks with China's leaders, led by President Hu
Jintao.
Shunned by Western leaders and investors for his
government's human rights policies, Zimbabwe has begun a determined campaign
to hitch its plummeting fortunes to China's rising star.
Mugabe
calls the policy "Look East" and has relentlessly promoted it as another way
to thumb Zimbabwe's nose at its old colonial ruler, Britain, and Britain's
allies, like the United States. The sheer intensity of the pro-China drive
has stirred resentment among average Zimbabweans and raised eyebrows among
the elite, some of whom question whether Mugabe is simply replacing British
political domination with a more up-to-date Asian economic
rule.
But it is a hand-in-glove fit for the Chinese, who are
steadily extending their political and economic influence across Africa,
particularly in regions rich in oil and minerals.
The Chinese
are widely reported to covet a stake in Zimbabwe's platinum mines, which
have the world's second-largest reserves, and Mugabe's government has hinted
at a desire to accommodate them. The mines' principal operator denies being
pressured to deal with the Chinese, but negotiations are under way to sell a
stake to unidentified Zimbabweans. The operator has postponed major spending
on the mines, citing political uncertainty.
Meanwhile, China is
investing billions of dollars to get access to resources for its
fast-growing economy, in areas like Angolan oil and Zambian copper mines.
And because they do not comment on their partners' human rights policies,
the Chinese are becoming entrenched in some states, including Zimbabwe and
Sudan, that bridle at Western criticism.
While the talk is of
democracy sweeping the continent, some experts believe that China's rising
influence in Africa may power its blend of free-market dictatorship,
particularly among African leaders already reluctant to turn over power
democratically.
"We might see the Chinese political system
appealing to a lot of states whose elites and regimes are more in line with
that sort of thinking," said Chris Maroleng, a Zimbabwe expert at the
Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. "It's really a conflict of two
systems, one based on regime security and the other, almost Western, which
talks of human security - good governance and human rights."
The Chinese have been friendly with Zimbabwe since 1980, when they and
Mugabe, who led the newly independent state, shared much the same Marxist
ideology.
But in the past two or three years, as Zimbabwe's
economy has edged ever closer to collapse, the friendship has turned on
investments and goods that Mugabe's government was increasingly unable to
find elsewhere.
Some exchanges amount to good will: China, for
example, donated the blue tiles adorning the $13 million palace Mugabe is
building for himself in Borrowdale, a comparatively wealthy Harare
suburb.
Others are more significant. Chinese companies have won
contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to provide hydroelectric
generators for the national power authority, run by Mugabe's brother-in-law.
China Aviation Industry, an aircraft maker, has sold or given three 60-seat
propjets to the beleaguered Air Zimbabwe.
First Automobile
Works of China has agreed to sell the Zimbabwean government 1,000 commuter
buses to upgrade its municipal fleet.
China won a contract last
year to farm 1,000 square kilometers, or 386 square miles, of land seized
from white commercial farmers during the land-confiscation program begun by
Mugabe in 2000. Zimbabwe's air force has bought $200 million in Chinese-made
Karakorum 8 trainer jets.
Rumors abound that China has sold
Zimbabwe's internal-security apparatus water cannons to subdue protesters
and bugging equipment to monitor cellphone networks.
Zimbabwe
says trade with China amounted to $100 million in the first three months of
this year. Mugabe says China is close to becoming the country's leading
foreign investor, a claim that seems likely given the headlong flight of
Western capital.
Maroleng, of the Institute for Security Studies in
Pretoria, and others say that many deals are hidden in a welter of barter
arrangements and front companies, reflecting Zimbabwe's inability to pay
China with hard currency. China is widely reported, for example, to have
taken a share of Zimbabwe's tobacco harvest in exchange for
equipment.
What the ordinary Zimbabwean reaps from this
relationship is unclear.
Zimbabweans complain that their new
Chinese buses break down regularly and that the Chinese goods that flood
stores and roadside stalls are shoddy. They have coined a term for the
phenomenon: zhing-zhong.
"To call something zhing-zhong means that
it is substandard," said Eldred Masunugure, the chairman of the political
science department at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. "The resentment
of the Chinese is not only widespread, it's deeply rooted. It's affecting
even other Chinese-looking people, like the Japanese."
Masunugure and others say that Harare's few Japanese residents complain of
being taunted and called zhing-zhong. Harare newspapers report that
high-yielding robberies of Harare's Chinese residents are rising.
A
solution, however, is in the wings: In a meeting last month, China and
Zimbabwe signed a letter of intent to cooperate in law enforcement and the
judiciary. Atop the list is a plan for China to train Zimbabweans in
managing prisons.
"They have a fairly advanced prison system,"
Zimbabwe's justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said. "We would also want to
tap into that expertise."
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 4:33 PM Subject: Frog marching
children
Dear Family and Friends, Shocking reports this week told
of how 300 homeless men, women and children sheltering in Bulawayo churches
were forcibly turned out in the middle of the night by government officials
and trucked off to a holding camp. One Church leader described the midnight
raid as brutal and horrific and said: "They had elderly folk, and they were
piling them onto vehicles; they were frog-marching children ...who had been
asleep." I know that any parent who has woken their child from a deep sleep
will feel the same utter horror as I do at this description. I am appalled to
think that our government officials have become so cruel as to be able to
carry out these acts in the middle of the night, in mid winter, to
defenceless women, children and babies. Are they not also parents, fathers,
grandfathers?
Also this week priests who had been helping displaced
people in Mutare and Bulawayo were called in for questioning by government
officials. In Bulawayo church leaders from various denominations were
forbidden from going into holding camps where hundreds of homeless people
have been taken. The churches were told that they have to have permission
from the political governor of the area before they may visit the poor
and destitute in the holding camp.
Meanwhile in an absolutely absurd
Alice in Wonderland development in Harare, the government started moving
homeless people back to exactly the same sites on which their homes had been
demolished a few weeks ago. ZBC television on Friday showed Zanu PF Minister
Chombo preparing to address a crowd of people whose homes had been demolished
by government bulldozers. The people clenched their fists, raised their arms
and chanted slogans in praise of Zanu PF and then listened as the Minister
told them that those who had lease agreements were to be taken "home" to
their piles of rubble. Minister Chombo told these people who have lost
everything that not only can they go back, but that they will be given free
transport to get there. The Minister then went on to announce that the people
would be given sheets of asbestos and treated timber poles which they could
use to erect "temporary structures" which they would be allowed to live in
for one year while they built their permanent homes. Oh dear, I am just left
utterly speechless.
As things get worse and worse in Zimbabwe, more
and more people are seeing the truth about what has really been going on here
and are speaking out, and for this we give thanks. We thank the South African
Council of Churches who have launched Operation Hope for Zimbabwe to assist
the 700 000 people made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina. We thank
Nigerian poet and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka who this week said that: "A
great revolutionary... a liberation fighter has become a monster." Soyinka
said that African leaders should have the courage to sanction Zimbabwe - by
refusing to give it loans. And we thank the UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka
for her report, her voice and her courageous words which speak for millions
here who are voiceless. We thank the people of New Zealand for their protests
on our behalf and we thank Zimbabweans in exile in countries all over the
world for not having forgotten us. Until next week, with love
cathy Copyright cathy buckle 23 July 2005. http://africantears.netfirms.com
Mugabe asks China for $1bn food
loan President Robert Mugabe flew to China yesterday to ask for a $1 billion
loan to end Zimbabwe's food and fuel shortages. The visit came days after
Mugabe's officials went to South Africa, to be told that any aid from there
would be tied to conditions for reform. Mugabe hopes to get better terms
from China which is unlikely to be concerned about human rights issues, said
economists in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
24.07.2005 - 04:03 BEIJING (Reuters) - Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe will meet top Chinese leaders during a six-day
visit, the People's Daily said on Sunday, amid efforts to secure alternative
credit lines as western nations snub the southern African
nation.
Mugabe, whose government critics blame for a crippling
economic crisis, would meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, number two in the
Communist hierarchy Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao, the paper said. It
did not say what would be discussed.
The Zimbabwe president
would also visit Changchun, the capital of northeastern Jilin province, it
said.
Mugabe, who arrived in Beijing on Saturday, is accompanied by
his central bank head and senior government ministers, according to Zimbabwe
state media.
The visit comes days after Mugabe's spokesman said
the government was exploring alternative lines of credit with countries such
as China and Malaysia as it grapples with Zimbabwe's worst economic crisis
in decades.
Unemployment is above 70 percent, inflation is in
triple digits and there are acute shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel.
South African newspapers have reported that Zimbabwe --
saddled with around $4.5 billion (2.6 billion pounds) in foreign debt -- was
seeking a $1 billion loan from its neighbour.
Mugabe's
spokesman George Charamba told Reuters on Friday Zimbabwe had also
approached India, China and Iran for financial help with infrastructure and
energy projects.
On the day Mugabe left Harare, the United Nations
released a damning report on his government's controversial demolitions of
urban slums, which the global body said had left some 700,000 people without
homes or livelihoods and affected another 2.4 million.
Mugabe,
in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies critics'
accusations his government's policies, including the forcible redistribution
of white-owned commercial farms to blacks, have destroyed a once-booming
economy.
He says former colonial power Britain has led domestic and
foreign opponents of his land reforms in sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy,
which has contracted by more than 30 percent since 1999.
By Paul
Themba Nyathi Last updated: 07/24/2005 12:01:29 "THE MDC welcomes with
great relief the report by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
special envoy Mrs Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka presented in New York on Friday 21
July 2005. The report confirms what every Zimbabwean has always known, the
vindictive, callous sceptical disregard of human rights, dignity and good
governance on the part of the Harare regime.
The action taken by the
Zimbabwe government against thousands of Zimbabweans commencing on the 19
May 2005 under the inappropriately named Operation Murambatsvina was an ill
thought and malicious attack on the poor Zimbabweans that have seen the
destruction of homes, businesses and left many homeless and without any
means of sustenance. The report also confirms that more than 700 000,00
people were affected by the operation.
The extent of the Zimbabwean
crisis as exposed by the United Nations report, the fact that 80% of
Zimbabweans live under the poverty datum line, the fact that the nations has
endured 8 years of successive economic decline means that the regime has
failed. Under normal circumstances in any other decent country, the regime
would have resigned. The most respect that this regime can do to the people
of Zimbabwe is to resign and let Zimbabweans agree to make a new
constitution by them for them which would lead eventually to free and fair
elections under the international supervision.
Now that the report has
been presented, the real work of the United Nations and the International
Community has begun. It now remains to be seen whether the report will be
shelved in the Secretary General's office where it will gather dust or it
will be the catalyst for the decisive action and reprimand that so many
Zimbabweans have been asking the United Nations to take against the regime.
The report is an indictment against the regime but more than that has
exposed the humanitarian extent of the crisis in Zimbabwe. The United Nations
is the fore being challenged to act and hopefully it will rise to the
challenge. Equally, we also wait to see the response of the regional
countries such as South Africa and others, many of which to the average
Zimbabweans have been seen as supporters and 'camaraderie' of the Harare
regime.
Surely the report presents an opportunity to those governments to
make a decisive break with the past relations of collusion with the Harare
regime. The United Nations record on Africa has been less than satisfactory.
One recalls the massacres of the Tutees by Hutus in Rwanda in July 1994. One
recalls the recent horror scenes of the war in Southern Sudan's Darfur
region where thousands were killed by the Janjaweed militia. One recalls the
war in the Democratic Republic and in Liberia where many Africans feel that
something could have been done by the United Nations.
Zimbabwe thus
represents an opportunity to the United Nations of re-legitimizing its moral
leadership as a consistent multinational body. We therefore wait to see the
United Nations' response. Paul Themba Nyathi is the information and publicity
secretary for the MDC
By Staff
Reporter Last updated: 07/24/2005 12:00:00 TWO supporters of Zimbabwean
tyrant, Robert Mugabe, brutally hacked to death an opposition activist
before burying his body in a shallow grave.
The men -- Edmore Mapanje,
43, and Langton Tsamwisi, 37 -- were starting 25 year jail terms in a
Zimbabwe jail last Friday after being convicted of the killing in the run-up
to a presidential election three years.
A Zimbabwe court heard Atmos
Makomere, 60, was brutally killed "over political differences".
The
two then buried his body in a shallow grave in Jerera, southern Zimbabwe in
January 2002.
State prosecutors were careful to avoid identifying the two
men as Mugabe's supporters.
The incident took place two months ahead
of hotly-contested presidential elections, pitting President Robert Mugabe
against archrival Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC said Atmos Makomere had been
incorrectly named as Atnos Mapingure by the MDC in its "roll of honour", a
list of party supporters killed over the past five years.
The roll of
honour says Mapingure was killed in Jerera in 2002. "He was killed by
Zanu-PF supporters. The person is the same, I'm 100% sure," said the
official, who requested anonymity.
Justice Samuel Kudya did not impose
the death penalty on the two men because "the political environment
prevailing at the time of the murder was an extenuating factor because
tension was extremely high in the pre-election period".
The sentences
are the first significant ones to be handed down as punishment for
politically-motivated violence that marred the run-up to parliamentary
elections in 2000, as well as the presidential polls two years
later.
Zimbabwe is deeply divided between Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party
and the opposition MDC, which posed the biggest challenge to Mugabe's hold on
power when it narrowly lost parliamentary elections in 2000
Last week I wrote about Mugabe being under siege.
Looking back at subsequent events I am beginning to wonder if we are not now
seeing a carefully coordinated attack on the regime.
As I write this
President Mugabe is in China with his begging bowl out in force. George
Charamba - the Presidents spokesperson at home says they have approached
several countries including India for urgent financial assistance. This is
despite the fact that it would appear from reports that South Africa has
already made an offer of a comprehensive "rescue package" to the Zimbabwe
government.
If it is true that South Africa broached the subject when the
Vice President visited Mugabe on the 12th July and that this was subsequently
followed by detailed negotiations in Pretoria in the week that followed, then
I can see little real sense in this sudden rush overseas to try and raise
additional (or alternative) funding? In fact the actions of the Mugabe regime
suggest real panic.
It would appear that the South Africans have made
an offer with stringent conditions attached to it - negotiate with the MDC,
restore the rule of law and press freedom and stop Murambatsvina. In addition
a range of equally tough economic reforms could be listed as conditions for
any funding - I can imagine what they are as well - exchange rate and
interest rate alignment with the market, stringent controls over government
borrowing and a lifting of price controls and a reduction in State subsidies
to key parastatals.
When the Americans sorted out Ian Smith in September
1976, the exercise was preceded by a carefully managed series of
consultations and consensus building by the major powers. On this occasion
Henry Kissenger was "point man". When the South African government was
brought to the negotiating table by the UK government in 1989, it followed a
similar exercise and careful planning with Mrs. Thatcher as the "point man".
On this occasion it looks increasingly as if the major powers are working
with South Africa on the issue and with Mbeki as "point man'.
What we
have seen over the period leading up to the G8 summit and its aftermath has
been a coordinated attempt to ensure that Mugabe has nowhere to go but to
Pretoria for the help he needs to avoid a total internal collapse of his
regime. If this is true he will come away from China with little to show for
his efforts except some flowery promises and token assistance in financial
terms - probably tied. Their approach to India will receive little publicity
or attention. Mugabe will be forced to come home and face Mbeki with nowhere
else to go.
Charamba bravely or foolishly claims they will not accept aid
that is tied to any conditions. He may be right, in which case we are in for
a very rough time. But I do not think that this regime has the residual
strength left to resist any serious offer of help - no matter what the
conditions are, beggars cannot be choosers.
So we look forward, as we
have so often in the past, to a week when our fortunes and futures will again
be on the line and in other people's hands. That is what happens when you
fail to manage your own affairs properly.
If we are in the midst of the
skilful execution of a coordinated strategy by the major powers what might
the outcome be? It looks pretty grim from a Zanu PF perspective. They are
deeply divided with two main factions - both led by strong men who have
little chance of ever winning a national election. Munangagwa who could not
even win in his own backyard against a virtual unknown candidate from the MDC
against whom he has now lost twice. Retired General Mujuru who has never run
for public office and has a very small regional base and is now getting on in
years.
Mugabe himself is clearly now identified as being the main
obstacle to progress and with his declining authority in the Party and in the
country, will be in no position to really defend his own position. His vice
President could never hope to replace him and was probably appointed to
block Munangagwa more than anything else.
South Africa found its own
way back from the wilderness via a national all parties' constitutional
process and Zanu PF would find it almost impossible to avoid such an outcome
here. They are already committed to constitutional reform and can hardly
oppose any agreement that simply puts this exercise into a national context
rather than a parochial one based on Zanu PF's own interests.
If they
have to agree to restore the rule of law and the freedoms of the press and
association - they are dead anyway. The former will sweep away much of what
they have been trying to do in the past 6 years and the latter would open the
flood gates of public opposition and pressure.
They are trying
desperately to split the MDC and to try and weaken its position in the
country and the region, but with little success. I have seen some of the
latest swipes at the MDC and quite frankly they are so absurd as to be funny.
The charade taking place in the High Court in Harare where Mudede is still
trying to hide the evidence of poll rigging in the 2002 Presidential
elections is yet another symptom of panic.
The reforms required by the
international community to our economic policies will derail the gravy train
and the passengers thereon will abandon Zanu PF and then stand alongside the
wreck with the rest of us and pretend they never supported that collection of
sorry rogues!
The toughest question will be who can run the country while
we work out a new constitution and try to get things here back to normal? To
do the latter we would have to finance and source up to 2 million tonnes of
food, stabilize domestic markets for everything else from liquid fuels
to medicines, get the public media under some sort of non partisan
and professional management and control. We would also have to replace much
of the Bench in the Court system, the majority of senior Police Officers,
the leadership of the army and the air force and bring the CIO out into the
open and under control.
We would also have to rebuild the managements
and leadership of all the major public institutions and parastatals and make
efforts to stop the looting of State assets and the flight of capital.
Restoring public confidence in the government and in the private sector would
be essential to any sort of turn around. That is a tall order and it is
certain that our present collection of failed Ministers and geriatrics are
simply not up to it so we will need some sort of transitional authority -
that may be the biggest hurdle.
Zanu may recognize that they have
nowhere else to go and the end of their world is in sight and we may yet be
surprised. But I would not bet on it, there will be a fight; hopefully they
cannot win this one because at last the region may be on the "good guys side"
for once.
SA to bail-out Harare to avoid inheriting crisis: Mbeki Mon
25 July 2005 HARARE - South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday said
his government was considering loaning Zimbabwe money for fear it could
inherit a massive humanitarian crisis if its troubled northern neighbour
collapsed.
Commenting publicly for the first time on reports that
Zimbabwe had requested for a US$1 billion bailout, Mbeki said the proposed
financial rescue package would also include assisting Harare settle its
outstanding debts with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid
expulsion.
Mbeki, who was addressing a media conference, also said
Pretoria will discuss with the United Nations (UN) how to respond to
Zimbabwe's latest humanitarian crisis triggered by a controversial urban
clean-up campaign that left about 700 000 people in the streets without food
or clean water.
"We engage them because we don't want Zimbabwe
collapsing next door.. South Africa would inherit all the consequences of
Zimbabwe collapsing," said Mbeki, considered by many to wield enough
political and economic influence to pressure President Robert Mugabe to
embrace democracy and to abandon his controversial policies.
The South African leader confirmed Press reports that his Finance Minister,
Trevor Manuel and South African Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni, had met
Zimbabwe officials for loan talks.
Mbeki said his
government was looking at a rescue package that would benefit all
Zimbabweans, adding that once there was a "good sense" of the outcome of
ongoing negotiations, Pretoria would also consult Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Zimbabwe, grappling its
worst economic crisis since independence from Britain 25 years ago, wants
hard cash from South Africa to ease food and fuel shortages threatening to
bring the crisis-sapped country to a complete halt.
Mugabe and
his top officials are this week scheduled to hold talks with Chinese leaders
also to ask for financial assistance.
Mbeki said Pretoria was not
only looking at helping Zimbabwe surmount immediate problems saying any
economic assistance provided by his government would aim at addressing "the
totality of the Zimbabwean economy."
It was also crucial to ensure
Zimbabwe was not expelled by the IMF for nonpayment of debt. "It (IMF
expulsion) creates a bigger problem that is going to require bigger
resources to solve," Mbeki said.
"Our own view is that indeed it is
important to address those arrears so that Zimbabwe continues to have the
possibility to access the IMF in terms of what it has to do in regard to its
economy. Quite how that will be done is part of what is under discussion,"
he added.
The IMF cut financial assistance to Zimbabwe six years
ago after disagreeing with Mugabe on fiscal policy and other governance
issues.
The board of the IMF is widely expected to vote to expel
Zimbabwe when it meets next month, a move that analysts say would be the
last signal to other multilateral institutions, development agencies and
donor groups to cut off whatever little aid is still trickling to
Harare.
Reacting to a UN report on the Zimbabwe government's
controversial urban slum clearance campaign, Mbeki said South Africa would
discuss with the world body on possible solutions to humanitarian problems
caused by the clean-up campaign.
"We will engage the UN itself
to say what programmes do they propose to respond to their own
recommendations," said Mbeki.
The South African government will
meet South African Council of Churches leaders, who have visited Zimbabwe to
assess humanitarian needs there, to work out a relief plan for the country,
Mbeki said. - ZimOnline
US envoy tells African leaders to crack whip on Mugabe Mon
25 July 2005
GABORONE - Outgoing United States ambassador to
Botswana Joseph Huggins has urged African leaders to be more outspoken
against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial policies and poor
human rights record.
Huggins, who leaves Gaborone at the end of
this month after completing his tour of duty, also expressed disappointment
with African leaders for failing to speak out against Mugabe's policies
blamed for reducing the once promising country to a
basket-case.
He said the time had come for African leaders
particularly in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to
speak out against the injustices perpetrated on ordinary Zimbabweans by
Mugabe's government.
"We really want to see the situation change
for the better in Zimbabwe. Our issue is with the government of Zimbabwe not
the ordinary Zimbabweans, that is why we continue to be involved in the
fight against HIV/AIDS in that country," Huggins said.
Huggins
said he regretted that both SADC and the African Union (AU) had not done
enough to ameliorate the Zimbabwean political crisis choosing to shield the
veteran Zimbabwean leader from international censure.
Mugabe is
under renewed international pressure after the United Nations released a
damning report condemning his urban clean-up campaign under which he
demolished thousands of city backyard cottages and shantytowns casting about
700 000 people onto the streets without food or clean water.
Harare has defended the home demolition campaign saying it was necessary to
smash crime and to restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's cities and
towns.
But the UN demanded the campaign halted saying it had
caused untold suffering on Zimbabweans. The world body also called on Harare
to bring to book all officials behind the clean-up drive. -
ZimOnline
Labour body mulls crippling job boycotts Mon 25 July
2005
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is
considering economically crippling mass job boycotts next month to protest
worsening conditions for workers, sources close to the union told ZimOnline
at the weekend.
The sources said the powerful union's leaders
were under immense pressure from workers hardest hit by food, electricity
and fuel shortages to call the work boycotts to press the government to act
to arrest the economic meltdown.
ZCTU secretary general
Wellington Chibebe confirmed there was growing anger among workers over
deepening social and economic hardships. The ZCTU official said there was no
formal decision yet to call a mass job stayaway but added the union's
leadership would be guided on the matter by workers.
"I cannot say
much about that but if my employers (workers) call for the mass action,
definitely we will fulfill their wishes," said Chibebe.
But the
sources insisted workers had already told Chibebe and other ZCTU leaders to
call mass work boycotts and that the general mood in the union's top
decision-making general council was for the job action to press for a
solution to worker problems.
Chibebe himself said as much telling
ZimOnline that ongoing wage negotiations would not lessen the plight of
workers as few companies could award salary and wage increments to match
Zimbabwe's galloping inflation.
"I am sure mass action is the only
solution to the national crisis because wage negotiations would not yield
anything. Our economy is actually down and those running high offices have
totally run out of ideas," said Chibebe.
Zimbabwe is grappling
its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain 25 years ago.
Annualised inflation, which retreated from 622.8 percent in January 2004 to
164.3 percent in June this year, remains among the highest such rates in the
world.
Unemployment is estimated at 70 percent while four million
people or about a quarter of Zimbabwe's population face starvation unless
donor agencies provide 1.2 million tonnes of food aid.
Fuel,
electricity, essential medical drugs and several other basic commodities are
in short supply because there is no hard cash to pay foreign
suppliers.
The International Monetary Fund earlier this month
said a controversial urban clean-up campaign that saw close to a million
people cast onto the streets without food, water or means of livelihood had
further clouded Zimbabwe's economic outlook.
The ZCTU has in
the past successfully organised similar job stayaways to push for worker
rights. But a mass job stayaway that was led by the National Constitutional
Assembly civic alliance and was also supported by the ZCTU flopped two
months ago. -ZimOnline
MANY families
have been forced to drop basic foods and healthcare requirements as prices
of basic commodities continue to soar.
According to the Community Working
Group on Health (CWGH), a proper health basket should constitute food,
healthcare, public health inputs and hygiene products. Health care does
not only include treatment of diseases but also encompasses preventive
measures and promotion of good health. But because of the ever-escalating
costs of basics in the country, many families are now living below the
poverty datum line (PDL), and have since stopped using a variety of hygienic
products such as soap, toothpaste, toilet rolls and disinfectants. They now
consider such items a luxury. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ)
estimates that on average a family of six requires at least $4,2 million per
month to suit the country's economic environment. According to CWGH,
families now resort to old newspapers for toilet paper, salt and water
instead of toothpaste and ruredzo (practice prevalent in rural areas) as a
substitute for soap because the prices of basic hygiene products have gone
far beyond their reach. A bar of washing soap costs an average of $40 000,
while a tablet of bathing soap now goes for at least $20 000. Few
individuals can afford disinfectants any longer. The majority of Zimbabweans
are using water only to clean bathrooms and toilets as the cost of toilet
cleaners has shot up to about $15 000. Prices of women's sanitary products
have also skyrocketed, to such an extent that women are opting for washable
alternatives which can be used more than once. In an ideal situation, they
would use disposable sanitary ware, which does not expose them to
reproductive health complications. "One indication of cost stress is when
households stop buying items, due to prohibitive costs or other factors,"
noted CWGH. Good nutrition has the capacity to prolong and improve quality of
life. Food is a co-therapy to drugs for any ailments. The immune system
depends on nutrition. In actual fact, health conditions such as candida, loss
of appetite, weight loss, fever and heartburn can be managed by a good diet.
However, a balanced diet is no longer a necessity but a luxury because of
prohibitive costs. CWGH noted that some households have dropped other foods
they believe are a luxury - such as meat, eggs, fresh milk, butter and
cooking oil, opting for used fats from food outlets.
Turn to Page
2
Soya minces now dominate many tables for supper while lemon tea takes
centre stage during breakfast, not out of choice but because the families
cannot afford fresh milk. The organisation also noted a reduction in
number of people seeking medical treatment owing to financial
constrains. In the past people used to go for regular medical checkup, but
now because of the costs incurred during the medical examination, very few
people can afford to part with such hefty amounts. A visit to the doctor now
costs about $150 000, but many people are not on medical aid and cannot
afford emergency treatment. People now prefer to seek medical treatment
only when they recognise signs and symptoms of a particular infection or
virus posing them to complications. As if it is not enough, according to
CWGH, some people have also stopped purchasing necessary drugs for chronic
diseases such as anti-Hypertension, antidiabetic and anti asthma
drugs. Said CWGH "There are potential health implications in these changes.
Without adequate hygiene products the risk of water borne and diarrhoea
disease increases. The fallout of high-energy foods like beans and peanut
butter particularly affects children who need these foods to secure adequate
energy for growth. "The costs of these problems to households and the
healthcare system is potentially larger than the costs of the items
foregone." The Department of Health Services in the City of Harare also noted
that last year, service provision in many sections of the department such as
dental, maternity and clinic visits decreased compared to the previous year
because of financial constraints. In some cases, patients failed to raise
transport fares to clinics while others could not meet medical fees required
for them to access treatment. Soya minces now dominate many tables for supper
while lemon tea takes centre stage during breakfast, not out of choice but
because the families cannot afford fresh milk. The organisation also
noted a reduction in the number of people seeking medical treatment, for
lack of money. In the past people used to go for regular medical check-up,
but now because of the high fees for medical examination, very few people
can afford to part with such hefty amounts. A visit to the doctor now costs
about $150 000, but many people are not on medical aid and cannot afford
emergency treatment. People now prefer to seek medical treatment only when
they recognise signs and symptoms of a particular infection or virus, thus
exposing them to complications. As if it is not enough, according to
CWGH, some people have also stopped buying necessary drugs for chronic
diseases such as anti-hypertension, anti-diabetic and anti- asthma
drugs. Said CWGH: "There are potential health implications in these changes.
Without adequate hygiene products the risk of water borne and diarrhoeal
disease increases. The fallout of high-energy foods like beans and peanut
butter particularly affects children who need these foods to secure adequate
energy for growth. ". The costs of these problems to households and the
health care system is potentially larger than the costs of the items
foregone." The Department of Health Services in the City of Harare also noted
that last year, service provision in many sections of the department such as
dental, maternity and clinic visits decreased compared to the previous year
because of money problems. In some cases, patients failed to raise
transport fares to clinics, while others could not meet medical fees
required for them to access treatment.
THE
police, army and Harare city council have for the past two days been
removing squatters at Porta Farm who had vowed to stay put in defiance of
council orders to vacate the area. On Saturday morning, The Daily Mirror
witnessed soldiers and police in army and police vehicles driving onto the
farm. In an interview yesterday council spokesperson Leslie Gwindi said:
"They are being taken to different places such as Hopley. Those people were
told a long time ago that they should move" Some of the settlers at Porta
had remained there when others evicted during the cleanup, while others who
had been removed returned. The squatters' lawyer Alec Muchadehama of Mbizo,
Muchadehama and Makoni said security forces were destroying dwellings and
relocating people. "They came with graders yesterday and they are destroying
everything. People are being asked to state where they want to go. Those who
have nowhere to go have run away into the bush while others are stranded
along the Bulawayo road. They are forcibly moving the people. They are
saying court order or no court order, people should move away," said
Muchadehama. Meanwhile, the squatters last Tuesday lodged an appeal in the
Supreme Court against a High Court ruling dismissing their urgent chamber
application seeking the imprisonment of ministers Ignatius Chombo, Kembo
Mohadi, police commissioner Augustine Chihuri and the chairperson of the
commission administering Harare Sekesai Makwavarara, for contempt of
court. Last week, Justice Tedius Karwi dismissed the squatters' application
without giving reasons. In the appeal, Muchadehama representing Felistus
Chinyuku and other Porta families argued that the judge had erred in
dismissing the application without explanation. Muchadehama argued that
the judge also "failed in not realising that the applicants were properly
before him." Reads the appeal in part: "The court. failed in not appreciating
that all the respondents were aware of existing court orders before they
demolished the appellants' residences. Not withstanding the said knowledge,
respondents had proceeded to demolish the appellants' residences and
forcibly evicting them. "The respondents were clearly guilty of contempt
of court and none of them had defence to offer. It is submitted that the
court. seriously failed in not taking into account what was decided in other
cases regarding what contempt of court entails." Muchadehama implored the
Supreme Court to set aside the High Court ruling. ".The appellants pray that
the court's order be set aside and in its place the following be
substituted: - The respondents be and are hereby declared to be in contempt
of court. Each of the respondents is sentenced to 30 days imprisonment. Each
of the respondents is sentenced to a further 30 days' imprisonment with
labour the whole of which is suspended on condition they purge their
contempt," he said. The High Court in 1991 barred the eviction of Porta Farm
residents until an alternative place was found for them (case number
HC3177/91). At the time, Judge Wilson Sandura ruled: "The applicants are
entitled to inhabit their dwellings until they are relocated to suitable
permanent homes. "That the respondent is interdicted from demolishing the
applicants' dwellings or evicting them." The squatters argue that
Sandura's ruling still stands and expected Chombo, Mohadi, Chihuri and
Makwavarara to comply with that order. After police demolished the squatters'
shacks, they were transferred to Caledonia transit camp, but barely two
weeks later they retraced their way back to Porta Farm.
LOCAL
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has ordered Chitungwiza Municipality to
reinstate suspended Town Clerk Simbarashe Mudunge, dismissing as "baseless"
allegations that he misused funds for upgrading the town's sewer
system. The $230 million fund was provided by the Ministry of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing during the run-up to the March
parliamentary elections. The Daily Mirror has it on good authority that
Mudunge reported for work last Thursday following Chombo's directive to that
effect. But Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko advised Mudunge that he would
communicate to him formally before he could resume duty. "Shoko told him
that since he (Mudunge) was suspended formally, the council was also going
to reinstate him formally," said a municipal top insider. Chombo
yesterday criticised the dormitory town administrators for suspending
Mudunge over funds which were not theirs in the first place. "Chitungwiza
has no right whatsoever to suspend Mudunge on allegations of misusing our
funds. It is us who gave them that money to upgrade their sewer system and
there was no reason for them to claim that Mudunge did not follow council
procedures yet we were the paying authority," he said. "We hired workers,
trenches were dug and pipes were purchased, so the money did what it was
supposed to do," Chombo added. Asked about the perennial sewage problem, the
minister said: "That is something else now. But our money did what it was
supposed to do." Chombo said as far as he was concerned, Mudunge's case was
over unless the municipality had something against him. Collin Gwiyo, who
chaired the council's investigation committee set by the mayor, said he was
not aware of Mudunge's reinstatement. Gwiyo said they were supposed to meet
Mudunge's lawyer this week to proceed with the investigations. He said
their previous two meetings had failed because initially Mudunge did not
turn up, and the other time he was not feeling well. "According to my
committee, Mudunge is still on suspension and we are yet to meet with his
lawyer next week," he said. Shoko could not be reached on his mobile phone by
the time of going to press.
TRADITIONAL leaders will hold
cleansing ceremonies in their areas in September, in a bid to appease the
spirits of fallen heroes and avert further economic and social
malaise. Deliberating at the Fourth Chiefs' National Annual Conference in
Mutare, the traditional leaders unanimously agreed to individually preside
over the rituals in their respective jurisdictions in accordance with their
culture on dates yet to be finalised. Chiefs Council president Fortune
Charumbira said the decision stemmed from the belief that the country's
economic crisis and misfortunes were a result of failures by chiefs and the
government to hold such a ritual since independence from Britain 25 years
ago. "The issue of a bira (cleansing ceremony) has dominated all chiefs'
gatherings since 1980 but with no concrete resolution. We are now glad that
a decision has finally been made. We hope every chief is going to abide by
the decision regardless of religion," stressed Charumbira. "The idea is
to appease the spirits of our fallen heroes to rid the nation of the
prevailing economic woes and general misfortunes," the former local
government deputy minister added. Prolonged delays in adopting the
initiative, he explained, had seen the country slowly sinking into the
problems it found itself in today. Charumbira, however, expressed unreserved
disappointment over the increasing number of bogus spirit mediums
approaching the government to cleanse the country of "bad omens". "Some
of these people had even claimed to be spirit mediums of Mbuya Nehanda and
Sekuru Kaguvi in an attempt to lure the government fund their proposed
rituals but in vain," Charumbira said. Echoing Charumbira's sentiments were
officials from the President's Office, Local Government and Zanu PF
headquarters who roundly castigated some unscrupulous chiefs for trying to
hijack the bira initiative for their own selfish reasons. They said what
made the pretenders' claims suspicious, was the nature of their demands as
some of them asked for things never heard of when appeasing spirits in
accordance with African culture. Over 200 chiefs from across the country
attended the Indaba.
Zim police force homeless from settlement July 24 2005
at 02:09PM
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare - Armed members
of the police and army swooped on one of Harare's largest informal
settlements on Saturday, forcing thousands living among the ruins of their
homes to leave and go to the rural areas.
The forced removals began
hours after the United Nations issued a report blaming President Robert
Mugabe's administration for making up to 750 000 people homeless in the past
two months and said the demolitions and evictions had to cease.
More than 40 armed members of the security forces descended on Porta Farm,
about 20km west of Harare, and camped there overnight until reinforcements
arrived on Saturday. The forces moved around the ruins telling people to be
ready to go.
"If we are not out by six tonight, they
have told us they will bring in the dogs," said Yvonne Bosha, 27, mother of
three children. "They broke our houses in May, and we ran away, but we came
back because we have nowhere else to go. I have been here since I was a
child, I have no rural home."
Felicitus Chinyuku, 65, said: "I am
looking after five grandchildren here because my daughter died. I have no
rural home, I want to fix the house they destroyed and live here. Help us
please."
Porta Farm became a transit camp 15 years ago when Mugabe
cleared out street people ahead of the Harare Commonwealth Summit and
pledged to provide formal housing for them. The transit camp remained and
grew and Porta Farm became an established settlement as many people
transformed plastic shelters into small brick houses.
Mike
Davies, the chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents Association, who
visited Porta Farm on Saturday to see the evictions, said about 15 000
people were affected. "It goes on and on. This regime is illegitimate as it
is at war against its own people."
Security forces were waiting for
army trucks to arrive to take people away. A long line of troop carriers
were en route to the camp by mid morning.
"So where must I go?
I was born in Mozambique, but I have been here all my life," said a
grey-haired man, walking among the rubble.
A young woman said: "My
parents were Malawians, but I was born here, I have no rural home to go
to."
Otto Saki of Lawyers for Human Rights said on Saturday that
"these people have several court orders allowing them to remain. Their
eviction is illegal and inhuman."
A human rights activist from
Bulawayo, who asked not to be named, said all churches in the city housing
refugees from the demolitions had been cleared since police moved in before
dawn last Wednesday. They were taken to a transit camp, a formerly
white-owned farm, Helensvale, 30km away.
"Now they are being taken
from Helensvale and dumped in the bush. People have been told that if they
don't provide the name of a rural area to which they can go, they are told
they will be imprisoned.
"People born outside Zimbabwe are told
that they will be sent to a farm in the Mashonaland province and will never
be allowed to leave it. Or they are told they will be dropped in the Zambezi
River." - Foreign Service
This article was originally
published on page 2 of Sunday Independent on July 24, 2005
Mugabe hoping to side-step Mbeki and Annan July 24 2005
at 10:47AM
By Basildon Peta and Joe Lauria
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe went to China this weekend in a bid to stave off
strong international action in response to a damning United Nations report
about his government's controversial Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out
Trash).
The South African government remained tight-lipped on its
plans for Zimbabwe on Saturday, saying President Thabo Mbeki would clarify
its stance on Sunday. South Africa is reported to be taking a tougher line
against it neighbour.
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, the special
envoy of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, reported on Friday that
Zimbabwe's operation to demolish and bulldoze slums and shanty-towns was a
"disastrous venture". It had left 700 000 people homeless or jobless and
affected at least 2,4 million poor people.
"It
breached both national and international human rights law provisions guiding
evictions, thereby precipitating a humanitarian crisis," she added,
demanding the government pay compensation to those affected.
Annan
said the clean-up campaign had done "a catastrophic injustice" to its
victims. He called on Mugabe's government "to stop these forced evictions
and demolitions immediately, and to ensure that those who orchestrated this
ill-advised policy are held fully accountable for their
actions".
Yet, a day later, Mugabe's government continued with
forced evictions from Harare's main informal settlement, Porta
Farm.
Annan also called on the Zimbabwean government to allow
unhindered access to the international community to provide relief to those
left destitute and to start a dialogue among its own people and the
international community "to address Zimbabwe's serious social, economic and
political problems".
Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary,
said the report called for a strong response from the UN security council,
which has the power to order sanctions or to take Zimbabwe to the
International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. Mugabe hopes to persuade
Chinese President Hu Jintao to use his clout as a permanent veto-wielding
member of the security council to block such action, Zimbabwean officials
said.
They said Mugabe is also hoping to avoid South African
intervention by asking Hu for a $1-billion (R6,7-billion) loan to buy
fast-dwindling essentials such as fuel and food.
The South
African government is understood to have offered Mugabe's government such a
loan. But it has demanded significant political and economic reforms from
Zimbabwe as conditions for the loan, which Mugabe would like to
avoid.
This has been interpreted as a shift from South Africa's
widely criticised "quiet diplomacy".
The cabinet discussed the
loan at its extended lekgotla this week and Mbeki is expected to go public
on the outcome on Sunday in a press conference.
Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Saturday the
condemnation in a report "authored by a black African commissioned by an
African head of the UN", had left Mugabe with no more room to dismiss all
criticism of his policies as a plot by the former colonial power,
Britain.
"In a nutshell, it's time to make these criminals [Mugabe
and company] answerable to their crimes at the ICC," said Paul Temba Nyathi,
the MDC spokesperson.
Even the Zimbabwean government was
shocked by the report, according to officials, as it was authored by an
organisation that had hitherto supported the country.
"We did
not expect... such harsh condemnation," said a senior Zimbabwean foreign
ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But, despite
the strong condemnations, UN sources believe Britain will struggle to get
the security council to take strong action. Some UN sources believe the
security council may take up the report this week, but others believe the
African members, China and others will prevent this.
They note that
Tibaijuka herself recommended a mainly humanitarian response from the UN,
leaving the legal responsibility to the Zimbabwean courts to prosecute those
responsible. Significantly, she pointed the finger of blame at officials,
rather than the government itself.
"It will be very difficult to
get it on the council agenda," said an African diplomat, noting that the
report had been commissioned by the secretary-general, not the
council.
Annan would need to be assured of a majority in the
council before attempting to bring it to them, he said. So far there has
been no reaction from security council members other than Britain. And
Zimbabwe is expected to lobby not only China - which has already spoken out
against the council interfering in Zimbabwe's internal affairs - but two
other council members, Russia and France, which has been more sympathetic
than Britain and the United States.
The security council can
refer cases of domestic human rights abuses to the ICC as crimes against
humanity. In March, it referred Sudan to the ICC over the Darfur
crisis.
But, though Tibaijuka's report said that "forcibly
uprooting hundreds of thousands of its citizens from their homes, meets the
ICC's criteria of a 'crime against humanity'," she suggested that Operation
Murambatsvina did not qualify.
However, she stressed this was
only a preliminary opinion and "it remains up to the secretary-general to
decide whether an independent and more thorough investigation is
warranted".
She added that an international debate on whether to
refer Zimbabwe to the ICC would be "acrimonious and protracted" and would
distract the world from providing humanitarian assistance.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's foreign minister, said the report was
biased and exaggerated the number of people affected.
"Throughout
the report submissions by the government are consistently referred to as
'allegations', 'claims' or 'rhetoric', while those of the opposition and
traditional government critics are explicitly or impliedly taken as
statements of fact." - Foreign Service
This article was
originally published on page 2 of Sunday Independent on July 24, 2005
Zim closes camp for homeless 24/07/2005 13:13 -
(SA)
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has closed down a holding camp
where nearly 5 000 people made homeless by a controversial demolition
campaign have been held for the past two months, a state- controlled
newspaper reported on Sunday.
Caledonia Transit Centre, where
conditions have been described as "inhuman" by some independent observers,
was closed down on Saturday although some of the families are still there,
the Sunday Mail reported.
The closure of the camp, situated on the
outskirts of the capital Harare comes two days after a UN report condemned
the demolition campaign as a "disastrous venture" that has left at least 700
000 people homeless and jobless.
UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who visited
Caledonia as part of a countrywide fact-finding mission earlier this month,
also criticised conditions at the camp.
But the Sunday Mail said 200
destitute people and a "few families" still left at the camp on Saturday
were expected to leave on Sunday or Monday.
Police officer Gumuchirai
Marange told the Sunday Mail that people are being move from the holding
camp in "batches" to rural areas or other suburbs in Harare, while 100
street children were placed under the care of children's
homes.
"Things are above board as the government and non-governmental
organisations are still assisting us" with the relocation exercise, the
police officer was quoted as saying.
The Zimbabwe government says its
programme of demolishing shacks, houses and flea markets deemed illegal was
necessary to curb crime and ease pressure on overburdened
municipalities.
SA can afford $1bn loan to Zimbabwe,
but real cost will be political - analysts
Ayanda
Shezi
Johannesburg - SA can afford to lend Zimbabwe $1bn to service
its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but the financial aid may
carry a huge political cost, economists say. If granted, the loan would be
unprecedented in the history of democratic SA. The IMF is threatening to
expel Zimbabwe for reneging on a $1bn debt. A Zimbabwean delegation, led by
its reserve bank governor Gideon Gono, met Finance Minister Trevor Manuel
and South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni last Friday to ask for
a lifeline. The loan might give SA the financial and political clout to
force President Robert Mugabe and his cabinet to effect political change and
alleviate the economic and humanitarian crisis. Economists all agree that SA
can, without much difficulty, raise $1bn for its neighbour. Government is
sitting on an extra R18,2bn in cash after last year's revenue overrun. But
many South Africans are unlikely to take kindly to government using money
that could be spent on critical local sectors such as health, education and
general service delivery.
SA could, however, go to domestic or
international debt markets to raise the money. SA is regarded as a
net-creditor nation, economists say, and the possible loan to Zimbabwe is an
exceptional case. "We can lend money to Zimbabwe without compromising any
benchmark fiscal indicators," says Standard Bank economist Goolam Ballim.
Should a loan be provided, Ballim says, it would add only less than half a
percentage point to SA's debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio, which
is estimated to be 35,4% in the fiscal year that ends next March. "This is
still noticeably shallower than the 48% state debt-to-GDP ratio in 1995-96,"
Ballim says. "Giving Zimbabwe the money will not make South Africa any more
or less poor." However, the loan involves far more than just the R6,6bn it
equals in local currency terms. "When considering the matter, government
will have to take into account the financial risk, and promoting the broader
interests of the Southern African Development Community," says Brait
economist Colen Garrow. A more prosperous Zimbabwe will reflect positively
on the region. But there is also a possibility that Zimbabwe may never be
able to repay the loan. "That is a risk the government will have to take if
it considers giving them the money," Garrow says.
Last month,
Zimbabwe's Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) paid off its long-term R100m
debt to South African power utility Eskom. The country imports about 4% of
its power from Eskom. The debt had resulted in Zimbabwe being classified an
"interruptible customer" by Eskom, allowing it to cut power if Zesa reneges
on its payments. Zimbabwe could be the second country - after Czechoslovakia
in the 1950s - to be expelled from the IMF for non-compliance. The Czech
government failed then to repay a $306m debt. Ballim says the debate on a
loan to Zimbabwe should be more than just about the effect on SA's fiscus.
The focus on reimbursement is "missing the point", he says. "The
humanitarian element fosters a more considered approach. SA can attach some
political leverage to providing financial assistance to Zimbabwe - and in
this manner possibly fashion a constructive political and economic path for
our neighbour," says Ballim. Which, in less diplomatic terms, means that
through the loan Mugabe will probably be encouraged to "play nicely". China
could come to the aid of Zimbabwe, and would probably demand no more of
Mugabe than that he repay the loan at some time in the future. China is the
only country among the five permanent United Nations Security Council
members that has not expressed outrage at Mugabe's Operation Restore Order.
The Zimbabwean leader visited China this week to seek help.
Harare - Armed members of the police and army
swooped on one of Harare's largest informal settlements yesterday forcing
thousands living among the ruins of their homes to leave and go to the rural
areas. The forced removals began hours after the United Nations issued a
report blaming President Robert Mugabe's administration for making up to 750
000 people homeless in the past two months and said the demolitions and
evictions had to cease. More than 40 armed members of the security forces
descended on Porta Farm, about 20km west of Harare, and camped there
overnight until reinforcements arrived yesterday. The forces moved around
the ruins telling people to be ready to go. "If we are not out by six
tonight, they have told us they will bring in the dogs," said Yvonne Bosha,
27, mother of three children. "They broke our houses in May, and we ran
away, but we came back because we have nowhere else to go. I have been here
since I was a child, I have no rural home." Felicitus Chinyuku, 65, said: "I
am looking after five grandchildren here because my daughter died. I have no
rural home, I want to fix the house they destroyed and live here. Help us
please."
Porta Farm became a transit camp 15 years ago when Mugabe
cleared out street people ahead of the Harare Commonwealth Summit and
pledged to provide formal housing for them. The transit camp remained and
grew and Porta Farm became an established settlement as many people
transformed plastic shelters into small brick houses. Mike Davies, the
chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents Association, who visited Porta
Farm yesterday to see the evictions, said about 15 000 people were affected.
"It goes on and on. This regime is illegitimate as it is at war against its
own people." Security forces were waiting for army trucks to arrive to take
people away. A long line of troop carriers were en route to the camp by mid
morning. "So where must I go? I was born in Mozambique, but I have been here
all my life," said a grey-haired man, walking among the rubble. A young
woman said: "My parents were Malawians, but I was born here, I have no rural
home to go to."
Otto Saki, the Lawyers for Human Rights spokesperson,
said yesterday that "these people have several court orders allowing them to
remain. Their eviction is illegal and inhuman". A human rights activist from
Bulawayo, who asked not to be named, said all churches in the city housing
refugees from the demolitions had been cleared since police moved in before
dawn last Wednesday. They were taken to a transit camp, a formerly
white-owned farm, Helensvale, 30km away. "Now they are being taken from
Helensvale and dumped in the bush. People have been told that if they don't
provide the name of a rural area to which they can go, they are told they
will be imprisoned. "People born outside Zimbabwe are told that they will be
sent to a farm in the Mashonaland province and will never be allowed to
leave it. Or they are told they will be dropped in the Zambezi River."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conrad
Nyamutata was the banned Daily News' first Chief Reporter in March 1999.
Over the years working at the paper which was banned in 2003, Nyamutata's
emotions have gone from ecstasy to utter despair. From his new base in
Leicester, England, he writes movingly about 'The People's Paper', just
denied a publishing licence by Zimbabwean
authorities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By
Conrad Nyamutata Last updated: 07/24/2005 12:03:44 ON MARCH 31, 1999 a
group of journalists, working from an office along Samora Machel Avenue in
central Harare, and bureaus around the country, set out to launch a
newspaper which was to alter the media landscape in Zimbabwe in a big way
for the first time. Led by Geoffrey Nyarota, the blend of reporters combined
youthful enthusiasm and professional experience; bravery (or is it bravado)
and a dedication. In essence, this was a group of risk-takers, considering
the mortality rate of private media ventures. Some had abandoned secure jobs
elsewhere to join a 'newspaper' which was not even in existence at the
time.
Most remembered too that The Daily Gazette, a few years before, had
crumbled in no time, leaving The Herald with a sense of
triumphalism.
I write today in memory of The Daily News as it continues
to wage a spirited battle to re-open. I must say that former information
Minister Jonathan Moyo's recent attack on the Media Information Commission
(MIC) does not give me a modicum of consolation for one moment. Neither does
his inglorious departure. This (MIC) is a dog he knows too well. He created
it, proudly had it on the leash, fed it, trained it, sharpened its teeth and
showed it how to kill. Moyo left but did not take his vicious dog away with
him. The tools of his legacy hang dangerously above.
Again, this is
one man who has somersaulted routinely, spinning into the realms of
inconsistency with carefree abandon.
I hold him personally accountable
for the closure of the newspaper and its sister, The Daily News on Sunday,
and the accompanying agony of hundreds of jobless former employees, not to
mention the suffering we endured as his hands as we tried to provide an
alternative source of information. The MIC chairman Tafataon Mahoso remains
his accessory to the crime.
I have no doubt that posterity will judge
them harshly. But future generations will also learn about the determination
and be inspired by the resilience of this newspaper, and accord it its
rightful place in history.
Media scholars will analyse for themselves the
implications of the State's crude constriction of the public sphere and
democratic space in the political history of our beloved country. When AIPPA
was concieved, I told colleagues that the legislation was drafted by the
devil in the annals of hell. Just diabolical. Its numerous victims - either
as media institutions or individuals - vindicate me. I recall with
immense vividness the day we launched The Daily News, if you can allow me to
relive this fond memory. On the morning of 31 March 1999, we waited with
bated breath for the paper to hit the streets. I must admit we did so with a
great sense of trepidation too, considering the trials and tribulations the
venture had encountered before.
As we anxiously watched from the second
floor building, we eventually saw vendors take delivery of the new paper. In
fact they had little time to do so. As pictorial records will testify,
masses of human bodies virtually buried the vendors as people scrambled for
a copy of the newest media product on the market. I hate chaos but sometimes
there is some rumpus which is just good to watch. This was one of them.
These scenes were replicated all over the place, and for many days,
months.
It was a dawn of a new era. As one of the pioneers at The Daily
News and as its first chief reporter, I recall the launch of newspaper, its
existence and service to the nation as democratic force, with pride. And for
all his perceived faults, Nyarota is by far the most celebrated editor in
our media history. He led The Daily News with the obstinacy of a mule, and
it paid off. His attitude went down to the very lower echelons of the paper,
creating a robust internal spirit.
Soon The Herald and its sponsors
were squirming in their old pants. Like a determined long-distance runner,
the new-kid-on-on-the-block outpaced the 100-year-old government-controlled
daily newspaper in a race of popularity and sales. But the distance was to
be short. Painfully short as we now know.
With a refreshingly incisive,
aggressive and at times abrasive approach, The Daily News crossed swords
with numerous enemies, especially in higher circles. The list of adversaries
within a regime unused to fearless reporting, constant and constructive
criticism, is well recorded. War veterans, the CIO, the army, the
police...Moyo!
A widely-held misconception is that The Daily News was
launched after the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
and hence it is perceived as some surrogate of the opposition party. The
reality is that the MDC was formed months later.
An association with
the MDC, perceived or real, made the paper just as equal an enemy of the
state as the opposition party, like all dissenting voiced are branded by the
regime.
Not surprisingly, the paper's premises were bombed twice and its
staff becoming regular guests of the state. Even after its printing presses
were blown into smithereens, The Daily News - like the proverbial Phoenix -
rose from the ashes of deadly suppression with a buzz of defiance.
To
confirm that the dastardly acts had the tacit approval of the authorities,
the police made no serious effort to apprehend the bombers.
Later on,
almost an entirely new group of people took over The Daily News after
hounded businessman Strive Masiyiwa became the major shareholder. Even these
mafikizolos managed to carry the torch further. But the resolve to wipe this
paper from the face of the earth was just too strong. And then eventually the
State openly descended on it with the force of a hammer; the newspaper was
shut down for defying the draconian and unjust Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) in September 2003.
But the
drawn-out fight by The Daily News to re-open symbolises much more than just
an attempt by business to reintroduce a product on the market. For me, it
transcends the mere desire to re-establish a money-making venture. This is a
struggle for freedom of _expression in Zimbabwe in the widest
sense. True, a number of private newspapers exist in Zimbabwe today. Most
of us would probably discern some semblance of freedom of _expression
because of mere numbers. But we should not be fooled, for pluralism alone
does equate to freedom of _expression. Laws such as AIPPA and the Public
Order and Security Act (POSA), which engender fear and self-censorship,
still hang precariously over the private media.
At The Daily News,
that sense of insecurity and danger created firmer bonds among staff from
all departments. Some members of that great team have departed now. Leopold
Hatugari, John Mauluka, Julius Zava, Todd Hogwe, Shepherd Samasuwo, among
others. RIP. Some have just escaped the persecution.
It is
disheartening that today some journalists from The Daily News still face the
prospect of imprisonment or being heavily fined for operating without
licences. For goodness sake, leave them alone!
The stubborn resistance of
this paper should epitomise not just the struggle for free _expression in
Zimbabwe but instil the never-say-die spirit in the face of seemingly
insurmountable odds, Operation Murambatsvina included. No other newspaper has
demonstrated courage and served the people like The Daily News did. You have
to be made of sterner stuff to be able to publish a day after a bomb has
destroyed your printing presses, as if nothing has happened.
It is
the reason some of us associated with the newspaper from its very beginning
still relate to it with a deep passion. I remember a write-up by Wilf Mbanga
- the first chief executive officer of the paper (now editing The
Zimbabwean), aptly concluding that the demise of The Daily News almost made
him weep. "It's like losing a child," he wrote. I share this sentiment with
him.
Having seen it bounce back before, I am dissuaded from penning an
epitaph for a paper of such resilience. Already chief executive officer Sam
Sipepa Nkomo has indicated they are heading for the High Court. Perhaps the
observations by Moyo against his own dog, the MIC - whatever the motivation
of his opinions - might become relevant.
But I am sure everyone joins
the newspaper in its dogged fight to re-open. I still wonder if it does
open, whether The Daily News - which, to borrow from a famous song, 'lived
its life like a candle in the wind' - can still recapture the spirit of 31
March 1999. This day ought to be remembered and recognised in some
way.
Conrad Nyamutata is a former chief reporter of The Daily News,
living in Leicester, UK. He can be contacted on nyamutata@yahoo.com