BBC
China will 'protect Mugabe at UN'
China will use its
veto to stop the United Nations Security Council
from criticising Zimbabwe's
slum clearance, President Robert Mugabe says.
The UK and the US have
asked the Security Council to discuss the
demolitions, after a UN report
said 700,000 had been made homeless.
Mr Mugabe is on a week-long
visit to China, seeking help with
Zimbabwe's economic crisis and foreign
loans.
He has signed a trade deal with China, of which the contents
remain
unknown.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had
said he would visit Zimbabwe but
has now clarified that this would not
happen until the demolitions end.
'Nonsense'
Despite
pleas for an end to Operation Murambatsvina [Drive Out
Rubbish], riot police
continue to demolish illegally-built structures in the
capital,
Harare.
Mr Mugabe says the demolitions are intended to weed out
criminals and
black-market traders he accuses of bringing down the
economy.
Asked about the moves to discuss the demolitions at the
Security
Council, the state-owned Herald newspaper quotes Mr Mugabe as
saying: "I
know, of course, China will never allow that nonsense to
happen".
Details of the trade deal signed by Mr Mugabe and Chinese
President Hu
Jintao have not been made public but it is expected to involve
loans in
exchange for trade and mineral concessions.
Zimbabwe
has adopted a "Look East" policy since increasing criticism
from the west
for alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Mr Mugabe has
also asked South Africa for help repaying its debts to
avoid expulsion from
the IMF.
Prosecution urged
Last week's UN report said
the campaign violated international law and
Mr Annan himself called it a
"catastrophic injustice" to Zimbabwe's poorest.
The UN report was
compiled by Mr Annan's special envoy, Anna
Tibaijuka, after a two-week
fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
The report found that programme
had been carried out in "an
indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with
indifference to human
suffering".
It said Zimbabwe's government
was collectively responsible, and it
urged prosecution of those who "may
have caused criminal negligence".
But Zimbabwe said the allegations
were "definitely false" and that the
report showed an "in-built
bias".
The Zimbabwean opposition says the evictions are meant to
punish urban
residents, who mostly vote against the government.
27 July 2005
MDC Kwekwe offices destroyed under the illegal “Operation
Murambatsvina”
In spite of the recommendation
given by the United Nations Secretary General’s special envoy to Zimbabwe Mrs
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka that Operation Murambatsvina be halted
because it has made hundreds of Zimbabweans homeless in clear violation of
International law on habitation, the Mugabe regime is not relenting and is
continuing with the demolitions.
The MDC Kwekwe offices which are
located at 37- 4th street have this morning been razed to the ground
by bulldozers under the watchful eye of more than 50 heavily armed policemen
accompanied by Kwekwe council officials. The building was purchased five years
ago by the party and was being used as the party offices for Midlands
Province.
During the 2002 Presidential
elections the building was set on five by state agents.
We have also received
reports that at Porta farm 30km out of Harare and in all the country’s cities
the operation to destroy the people’s homes is continuing.
It is now clear that the Harare
regime has no respect for the law and will ignore even the voice from
international institution such as the United Nations. What more arrogance and
disregard for human dignity can this regime be allowed to sink to be before the
world decides to take action?
Paul Themba
Nyathi
Secretary for Information and Publicity
The Australian
Security Council briefing on Mugabe slum
clearing
July 28, 2005
NEW YORK: Britain yesterday called a meeting of
the 15-member UN Security
Council to hear a briefing by special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka on her report
slamming Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's
controversial policy of
demolishing urban slums.
Council members
exchanged views on the report, which said Harare's campaign
of razing
shantytowns had left 700,000 Zimbabweans homeless and destitute
and affected
a further 2.4million people, but there was no consensus on what
form today's
meeting would take.
Diplomats said China, Algeria and Russia expressed
reluctance to debate the
issue.
The moves came as Mr Mugabe said he
was overjoyed at his red-carpet welcome
in China, where he is on a six-day
visit and has been warmly greeted as "an
old friend" by President Hu
Jintao.
In Beijing, Mr Mugabe met parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo, who
voiced support
for Zimbabwe's land reform programs on a visit to Harare last
year. During
talks, the two sides signed agreements covering economic and
technical
co-operation.
"We have had excellent discussions, excellent
in the sense that what were
still ideas formulated in a draft form in some
cases have now become real
agreements," Mr Mugabe said.
The
Zimbabwean leader is pursuing a "look East" policy designed to find new
allies less concerned about human rights, while China is eager to secure new
raw materials in Africa to fuel its economic boom.
At the UN, it is
now up to council president Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece
to decide on the
format of the meeting, due to take place today. Council
members were set to
meet late last night to vote on the agenda.
The British move was strongly
backed by American UN delegate Anne Patterson.
"This is an issue that's
totally appropriate for the Security Council," she
said.
"What is
clear from this report is the humanitarian crisis, the
appropriateness of
Security Council review, and frankly the massive
violations of human rights
that have been undertaken by the (Zimbabwean)
Government."
AFP
Embassy, Canada
Embassy, July 27th, 2005
FEATURE
By by Archbishop
Pius Ncube, Dr. Roger Bate, and Richard Tren
Condemnation Within
Zimbabwe
Part two of Embassy's three-part series on Zimbabwe by Archbishop
Pius
Ncube, Dr. Roger Bate, and Richard Tren
Years of brutal
repression of human rights and basic freedoms and a general
climate of fear
means that many Zimbabweans have been afraid to speak out
and condemn
Operation Murambatsvina.
Despite this, however, the Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishops' Conference (ZCBC)
stated that "a grave crime has been committed
against the poor and helpless
people[...] We warn the perpetrators, history
will hold you accountable."
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human
Rights (ZADHR) has also
deplored in the "strongest possible terms" the
ongoing operation that has
displaced thousands of families.
The
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has issued numerous statements
condemning the action and calling for its immediate halt. According to Shari
Eppel, a human rights activist, "This is like Pol Pot, corralling people
into the countryside where they can be controlled and indoctrinated. We're
heading into the dark ages... we're going to see selective starvation.
Mugabe wants the people hungry and compliant." But, as The Independent (UK)
points out, "Mugabe shows no sign of following Pol Pot's personal example
and moving into a rural mud hut. He continues to live in majesty in
Harare."
Even Zimbabwe's former Information Minister and spin-doctor,
Jonathan Moyo,
strident defender of Mugabe and Zanu-PF until his sacking
earlier this year,
said that Operation Murambatsvina constituted "an
inhumane, barbaric
demolition of properties belonging to the weak and poor
in our society."
Yet in spite of local opposition, the Operation has
grown in strength and
viciousness. In some bizarre cases, the police are
charging a demolition fee
to those unable to dismantle their own homes in
time. It is also worth
noting that prior to the rigged elections in March it
was reported that the
government had drafted 20,000 youth militia into the
police force, thereby
doubling the number of policemen and women. Presumably
these extra recruits
are assisting in the demolitions.
The Roots of
Operation Murambatsvina
Initially, we felt that that the real motivation
behind Operation
Murambatsvina was to punish those citizens that supported
the MDC during the
March 2005 elections. However, the motivation may go
deeper than this. The
failed land reform process has driven many former farm
workers and rural
folk into towns where they are exposed to news and
political opinions
counter to those of traditional leaders and political
councils in rural
areas that have over the years been under the influence
and favour of the
Mugabe regime.
The effect of moving hundreds of
thousands of people into the countryside is
to make them utterly reliant on
government-controlled food aid for survival.
Agricultural production has
slumped as largely white-owned commercial farms
have been taken over or
rendered inoperable since 2000. Emergency imports of
the staple, maize,
amount to almost the entire annual requirement. Food
distribution is
controlled by the government along political lines. In
addition, in rural
areas people will be less able to communicate and
organize themselves
against the government. Zimbabwe's deputy Minister of
Local Government,
Public Works and Urban Development, Morris Sakabuya, has,
in a truly
Orwellian moment, described Operation Murambatsvina as an attempt
to
"resuscitate rural areas."
Jonathan Moyo considers that the Operation is
linked to an internal ZANU-PF
power struggle as to who will succeed the
81-year-old Mugabe in 2008. The
appointment of Joyce Majuru as second of
Vice-President in December 2004
worsened in-fighting in Zanu-PF, effectively
pitting the Zezuru faction, a
powerful sub-group within the majority Shona
tribe -- which comprises 70 per
cent of the population -- against the
Karanga sub-group. Ms. Majuru is
married to Solomon Majuru, a former army
commander and highly influential
Zanu-PF politician, without whose active
support Mugabe would not have
achieved the leadership of
Zanu-PF.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who heads the Karanga faction, was long
considered to be
Mugabe's favoured heir. His fall from grace was linked to a
secret meeting
convened last year by Mr. Moyo to promote him for the post.
The Karangas are
reportedly bitter about the ascendancy of Zezurus to top
positions within
Zanu-PF and political observers believe the tensions could
split Zanu-PF
into two camps, severely weakening them politically. If Mugabe
intentionally
created tension between the two ethnic groups that form the
Zanu-PF
backbone, he risks much since his capacity to manage and heal these
tensions
in the future is open to question. The International Crisis Group
(ICG)
reported on June 7, 2005 that powerful party figures were squaring up
for
what could be a vicious fight for power.
Archbishop Pius Ncube is
the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; Dr.
Roger Batem is a Resident
Fellow at American Enterprise Institute,
Washington DC and Richard Tren is
the Director of Africa Fighting Malaria,
Johannesburg, South
Africa
They prepared this report for the Solidarity Peace Trust. NEXT
WEEK: THE
CHINESE PUZZLE
Zimbabwe This Week
Kofi Annan
To inspect Zimbabwe Slums
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says he will
visit Zimbabwe to inspect its
controversial slum demolition programme at the
invitation of its leader.
Last week a UN report said the campaign
violated international law and Mr
Annan himself called it a "catastrophic
injustice" to Zimbabwe's poorest.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has
criticised the report.
"He did invite me to come," Mr. Annan told the BBC
this week.
"I would want to go to see how we can resolve some of the
issues raised in
the report. But I have not set a date yet."
South
African Bail-out
The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, strongly
suggested this week that
his government will give financial assistance to
Zimbabwe.
"We engage them because we don't want Zimbabwe collapsing next
door. South
Africa would inherit all the consequences of Zimbabwe
collapsing," he told
the Guardian newspaper. Mr Mbeki said his finance
minister and central bank
governor were negotiating with top Zimbabwean
officials to find ways to help
the country pay for urgently needed imports
of food, fuel and electricity.
Zimbabwe needs $1 billion to stave off
economic implosion, say Harare
economists.
Mr. Mbeki confirmed that
his officials were considering ways to pay off the
$300 million that the
Mugabe government owes to the International Monetary
Fund
(IMF).
Mugabe In China
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe began a
six-day visit to China on July 24.
Chinese state media, Xinhua news
agency, said Mugabe, whose government is
blamed by critics for a crippling
economic crisis, would meet Chinese
President Hu Jintao, number two in the
Communist hierarchy of Wu Bangguo and
Premier Wen Jiabao.
Xinhua said
Mugabe left for China's northeastern province of Jilin on
Sunday, where he
will visit the headquarters of First Automotive Works
Group, the country's
top vehicle maker. He will meet Chinese leaders on his
return to Beijing on
July 25, it said.
Mugabe was reportedly accompanied by his central bank
head and senior
government ministers.
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.
Not Cricket
New
Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark this week urged the New Zealand
cricket
Black Caps to abandon their tour of Zimbabwe.
Some of the cricketers had
already left, reported the New Zealand Herald, to
gather in South Africa
ahead of next month's tour. The International Cricket
Council (ICC) has said
that a government directive or sporting sanctions,
while not welcome, would
allow a team to not tour and avoid stiff fines. The
declaration was made at
a meeting in Auckland last year which discussed
Zimbabwe, and again this
month.
ICC president Ehsan Mani has since stepped up the rhetoric against
the
government, saying only legislation banning a tour would excuse the
Black
Caps from their obligations.
To the People of Zimbabwe from
South Africa
It is with a mixture of deep sadness and anger that I write
this message of
solidarity to you at this time of your national pain and
suffering. Anger at
the inhumanity and brutality of the police and security
forces in destroying
the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of
people across
Zimbabwe, and sadness at the indifference and lack of concern
of a regime
that appears increasingly bent on willful violence and
destruction. I am
also greatly saddened by the lack of a decisive response
from our government
in South Africa and other SADC governments to these
gross violations of
people's socio-economic and human rights, and to the low
exposure given to
these atrocities in our national media (particularly the
SABC).
We also pledge our ongoing prayer and solidarity with you in this
struggle,
and our support in helping to mobilize resources for those
affected by the
'tsunami' which has hit Zimbabwe. This tsunami is not as a
result of a
convulsion of nature, but is a result of the convulsions of an
evil and
despotic regime which no longer has the interests of its people at
heart,
and therefore must be resisted by every freedom loving person in
Zimbabwe.
Bishop Rubin Phillip, Anglican Bishop of
Natal
Bishop Phillip is the co-chairperson of The Solidarity
Peace Trust, a
non-governmental organization, registered in South Africa.
The Trustees of
the Solidarity Peace Trust are church leaders of Southern
Africa, whose
stated aims are human rights, freedom and democracy in their
region.
Reuters
Mugabe says UN envoy was pressured over report
Wed Jul 27, 2005 8:49 PM BST
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says a special U.N.
envoy told
him she was under pressure to produce a damning report on the
demolition of
illegal homes and businesses, the official Herald newspaper
reported on
Wednesday.
But Anna Tibaijuka, the envoy sent by Secretary-General Kofi
Annan to assess
the crackdown, said on Wednesday the report spoke for
itself, while British
U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry denied any outside
attempts to influence
her findings.
"My report is very clear,"
Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian, told reporters after
briefing the U.N. Security
Council on it in New York. "It's an objective
report. The methodology used
to write the report is all spelled out."
Tibaijuka "produced the report
on her own authority for the
secretary-general, and there are no British
fingerprints near it," said
Jones Parry. "There has been no
pressure."
In her report, made public last Friday, Tibaijuka said the
campaign had
destroyed the homes or jobs of at least 700,000 people and
affected the
lives of 2.4 million others.
"She told me (while in
Zimbabwe) that her hands were tied and that the
report was going to be
negative," the Herald quoted Mugabe as saying during
a visit to China to
garner support for his crisis-ridden southern African
state.
"Comrade
Mugabe said Mrs. Tibaijuka told him that certain people had been
planted in
her assessment mission to ensure that the report was damning,"
the paper
added.
Harare, estranged from the West mainly over a controversial land
reform
program and charges it has rigged elections since 2000, dismissed her
report
as biased and unfair.
Neighboring South Africa's ruling
African National Congress -- a close ally
of Zimbabwe that is considering
taking on a portion of Harare's $4.5 billion
(2.6 billion pound) foreign
debt -- backed Tibaijuka's recommendations.
"The recommendations provide
a basis for further engagement by stakeholders
in Zimbabwe and the
international community to address some of the matters
raised in the
report," the ANC said.
Tibaijuka briefed the 15-nation Security Council
on her findings on
Wednesday over the objections of China, Russia and others
after Britain
insisted on hearing her and forced a rare procedural vote on
the council
agenda, which it won 9-5 with Brazil abstaining.
Algeria,
Benin, China, Tanzania and Russia voted against Jones Parry's
request for
the briefing, while the United States, France, Denmark, Romania,
Greece,
Japan, Argentina and the Philippines supported him.
After her briefing,
Zimbabwe's U.N. ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, told
the council the
bulldozing campaign had been stopped and insisted its goal
had been "to
provide decent accommodations for the people of Zimbabwe."
"The issue of
cleaning shantytowns is not unique to Zimbabwe," he added.
But the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which accuses Mugabe's
government
of targeting its urban strongholds in the demolitions, said on
Wednesday its
offices in the central city of Kwekwe were destroyed "under
the watchful eye
of more than 50 heavily armed policemen."
"We have also received reports
that at Porta Farm (squatter camp) 30 km (18
miles) out of Harare and in all
the country's cities the operation to
destroy the people's homes is
continuing. The Mugabe regime is not
relenting," a party statement
said.
Mugabe's sanity questioned as he claims UN envoy pressured to produce
negative report
By Violet Gonda
27 July
2005
The 81year old Zimbabwean dictator has raised eyebrows
again. The
Herald newspaper reports that Robert Mugabe claimed in China that
the United
Nations special envoy, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, said that she was
under pressure
to produce a negative report on the clean-up operation.
Mugabe sensationally
said Mrs Tibaijuka told him that certain people had
been planted in her
assessment mission to ensure that the report was
damning.
Given Tibaijuka's background and credibility it is
difficult to
believe she would actually tell lies to Zimbabweans and the
international
community. Given Mugabe's track record, particularly in
regards to the lies
he told about our food situation, critics say it is more
likely that he is
the one who has lost the plot.
Director of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Arnold Tsunga, said
Mugabe's
utterances are very irresponsible. He said, "The report is factual
and
mirrors what's happening in the country with precision."
Outspoken political commentator Dr John Makumbe said Mugabe is now
senile
because nobody in their right mind can accuse such an experienced and
outstanding envoy of being intimidated by any member state. Makumbe said:
"This is desperation on Mugabe's part as he is seeing ghosts behind every
bush."
The state media said Mugabe had been speaking on
diplomacy and
international relations after accepting a "professorship"
conferred on him
by the China Foreign Affairs University. Dr Makumbe said if
the 'award' is
true the Chinese are clearly lapping up to Mugabe because
nowhere in the
world is a person honoured with a professorship, as it is not
a degree.
Makumbe said: "Professor Robert Gabriel Mugabe is going to be a
laughing
stock when he gets back home because internationally recognised
honours are
bachelors, masters and doctorate."
Observers say the Chinese, who are fast becoming a political and
economic
powerhouse, are desperate to increase their influence in global
politics.
Arnold Tsunga said: "The mistake they are making is that they are
growing
outside the principle of human rights as shown by their support for
undemocratic regimes."
Despite a highly critical report by the
UN expert saying the
destruction of informal settlements and markets had
left an estimated
700,000 homeless and affected the livelihoods of a further
2.4 million
people, China is reported to be blocking a briefing of the
report in the UN
Security council.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 5:09 PM
Subject: Property and building legislation
I attach selected legislation relevant to property
and buildings. Regrettably this is a vast subject, with many Acts, By-Laws,
Statutory Instruments, Regulations etc. A simplified guide is being worked on,
but meanwhile you may find this selection useful. I will also forward to you
some model by-laws forwarded to me in a separate mail.
It is always wise to know your rights and duties,
but unfortunately in Zimbabwe today, where the rule of law does not exist, I
cannot guarantee that government, the police or the municipality will respect
these laws or allow you your rights (eg of 28 days' notice, appeal to
Administrative Court, etc) provided under these laws. Lawyers acting for for
the 1 million + victims already affected by Murambatsvina have not had much
success in protecting their clients, preventing illegal entry to property,
illegal destruction and siezure of property, illegal eviction and forced removal
to transit camps, etc. Perhaps the regime will become more circumspect, in view
of the UN report - or perhaps they will simply run out of fuel, like the rest of
us!
Let the struggle continue!
Regards.
Trudy Stevenson MP
Harare North Constituency
PROPERTY AND
BUILDING LEGISLATION
(NB this
selection is not exhaustive, but gives good indicators of rights and
duties)
CONSTITUTION
:Declaration of Rights
Section 11 : Fundamental Rights and freedoms of the
individual
Whereas every
person in Zimbabwe is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the
individual, that is to say, the right whatever his ace, tribe, place of origin,
political opinions, colour, creed or sex, but subject to the respect for the
rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest to each and all of the
following, namely:
a) life, liberty, security of the person and the protection of the law;
b) freedom of conscience, of
expression and of assembly and association; and
c) protection for the privacy of his home and other property and from
the compulsory acquisition of property without compensation;
….
_________________________________________________
URBAN COUNCILS
ACT
Section
199: Enforcement of conditions of title:
1) Subject to this section, a council shall have a duty to do all things
necessary to ensure that the conditions of the establishment of any township
within the council area and the conditions of title to any land in the council
area are properly observed and, without derogation from the generality of the
foregoing may, for such purposes, inter alia:
a)
without compensation, cause any building willfully erected in contravention of
any such condition to be demolished ad recover from any person responsible for
the contravention the expenses incurred by the council in connection with such
demolition;
b) prohibit
the use of any building or land which contravenes any such condition;
d) execute any work which under any such condition it is the duty of any
person to execute and recover from that person the expenses incurred by the
council in executing such work.
2. Before
taking any action in terms of subsection 1, the council shall serve notice on
the owner and on the occupier of the building or land in respect of which
the action is proposed to be taken, specifying the nature of the action proposed
and the grounds upon which it proposes to take that action.
3.
If-
a) the notice in terms of subsection 2 relates to a condition which
imposes-
i.
restrictions on the purposes for which the
property may be used; or
ii.
any requirements to be complied with or to be
observed in connection with the erection of any building on the property;
or
iii.
any restriction or requirement to be observed,
not referred to in subparagraphs I and ii , which is subject to control under an
approved scheme, operative master plan or operative local plan as defined in the
Regional, Town and Country Planning act (Ch 29:12) that relates to the area in
which that property is situated;
and
b)
the person upon whom the notice has been
served is aggrieved by the action proposed to be taken in terms of subsection
1:
he may,
within twenty-eight days after the date of service of the notice, appeal to the
Administrative Court and no action shall thereafter be taken by the council
until the appeal has been determined by that Court or the appeal has been
withdrawn or abandoned.
4. If on an
appeal in terms of subsection 3 the Administrative Court-
a) is satisfied that the council is entitled to take the proposed action
on the grounds specified in the notice, it shall dismiss the appeal;
b) is not satisfied that the council is entitled to take the proposed
action on the grounds specified in the notice, it shall allow the
appeal.
…
(* But NB
Minister’s powers to override anything -
Section 313
Minister may give directions on matters of policy
…..
Section 314
Minister may reverse, suspend, rescind resolutions, decisions etc. of
councils
…..
…
___________________________________________________________
REGIONAL TOWN AND
COUNTRY PLANNING ACT Revised 1996
Part V : CONTROL
OF DEVELOPMENT
(ie
development must have planning permission from the local planning
authority)
Section 22 Meaning
of Development
1) Any reference in this Part to development, in relation to any land or
building, means any of the following-
a) the carrying out in, on, over or under the land of any building or
mining operations, other than-
i)
the carrying out in any building which is not
subject to a building preservation order of any internal works which do not
materially affect the external appearance of that building;
ii) the carrying out by or on behalf of the authority responsible of
any operations in connection with:
A. the renewal, maintenance or improvement of any existing public
utility service not within a scenic beauty area; or
B. the installation or construction of any new public utility service
which is shown on a general plan or is within a road or is within the area of an
operative master plan or local plan or an approved scheme and accords with that
plan or scheme;
iii) the carrying out of any building operations in connection with
the use of any land or building thereon for agricultural purposes unless such
operations-
A. are to be carried out within two hundred metres of the center line of
any main road or district road; or
B. are to be carried out on any property which is less than one hundred
hectares in extent; or
C. are to be carried out in a scenic beauty area;
b) the altering of the character of the use of any land or building,
other than-
i)
where the existing use and the proposed use both
fall within the same prescribed group of land or building uses;
ii) the use of any land or building thereon for agricultural purposes
unless such use is to be established on any property which is less than one
hundred hectares in extent.
c) the deposit of refuse or wste materials on any land;
d) the use on any land of any vehicle or similar object, whether fixed,
movable or collapsible, as a building for residential or other purposes for a
period exceeding six months or such longer period as the local planning
authority may authorize;
e) 0the use of any building which is designed or has been approved for
use as a dwelling by a single family as two or more separate
dwellings;
f)
the display on any land or the external part of
any building or any advertisement in a manner other than prescribed.
2) For the purposes of subsection 1, any land or building shall be
regarded as being used for agricultural purposes if it is used directly for any
of the following-
a) the production of any agricultural produce;
b) the storing, curing, grading, packing or other handling or processing
of any agricultural produce which is produced on the land concerned;
c) any purpose ancillary or incidental to a use specified in paragraph
a) or b) other than accommodation and facilities for persons employed directly
on the land:
Provided that any land which is being used as a feed-lot shall not be
regarded as being used for agricultural purposes;
…
Section 24 Control
of development
Unless permitted
in terms of a development order and subject ot this Act and any such development
order, no person shall carry out any development, other than development
which-
a) was commenced before the appointed day and did no require any
approval in terms of the repealed Act; or
b) is carried out in accordance
with an approval issued under the repealed Act:
Provided that, save in the case of an
approval in terms of paragraph g of section seventy-six, any such approval shall
cease on the termination of a period of four years from the appointed day if the
terms of that approval have not been implemented before that date; or
c) is carried out on a mining location…
d) is carried out in accordance with the terms of a permit.
2) Notwithstanding any operative regional plan, master plan or local
plan or approved scheme, in relation to existing development, the following may,
subject to subsections 1 and 3, be carried out-
a) the substitution of a new building erected in place of an existing
building which has been destroyed or demolished if-
i)
the new building is designed for the same
purposes as the existing building ; and
ii)
the erection of the new building is commenced
within eighteen months of the destruction or demolition of the existing building
or such longer period as the local planning authority may allow; and
iii)
the total floor area of the new building ddoes
not exceed by more than ten per centum the total floor area of the existing
building immediately before its destruction or demolition;
or
b) the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of any existing
building or a new building or a new building referred to in paragraph a if the
total floor area of such building, inclusive or any such enlargement,
improvement or other alteration, does not at any time exceed by more than than
per centum the total floor area of-
i)
the existing building when, or upon its
completion after it first acquired the right to be termed existing development
in terms of the definition thereof in section twenty-three; or
ii) the
existing building immediately before its destruction or demolition prior to the
erection of the new building , as the case may be; or
c) in the case of any building referred to in paragraph a or b or any
building which has not previously been used, the use of that building for any
purpose for which itw as designed and for any other purpose which falls within
the same group of prescribed building or land uses as the purpose for which that
building was originally designed.
3) A local planning authority may refuse a permit for the development
referred to in subsection 2 or may permit it subject to such conditions as it
may deem fit to impose, but the owner whose property is injuriously affected by
such refusal or any conditions so imposed shall, if he makes a claim within six
months of receiving notice of such decision, be entitled, notwithstanding
section fifty-two to recover from the local planning authority compensation in
terms of section fifty in respect of that injurious affection:
Provided
that no compensation shall be payable if the application was for a permit to
erect a new building in substitution for a building which-
a) constitutes or constituted existing development referred to in
paragraph a of subsection 1 of section twenty-three and
b) is or was situated within two hundred metres of the centre line or a
main road or district road; and
c) in the opinion of the planning authority-
i)
is or was not of a permanent nature;
and
ii) is or
was undesirable because of its nature and siting; and
iii) would
not have been permitted if at the time of its erection This Act had been in
force and a permit for the erection thereof had been required
…….
Section 26
Application for permit or preliminary planning permission
1) An
application for a permit or preliminary planning permission shall be made to the
local planning authority in such manner and shall contain such information as
may be prescribed and shall be accompanied by the consent of –
a)
the owner of the land;
…..
Section 27
Regularisation of buildings, uses or operations
Where any
development has been carried out in contravention of section twenty-four an
application may be made in terms of section twenty-six in respect of that
development and the local planning authority shall deal with that application in
terms of that section but any permit granted thereunder shall take effect from
the date on which the buildings were constructed, the operations were carried
out or the use was instituted, as the case may be.
__________________________________________________
HOUSING STANDARDS
CONTROL ACT Cap 208
To establish
housing courts and confer upon them certain powers and functions, to provide for
the repair, demolition or closure of buildings of an unsatisfactory standard; to
provide for the abatement of overcrowding of dwellings; to institute a procedure
whereby clearance warrants may be granted to local authorities for the acquisition and clearance of areas in
which buildings of an unsatisfactory standard are prevalent; and to provide for
matters incidental to or connected with the foregoing.
….
(Editor’s
note – relevant sections in this Act have not yet been typed, we hope to get
all relevant sections from all Acts and By-Laws soon)
Zim Online
100 Zimbabwean firms collapse in last 12 months
Thu 28 July
2005
HARARE - About a 100 Zimbabwean firms collapsed in the past 12
months
alone due to the country's worsening economic and foreign currency
crisis,
the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) said on
Wednesday.
ZNCC president Luxon Zembe said all in all about 600
firms had closed
shop over the last three years because of an economic
crisis that was
described by the World Bank this week as unprecedented in a
country not at
war.
"We have around six hundred companies that
have closed in the last
three years and about a hundred of these in the past
year alone," said
Zembe, whose ZNCC is one of the two biggest representative
bodies for
industry and commerce in Zimbabwe.
The company closures have worsened unemployment in a country where
over 70
percent of employable labour is jobless. The demolition of the
informal
economy when the government bulldozed informal industries and
trading kiosks
in a controversial urban clean-up exercise only helped
exacerbate the
situation in a country where the majority now live on less
than US$1 a
day.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's economic crisis on repression and
wrong
policies by President Robert Mugabe such as his chaotic and often
violent
seizure of productive farms from whites since 2000, which severely
knocked
down output in agriculture, the economy's backbone.
Mugabe denies ruining Zimbabwe blaming the country's economic troubles
on
sabotage by Western opponents of his land reforms. Mugabe, under Western
sanctions, has vowed to steer his sinking country eastwards in a bid to tap
help from long-time Asian allies like China to revive the economy and avert
total collapse.
The Zimbabwean leader, who visited China this
week, signed a key
financial and diplomatic support deal with the Communist
state that could
see Beijing channel vital economic aid to Harare as well as
defending Mugabe
and his government at the United Nations and other
international fora
against charges of violating human rights.
The World Bank's director for Zimbabwe Hartwig Schafer was this week
quoted
as saying it would require major economic restructuring, similar to
that
seen in former Soviet nations, to pluck the southern African nation
from its
current abyss.
The economic and social crisis has ignited a major
brain drain as
hundreds of thousands have fled for better paying jobs in
neighbouring
countries and Europe, a situation that has hurt the health,
education and
financial sectors the most.
White commercial
farmers who were a key component of the economy have
been forced to scatter
to neighbouring countries and as far afield as
Nigeria, New Zealand and
Australia after their land was seized in a land
reform programme Mugabe says
was necessary to correct an unjust land tenure
system where whites owned
more land than the black majority.
A 2004 survey by the World Bank
published early this year showed that
the government's fast-track land
reforms had redistributed 80 percent of
farmland and improved racial
distribution of agricultural property but had
increased
poverty.
The report said the land reforms coincided with a
deepening political
and economic crisis which saw Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) shrink by more
than 20 percent since 2000, while agriculture
registered a cumulative
decline of 26 percent over the same
period.
Thirty percent of farm workers were displaced by the land
seizures
leaving them destitute and living as squatters in or near urban
areas. Many
are homeless now after the government razed down squatter
settlements under
its urban clean-up campaign.
The report said
70 percent of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million people were
living below the poverty
line as per capita gross domestic product had
plummeted 30 percent since
1999, a figure supported by the IMF.
The decline in agriculture has
hit the key manufacturing sector where
Zembe said firms were operation at
around 30 percent with the situation
worsened by shortages of foreign
currency, fuel and electricity.
Zimbabwe's arrears to the World
Bank have now reached $353 million
while those to the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) stand at US$306
million.
Worried at the impact of a
failed state in the region, World Bank
President Paul Wolfowitz last month
asked South Africa to bail out Zimbabwe
by extending financial assistance to
help the country pay arrears to the IMF
and stave off expulsion. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Annan sets tough conditions for Zimbabwe visit
Thur 28 July
2005
JOHANNESBURG - The United Nations (UN) says secretary general
Kofi
Annan will only visit Zimbabwe after the government stops its
controversial
eviction campaign, guarantees access to those in need and
resumes political
dialogue with the opposition.
At a press
briefing in New York yesterday, Annan's spokesman Stéphane
Dujarric said
while the UN secretary general had agreed in principle to
visit Zimbabwe, a
number of factors needed to be in place before the visit.
"Regardless of the date of an eventual visit by the Secretary-General,
it's
clear that a number of things need to happen," Dujarric said.
"One
of them is that the evictions must cease and that humanitarian
access,
humanitarian aid must be provided to the people in need.
"There
would need to be a start of a political process, such as a
political
dialogue between the government and other stakeholders in
Zimbabwe," he
said.
The UN last week issued a damning report on the evictions by
the
Zimbabwe government saying close to 700 000 people had been rendered
homeless in the controversial campaign. A further 2.4 million people had
also been affected by the campaign.
But the Harare authorities
quickly dismissed the report alleging bias
on the part of the UN envoy who
they said was under tremendous pressure from
former colonial power Britain
to issue a negative report.
Mugabe earlier this week invited Annan
to "come and see for himself"
the clean-up operation. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Ex-finance minister finally granted bail
Thur 28 July
2005
HARARE - A Zimbabwe court has granted bail to the country's
former
finance minister Chris Kuruneri, who is on trial for allegedly
siphoning
scarce foreign currency to South Africa to buy expensive
properties and
luxury vehicles.
The bail application was
granted at the ninth attempt after judges and
magistrates rejected several
attempts before by Kuruneri to secure freedom
pending the outcome of his
High Court trial.
One of the former minister's lawyers, Bruce
Mujeyi, told ZimOnline
last night that there were several conditions
attached to Kuruneri's Z$50
million bail. He refused to disclose the
conditions.
"He was given the bail with a number of conditional
ties. We are now
running around to get his release," Mujeyi
said.
Kuruneri, 54, is the highest ranking official to be arrested
by the
police in a government crackdown on corruption that saw several
leading bank
and company executives arrested but which critics said was
selective, only
targeting those perceived not to be toeing the government
line.
The former minister was arrested in April last year after
reports by
South African media that he had bought up-market properties in
the country's
world famous Cape Town city.
Kuruneri is being
tried for externalising US$1 million, 100 000
British pounds and 300 000
South African rands.
But Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon
Gono, who testified as a
state witness, told the court that the foreign
currency were free funds
earned by Kuruneri elsewhere which he had used to
bail out the country on
condition it was repaid to an account outside
Zimbabwe. - ZimOnline
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Zim's debt to ADB balloons to US$300m
Shame
Makoshori
issue date :2005-Jul-28
AS Zimbabwe battles to clear the
US$295 million owed to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), another US$300
million is now overdue at the African
Development Bank (ADB).
The
continental financial institution is reported to have shown increasing
concern over the non-settlement of the debt, The Business Mirror has
established.
This US$300 million translates to about Z$5.2 trillion using
the recently
introduced $17 500 to the US$ benchmark and is now militating
against
further disbursement of funds for national development projects
until talks
for settlements are finalised.
ADB economist, Stephen Owusu
was recently in Zimbabwe where he indicated
that the debt had reached
alarming levels but said he would explore avenues
of normalising relations
and cooperation to avoid sliding Zimbabwe into
problems similar to those
with the IMF where the Bretton Woods institution
has threatened to expel the
country.
However, the central bank governor, Gideon Gono last Thursday
revealed that
Zimbabwe had increased its quarterly payments on the arrears
from US$1
million to US$9 million.Owusu is said to have met government and
other
stakeholders such as the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) as
part
of the consultative process that was aimed at collecting social and
economic
information and to touch base with the private sector, find out its
problems
and how they were coping.
"Due to the shortage of foreign
currency that has significantly contributed
to the economic downturn,
Zimbabwe has persistently failed to honour its
debt repayment obligations to
the ADB and as a result the ADB no longer had
any economic development
programmes running in Zimbabwe.
"The economist said the ADB was in the
process of trying to find a solution
to resume operations in Zimbabwe and
assist the country to implement some
economic programmes and policies for
the benefit of Zimbabwe," the CZI said
in its June issue of the Industrial
Agenda, adding the financial institution
was impressed by current efforts to
settle the debt.
The ADB was, however concerned by the sudden turn of events
in Zimbabwe's
economy where last year's improvements in capacity utilisation
in industries
had suddenly started sliding, with inflation, identified by
the central bank
as the country's public enemy number one, pursuing an
upward trend in the
past three months.
A premier international capacity
building institution owned 70 percent by
African countries and 30 percent by
non African economies, the ADB has in
the past played a critical capacity
building role in government institutions
and in infrastructural development
across Africa.
Most of the countries are, however, facing challenges in
settling their
debts due to sweeping poverty induced by wars and recurrent
droughts.
The bank has however said in order to curtail the debt burden, 26
countries
would receive 100 percent assistance in the form of grants instead
of loans.
There is also a possibility of an initial allocation of at least
US$155
million Special Drawing Right to post conflict countries in areas
where the
need arises. The ADB was recently in the news in Zimbabwe when
former
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Simba Makoni vied for its
presidency in May but lost out.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Chiefs demand more say in land issues
From
Netsai Kembo in Mutare
issue date :2005-Jul-28
THE president of the
Chiefs' Council, has implored government to include
more traditional leaders
in district, provincial and national land
allocation
committees.
Presenting chiefs' grievances to the Minister of State
responsible for
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Flora Buka, at their
national annual
conference here last week, Charumbira said government should
respect chiefs
as "custodians of the soil" by increasing their numbers in
all land
allocation committees.
He said the current scenario where only a
few individuals were incorporated
into these land committees was
unacceptable as it deprived chiefs of their
traditional rights.
According
to Charumbira, the present system allowed for only two chiefs in
each
district and provincial land committee and just the chiefs' president
in the
national committee.
"We call upon the inclusion in the district land
committees of all chiefs in
that particular district as they have knowledge
of all issues affecting
their respective areas of jurisdiction," said
Charumbira.
"All the five chiefs in the Provincial Chiefs' Council should
also be
automatic members of the provincial land committees while the chiefs
president and his deputy become national land committee members."
The
former local government deputy minister also expressed disappointment
over
what he termed the usurping of chiefs' powers and responsibilities by
officials in the land ministry who issued offer letters to successful land
applicants without consulting respective chiefs.
He said chiefs were now
mere stooges in their areas of birth and
jurisdiction.
Supporting their
leader, Chief Neluswi Shana of Hwange said: "That even
makes us wonder if
land still belongs to chiefs.
We are seeing strangers in our areas and each
time we ask why they are
there, they tell us that they have nothing to do
with us as government
resettled them. Some of them even call us
names."
However, Buka promised to look into the chiefs'
grievances.
"Government is doing everything possible to bring sanity into the
land
allocation system and we assure you that all your grievances will be
addressed," she said.
jta.org
Tiny Jewish community perseveres
despite
Zimbabwe's economic woes
By Moira Schneider
July 27,
2005
CAPE TOWN, July 27 (JTA) - Hylton Solomon, a
Zimbabwean Jewish leader,
says that he has never felt threatened by the
turbulent goings-on in the
country, though he did admit to feeling "a little
bit uneasy" during the
government's recent Operation Restore Order, which
saw hundreds of thousands
of street vendors and others being driven out of
urban areas and rendered
homeless in midwinter.
"It was like
Kristallnacht. You can't describe it in any other way,"
says Solomon, the
president of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation.
Zimbabwe's mostly
elderly Jewish community has dwindled through
emigration to around 300
individuals from a high of 7,500 in the early
1970s. Despite its much
diminished size and the rapidly deteriorating
political and economic
situation in the country, Jewish life, though
curtailed, carries
on.
Despite Solomon's wariness, he says he hasn't yet reached his
"trigger
point." "Maybe I'm an idiot for staying here. In Germany, all the
pessimists
survived and all the optimists died," he adds.
But
his three children are all studying in South Africa.
"And I don't
have to tell you what that costs. This is where I earn my
bread," he
says.
Solomon also refuses to criticize the country, taking a swipe
at those
who do. "This place has been good to us, and I get upset when
people leave
here and live in mansions in Clifton or Fresnaye and condemn
this place.
Whatever they've got there came from here," he says angrily,
referring to
affluent areas of neighboring South Africa.
"Maybe
things did turn sour. But this country's been fantastic to Jews
over the
years. Apart from the fact that the shul burnt down and we're not
quite sure
what happened there," Solomon says, in reference to the fire that
destroyed
the Bulawayo synagogue on Yom Kippur Eve in 2003, "the cemetery's
never been
desecrated. There's never been any anti-Semitism and swastikas
painted on
walls."
Despite food shortages, he says they don't skimp on
anything for the
35 residents of Savyon Lodge, the only Jewish home for the
aged in the
country, situated in Bulawayo. Because there are so few people
who earn a
salary sufficient to enable them to contribute to its upkeep,
Solomon says
the community tries to solicit donations, including from former
Zimbabweans.
Daily synagogue services, as well as Jewish lessons,
are held in the
city, and the Jewish holidays are celebrated "even though we
sometimes
battle for a minyan," he says.
Shelley Lasker, a
teacher at Bulawayo's Carmel School, a Jewish day
school, agrees that the
Jewish community does not "in any way" feel
physically threatened but says
that with the rapidly devaluing currency,
economic security is a
problem.
"When a country is in a state of economic collapse and
people's
pensions have been directly affected by the situation here, then,
yes, they
do feel insecure. People who thought that they'd provided well for
their old
age find that that is no longer the case."
Though a
mere five of the school's 200 children are Jewish, they still
celebrate
Shabbat every Friday. "We light candles and have kitke when we can
get it,"
she said, using the term used in southern Africa for challah.
One
result of the emigration that has taken place from Zimbabwe over
the years
is that the Jewish community is older.
"One of the saddest things
is that these old people are not part of a
greater community anymore by
virtue of the fact that there isn't a greater
community," says
Lasker.
"They don't have access to children. They rarely see their
families
because their children and grandchildren have left the country. So
it's very
lonely for them. Of course Jewish life is affected. You try and
have a Yom
Ha'atzmaut celebration," she said, referring to the holiday that
commemorates Israeli Independence Day, "and you've got to try and pole-vault
them into the bus when they can barely walk, never mind do the
hora."
Lasker describes the country's only rabbi, Rabbi Nathan
Asmoucha of
the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation, as an "incredible
man."
"He's come to a tiny community of mainly old people - I think
his most
active role has been in holding funerals - yet he remains positive,
loving
and giving."
Solomon adds that the rabbi has made an
appeal to the community to
assist those displaced by Operation Restore
Order, saying that they cannot
as Jews just stand by. "So we are going to
raise some money, buy some
blankets and distribute them."
The
country's two synagogues - Ashkenazi and Sephardi - in the capital
city,
Harare, have combined forces for Shabbat and holiday services in order
to
ensure a minyan. While the oil crisis affects synagogue attendance,
Sternberg says the main problem is that "there are fewer and fewer left to
attend."
A shochet, or ritual slaughterer, comes to Zimbabwe
from South Africa
twice a year, but with so few animals available - a result
of the disruption
of farm production caused by government-sponsored farm
invasions - that
there is rationing of red meat.
Sternberg
expresses gratitude for the tangible, as well as moral,
support that
Zimbabwe's Jews receive from the African Jewish Congress, an
initiative of
the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, which sees to the
needs of the
small and far-flung Jewish communities of sub-Saharan Africa.
He said that
Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, the spiritual leader of the AJC,
arranges for
someone to officiate on the High Holy Days, in addition to
providing special
prayer books.
"They also send up the South African Jewish Report on
Friday,"
Sternberg said, referring to the newspaper. "Without them, we would
really
be stuck," he says.
PRESIDENT TSVANGIRAI'S RESPONSE TO THE UN REPORT
Your Excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen,
As you are all aware, the United Nations report of
the fact finding mission
to Zimbabwe to assess the scope and impact of
Operation Murambatsvina by the
UN special envoy on human settlements issues
in Zimbabwe Mrs Anna Kajamulo
Tibaijuka is now out.
May I take this
opportunity to thank the UN secretary general for the swift
action he took
when the world became aware of the serious catastrophe
Zimbabwe faced since
the 18th of May when the regime descended on the poor
in
Zimbabwe?
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the latest development
on the
Zimbabwean political scene is symptomatic of the on-going political
impasse
and the crisis of legitimacy arising from a flawed electoral process
and a
disputed electoral outcome.
Unless Zimbabweans, with the help
of the international community, deal with
the current crisis decisively, we
shall remain sucked in the irrationality
of a rogue regime desperate to
claim legitimacy through force and coercion
at the expense of the
people.
The UN report supports our long-held position and observations on
the
situation in Zimbabwe, in particular:
* The rogue behaviour of
the Mugabe regime on the fundamental question of
human rights.
* It
highlights the impunity enjoyed by the regime after the Gukurahundi
massacres in eighties;
* The impunity the regime enjoys in the manner in
which it conducts national
elections, in orchestrating political violence
and applying repressive
legislation to the people of Zimbabwe;
* We have
often raised our concern over discrimination in food distribution
and on the
restrictions imposed on the movement of people and on press
freedom. The
regime has ignored our calls.
* In short, the report vindicates our assertion
that Zimbabwe has become a
criminal state.
* The report confirms our own
assessment and fear that close to 2,4 million
people were affected in the
violence and destruction that took place without
adequate notice or
warning.
* We agree with the United Nations that those responsible must be
brought to
account for their actions.
* Our fear though is that Zimbabwe,
in its present state, lacks the capacity
to reign in the perpetrators,
especially when the main culprit is Robert
Mugabe himself.
* On various
occasions, Mugabe sought to justify the attacks on the people
and openly
supported the perpetrators of this crime against our people.
The way
forward.
* We believe the report brought to the international attention
the
seriousness of the Zimbabwean crisis.
* We are a poor nation. We
require support to provide shelter to our people.
Millions are homeless and
destitute.
* The efforts of the United Nations to assist us in addressing
this
humanitarian and political emergency must be supported by all.
* We
need international support to break the current political impasse; to
rebuild homes, to feed our nation and to provide meaningful work for our
people. We need support to bring about a new Zimbabwe and a new
beginning.
* We believe significant progress can be registered in the search
for a
lasting solution if, arising from the report and supported by an
earlier
investigation by the African Commission on Human and People's
Rights, the
United Nations sends to Harare a rapporteur from the UN Human
Rights
Commission to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the
situation in
our country.
* The report presents a challenge to
Zimbabweans to organize action and a
public expression of support to the UN.
We support the UN process out of the
realization that the international
community can only complement our local
efforts to resist the tyranny.
*
Without principled dialogue between the main political players, the regime
shall find it impossible to claim popular legitimacy and to restore our
nation's position in the family of civilized nations.
Thank
You
M. Tsvangirai
President
26 July
2005
IOL
SA church group sends supplies to Harare
July 27 2005 at
04:36PM
Johannesburg - A container of relief supplies will be sent
to Zimbabwe
next week as part of the South African Council of Churches'
"Operation Hope
for Zimbabwe", the SACC said on Wednesday.
The
campaign would provide immediate relief in the form of blankets,
food, water
and medicine to those affected by Operation Murambatsvina
("Drive Out
Trash").
The operation - announced last week after the second
pastoral visit to
Zimbabwe returned from Harare - was particularly aimed at
the most
vulnerable sectors of society such as those living in transit
camps, the
elderly and women with children.
According to SACC
general secretary Molefe Tsele, Operation Hope for
Zimbabwe was being
managed and coordinated by South African churches,
working together with
Zimbabwean churches, international humanitarian
organisations and the
affected communities within Zimbabwe.
The government of Zimbabwe
was not directly involved.
Following a damning report by the United
Nations, condemning Operation
Murambatsvina, the African National Congress
on Wednesday said it supported
the recommendation that the UN should work
with the government of Zimbabwe
to mobilise immediate assistance from the
international community to provide
humanitarian assistance, and for
conditions to be created for sustainable
relief and
reconstruction.
African National Congress spokesperson Smuts
Ngonyama said the ANC
"appreciates and supports" the efforts of the South
African Council of
Churches (SACC) to provide humanitarian assistance to
Zimbabwe.
"The ANC urges South Africans to support the work of the
SACC to
mobilise relief for Zimbabweans affected by Operation
Murambatsvina," he
said.
The SACC said discussions were under
way to explore appropriate ways
for the South African government to assist
the operation.
The campaign would further explore ways of providing
shelter for those
made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina and would work
with other
international agencies, such as the World Food Programme, Unicef
and
UN-Habitat, to promote long-term development in Zimbabwe.
More details about the contents of the relief shipment and the
progress of
the ecumenical initiative would be announced at a press
conference on Monday
at which member denominations will announce their
pledges to the campaign. -
Sapa
Reuters
Britain forces hearing on Zimbabwe slum demolition
Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:55 PM BST
By Evelyn
Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain forced the U.N. Security
Council on
Wednesday to hear a closed-door briefing by the author of a
critical U.N.
report on Zimbabwe's slum demolitions despite protests from
China, Russia
and others.
After Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones
Parry insisted the issue be
discussed by the 15-member body, several members
objected. He then asked for
a vote and received support from the nine
nations, the required number on
procedural matters.
Five other
nations, Algeria, Benin, China, Tanzania and Russia, voted "no"
and Brazil
abstained, diplomats reported.
The council usually decides these issues
by consensus but Britain, the
United States and others decided they would
invoke a rarely used rule to get
council members to hear the
issue.
Anna Tibaijuka, the head of U.N.-Habitat, was sent to Zimbabwe by
U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to survey the demolition campaign. To the
dismay of Zimbabwe and its supporters, she wrote last Friday that the
bulldozing of urban slums was "carried out in an indiscriminate and
unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering" and had left some
700,000 without homes or livelihood or both.
Jones Parry said the
Zimbabwe crisis was important enough for the council to
discuss but several
nations argued that this was interference in the
internal affairs of a
sovereign nation and that Zimbabwe was not on the
council's
agenda.
In a vote during council consultations, diplomats reported that
Britain was
supported by the United States, France, Denmark, Romania,
Greece, Japan,
Argentina and Philippines.
"It was absolutely right in
our view that the council should hear Dr.
Tibaijuka," Jones Parry told
reporters.
He said the priority now was for the Zimbabwean government to
end its
bulldozing of shantytowns and for the international community to
rally
around the affected individuals and rush in humanitarian
aid.
The government has defended the crackdown, dubbed "Operation Restore
Order,"
saying it was meant to root out black market trade in foreign
currency and
other scarce commodities.
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe, visiting Beijing, said Tibaijuka had
told him she was under pressure
to write a negative report, said the
official Herald newspaper in the
Zimbabwean capital of Harare.
But Jones Parry told reporters, "There has
been no pressure. Events speak
for themselves. The facts actually
substantiate her report."
"She has produced the report on her own
authority for the secretary-general,
and there are no British fingerprints
near it. The conspiracy theory does
not apply," he said.
U.N.
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that "Anna Tibaijuka's report is clear
and
speaks for itself about the situation on the ground and the humanitarian
crisis."
VOA
SAF Opposition Campaigns Against Possible Bailout For
Zimbabwe
By Joe De Capua
Washington
27 July
2005
South Africa's main opposition party, Democratic
Alliance, has started a
letter writing campaign against a possible
one-billion dollar loan for
Zimbabwe. The party says the e-mail letters,
criticizing the proposal, can
be downloaded from the party's website and
mailed to President Mbeki.
Tony Leon is chairman of the Democratic
Alliance. From Johannesburg, he
spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De
Capua about opposition to a loan
for Zimbabwe. Mr. Leon says, "The
objections of the opposition in South
Africa are three-fold. Number one, an
unconditional loan to (Zimbabwe
President) Robert Mugabe will be misused and
abused, I think, for the
further oppression of his citizens as we've
witnessed recently. Secondly, if
indeed there are any conditions attached
you can rest assured subject to the
previous track record of Robert Mugabe
that the conditions will be honored
only in the breech and in effect will be
dishonored. And we will end up in a
situation where six and a half billion
rand of South African taxpayers'
money will in fact be misused by the
government of Zimbabwe for the purpose
of propping itself up in power. And
the third objection is that the loan in
question, which is over a billion
dollars, would amount to something like
500 times the budgeted amount that
South Africa gives for humanitarian
relief as a total of its current
national budget, which shows you how
extraordinary this amount is and how
unprecedented granting such a loan
would be."
The DA leader says
conditions must be attached to any loan to Zimbabwe that
call for democratic
reforms. He says a road map to reform in Zimbabwe is
needed, which contains
"calibrated steps agreed to by the African Union."
Mr. Leon says those
conditions must lead to "the stepping down of Mugabe.the
restoration of
democracy and the holding of fresh elections."
The Democrat Alliance has
been sharply critical of President Mbeki's "quiet
diplomacy" toward
Zimbabwe.
International Red Cross Launches $1.9 Million Appeal For Zimbabwe
Relief
Copyright © 2005, Dow Jones
Newswires
GENEVA (AP)--The international Red Cross asked
Tuesday for CHF2.48
million to provide emergency relief to victims of
Zimbabwe's devastating
government-led cleanup of urban slums.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
said
the money is needed to provide tents, blankets, soap, mosquito nets,
water
purifying tablets, condoms and planting kits to 15,000 people made
homeless
by the operation.
Some 700,000 lost their homes or jobs, and a
further 2.4 million
people have been affected by the countrywide campaign,
which began with
little warning on May 19, according to a U.N. report
released last week.
"This operation has had a big impact on the
livelihoods of thousands
of people, with a disproportionate impact on the
most vulnerable: the
elderly, the chronically ill, people living with HIV
and AIDS, orphans and
other vulnerable children," Edmore Shamu, head of the
Zimbabwe Red Cross,
said in a statement.
"We will continue
fulfilling our mandate to help the most vulnerable
members of our society,"
Shamu said.
The IFRC said the money also would help to build 120
permanent,
two-roomed homes for orphans.
Zimbabwe's government
argues the demolition campaign is necessary to
reduce crime and restore
order in overcrowded slums and illegal markets.
(END) Dow Jones
Newswires
07-26-05 1224ET
VOA
Zimbabwe's Opposition Wracked by Violence, Internal
Disputes
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
27 July
2005
Zimbabwe's opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change,
is going through
grave internal struggle after several violent episodes
within its ranks.
Violence by MDC youths against founding members of the
party has focused on
persistent rumors of a power struggle to oust the party
president Morgan
Tsvangirai.
For months, Zimbabwe'
state-controlled media have speculated about a power
struggle within the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Now, some
unnamed party leaders
are accused of telling young MDC members that party
Secretary-General
Welshman Ncube wants to replace party-leader Morgan
Tsvangerai.
Mr. Ncube and many other party leaders have scoffed
at the speculation of a
plot to oust Mr. Tsvangerai. Some analysts say that
as a member of the
minority Ndebele tribe it is unlikely that Mr. Ncube
would find favor with
the majority in the party.
But some young
members appear to believe there is a struggle and have been
beating up some
of those they suspect of being involved in the plot.
One of those
beaten last month was founding MDC member Frank Chamunorwa,
who, like Mr.
Tsvangirai, is a member of the majority Shona tribe. He joined
President
Robert Mugabe's liberation army during the anti-colonial struggle
30 years
ago, but 18 years ago became disillusioned and left the ruling
party. He
says the assault left him very bitter.
"That is the worst thing, in
fact I have told so many people, I am proud to
have scars because of
previous episodes of beatings from ZANU-PF. I have
never been so bitter and
so dejected by the latest incident when my own very
party perpetrated
atrocities on me, not only the question of being beaten,
but the way I was
forced to bend down, to lie down on the ground by youths
who, in fact, most
of them younger than my own first born," he said. "That
was very very bitter
and disheartening, and I am very, very bitter about
that."
The
attackers have been expelled from the party, but, Mr. Chamunorwa says
the
leaders who gave the orders should be investigated.
University of
Zimbabwe political scientist John Makumbe said ZANU-PF's
violent political
methods have tainted all Zimbabweans, including the MDC.
Mr.
Chamunorwa says internal disputes are negatively impacting Mr.
Tsvangerai's
ability to lead a coherent response to the government's recent
campaign of
forced removals.
"If Morgan does not rule this country it is because
of a problem of his own
making," he said. "He has this mandate from the
party, the mandate from all
the structures, he has the mandate from more
than half the population of
this country. His ineptitude, his indecisiveness
may cost him dearly, and
therefore he himself will be his own
nemesis."
At the latest MDC executive meeting the party's legal
secretary, David
Coltart, said in a statement that the recent violence
compromised the
party's credibility, which he said has always been based on
morality and
non-violence.
He called on Mr. Tsvangirai to
investigate the leaders who controlled the
unemployed youths involved in the
incidents he said threatened the party's
domestic and international
reputation. Mr. Tsvangirai himself declined to
comment.
Catholic News Service
South African aid to Zimbabwe gets 'no' vote from
Cardinal Napier
By Bronwen Dachs
Catholic News Service
CAPE
TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- South Africa would be "most reckless" to
send
aid to Zimbabwe, which is "in absolute chaos," said the president of
the
Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.
"Giving money to (Zimbabwe
President Robert) Mugabe can be compared to
giving money to an alcoholic
beggar who tells you he has given up drink and
will spend the money on
food," Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban said in
a mid-July telephone
interview from Durban.
The cardinal had returned from a two-day trip to
Zimbabwe as part of a
delegation with the ecumenical South African Council
of Churches.
Mugabe is reportedly seeking a loan from South Africa to pay
for
electricity, fuel and food to offset chronic shortages.
South
Africa is in talks with the Zimbabwean government and may end up
aiding its
neighbor financially, South African President Thabo Mbeki told
reporters
July 24.
Cardinal Napier said Zimbabweans would be better served through
donations to
churches and humanitarian aid agencies because Mugabe probably
would
squander the funding.
"Mugabe has never respected conditions
attached to money lent to his
government before, so there is no reason to
think that he would do so this
time," the cardinal said.
An ongoing
campaign of government-ordered shantytown demolitions has left
hundreds of
thousands homeless. The campaign, Operation Drive Out Trash, has
been
condemned by the United Nations, numerous countries and church
leaders.
"Mugabe wants to destroy all semblance of opposition and aims to
achieve
this by bringing people to their knees with himself as the only
person who
can help them," the cardinal said.
Zimbabwe's government
said the demolitions were carried out to eliminate
illegal settlements that
had contributed to a rise in crime in Zimbabwe's
deteriorating cities. The
demolitions, which began in May, have left 700,000
Zimbabweans without homes
or jobs, according to a mid-July U.N. report.
The South African Council
of Churches said in its report that the
"deliberate destruction of the
informal economy, which is meant to cater to
economically vulnerable groups,
is unparalleled in modern-day Africa."
Near Harare, Zimbabwe's capital,
the council delegation visited a refugee
camp where some 5,000 people were
living in "inhuman conditions."
"These people are removed from
opportunities to earn a living and driven to
the periphery of society," it
said.
"A shocking sight greeted the delegation" when it entered Mbare
township, 25
miles southeast of Harare, the report said. "Almost every yard
was filled
with rubble from the demolition of structures."
At a
Catholic church in the township, the delegation saw long lines of
people
waiting to collect monthly food rations, the report said.
Cardinal Napier
told Catholic News Service that Mbare "was so full of rubble
it looked like
it had been bombed."
END
Police raid 'resistance centre'
By Lance Guma
27July
2005
Police forced their way into the premises of Zimrights
in Harare on
Tuesday and Thursday last week, without a search warrant, and
harassed staff
working late at night. The premises dubbed the 'resistance
centre' are home
to Zimrights, the Zimbabwe National Association of Students
Unions and the
International Socialist Organisation. Plain clothes policemen
threatened
security guards outside before gaining access to the premises at
midnight.
They said they wanted to know why staff were working in the middle
of the
night. In a bizarre revelation the police informed staff they had
been
assigned to work round the clock at the Zimrights premises and would
actually be changing shifts with other officers. Briggs Bomba who works for
ISO says the police told him they were going to 'work' with him through the
night and provide 'protection' for him. They also wanted to know if NCA
Chairman Lovemore Madhuku had visited the offices. Bomba says they held him
a virtual prisoner and all he could do was send three text messages to
collegues explaining his situation. The police only left 5 hours later in
the morning.
Bomba believes the police are trying to intimidate
activists in the
country by pulling stunts like this. In April this year,
officers claiming
to be from the Ministry of Social Welfare demanded to
inspect Zimrights'
books of account and audit its
activities.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
SABC
SADC peace force to operate from August
July 27, 2005,
16:30
The Southern African Development Community's (SADC) standby
peacekeeping
force will be operational as of the beginning of August. The
SADC Brigade
will form part of the envisaged African Union Standby Force
(AUSF) which
will be tasked with quelling potential military and civilian
conflicts on
the continent. Regional government military advisers have
hailed the move as
a positive step in the quest to safeguard the region
against political
instability.
The force will consist of troops
volunteered by member states that will
include police and some civilian
military experts. Once in operation the
SADC brigade will be administered
from Botswana's capital Gaborone - the
regional body's traditional
headquarters. Mosioua Lekota, the defence
minister and chairperson of SADC's
Interstate defence and security council,
says progress has already been made
in assembling units of the brigade.
All member states of the SADC organ
have gathered in Sandton, for a three
day meeting of the regional body's
Organ on Politics, Defence and Security
Co-operation. In discussion is the
regional political and economic
situation, and the meeting is expected to
review and assess the status of
peacekeeping and conflict resolution in the
region.
Zimbabwe is represented by Sydney Sekeremayi, its defence
minister, at this
gathering and recently was criticized for it's spending on
foreign-made
military aircrafts and hardware. In April the Harare
administration took
delivery of six Chinese made Karakorum jet fighters at
an estimated cost of
between $10 and 20 million a move which drew global
criticism. Sekeremayi
has described the criticism in this regard as baseless.
News24
ANC 'missing point' about Zim
27/07/2005 16:37 -
(SA)
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has accused the African
National
Congress of "missing the point" about United Nations special envoy
Anna
Tibaijuka's report on the effects of the Zimbabwe government's
controversial
"clean up" operation.
DA spokesperson on Africa Joe
Seremane said the ANC was correct in promoting
support for international and
South African Council of Churches (SACC)
efforts to provide humanitarian aid
to Zimbabwe in the wake of Operation
Murambatsvina ("Drive Out
Trash").
"However, the ANC has wilfully ignored the strident criticism of
UN special
envoy Anna Tibaijuka about the cruel and indiscriminate nature of
Operation
Murambatsvina.
"Tibaijuka described the operation as a
'disastrous venture', which has
'violated international law and created a
grave humanitarian crisis'.
"The actions are described in her report as
'indiscriminate, unjustified and
conducted with indifference to human
suffering'," said Seremane.
Zimbabwe government held
responsible
According to Tibaijuka's damning report, at least 700 000
Zimbabweans have
been left homeless and destitute, and a further 2.4 million
affected.
The report holds Zimbabwe's government collectively responsible
and calls
for an immediate end to the operation and the prosecution of those
responsible .
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Wednesday the
party had "noted" the
findings and recommendations contained in Tibaijuka's
report.
"The recommendations provide a basis for further engagement by
stakeholders
in Zimbabwe and the international community to address some of
the matters
raised in the report," he said.
In particular, the ANC
supported the recommendation that the UN should work
with the government of
Zimbabwe to mobilise immediate aid from the
international community to
provide humanitarian assistance, and for
conditions to be created for
sustainable relief and reconstruction.
"The report correctly identifies
the need for all stakeholders in Zimbabwe
to work together, with the
assistance of regional and continental organs, to
address these and other
challenges facing the country," said Ngonyama.
In a statement later on
Wednesday, Seremane said most glaring of all was the
fact that the ANC had
ignored one of the key recommendations of the report,
namely that the
Zimbabwean government should halt all demolitions
immediately.
'ANC
should take strong stance'
Seremane said: "If the ANC was serious about
helping Zimbabwe, then it would
have the courage to condemn in the strongest
possible terms the indefensible
actions of the Mugabe government.
"It
is of no use to the people of Zimbabwe for the ANC to stand quietly by
while
the destruction continues unabated and then to offer empty gestures of
support after the fact.
"Instead of only showing support for an
organisation like the SACC it is
time for the ANC to also take a strong
political stance against the
(President Robert) Mugabe
government."
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 27 July
Mugabe lauds 'brotherly
friend' China
Beijing - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday
said he was
overjoyed at his red carpet welcome by China, as other countries
pressed for
a United Nations Security Council meeting on his slum demolition
drive.
Mugabe is on a six-day visit to China and has been warmly greeted as
"an old
friend" by President Hu Jintao. At the same time, Britain was urging
a
Security Council meeting on his slum demolition campaign as United Nations
chief Kofi Annan ruled out a visit there until Harare ended its evictions
and allowed humanitarian aid in. Council members said Harare's campaign of
razing townships has left 700 000 Zimbabweans homeless and destitute and
affected a further 2,4-million, but there was no consensus on holding formal
consultations. Diplomats said that China, one of the few countries to
publicly back his drive to demolish illegal housing in his homeland, was one
of the countries who expressed reluctance to have a formal debate on the
issue. In Beijing, Mugabe on Wednesday met parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo,
who voiced support for Zimbabwe's land reform programmes on a visit to
Harare last year. Wu said on Wednesday his visit and talks with Mugabe last
November had left him with "a deep impression", and he embraced the
frail-looking Zimbabwe leader. "May I begin by also expressing my gratitude
and appreciation for the very warm welcome that we have had as a team since
our arrival and for the excellent facilities laid at our disposal," Mugabe
told Wu. During talks, the two sides have signed agreements covering
economic and technical cooperation, including the supply of computer
equipment. A memorandum of understanding was also penned between China's
Ministry of Justice and Zimbabwe's Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, although no details were given. "We have had
excellent discussions, excellent in the sense that what were still ideas
formulated in a draft form in some cases have now become real agreements
...," said Mugabe. "We have appended our signatures to them and we are very
very happy that we have done this to cement our relations with a great
friend, historical friend, brotherly friend, and that is the People's
Republic of China." Observers have said Mugabe's main purpose in visiting
Beijing was to plead for oil and loans to aid his state's failing economy,
although no details have been released on any agreements. He is aiming to
fulfill his "Look East" policy of fostering better relations with Asian
nations following sanctions and isolation from other parts of the world.
Comment from The Mail & Guradian (SA), 27 July
Everything but
quiet diplomacy
Tawanda Mutasah
Five years into the
crisis, it is evident that Pretoria and Africa's
position on Zimbabwe cannot
be called quiet diplomacy. And so the question
should not be what African
leaders should be doing about Zimbabwe, but what
the effect is of what
Pretoria and other African powers are already doing in
relation to Zimbabwe?
For example, at the United Nations Human Rights
Commission session from
March 17 to April 27 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland,
South Africa voted to
block discussion of a resolution from the European
Union expressing concern
about the human rights violations in Zimbabwe. Just
as it participated in
the blocking of a similar resolution in 2002, South
Africa in that year
voted for a non-action approach in accordance with the
much-abused Article 2
of Rule 65 of the UN Economic and Social Council
procedures, under which the
human rights commission operates as one of the
functional commissions of
council. In the 2003 deliberations, South Africa
felt convinced enough to
actually vote for blocking discussion on Zimbabwe.
Confronted with
the question, in February 2003, of whether to lift the
Commonwealth
sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe in 2002, Mbeki argued strongly
that the
situation in Zimbabwe was improving, and that therefore it was time
to lift
sanctions. In December 2002, a meeting of the parliamentary assembly
of the
African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with the EU under the
Cotonou
framework practically collapsed in Brussels when South Africa led
other ACP
countries in seeking to ensure the participation in the meeting of
Paul
Mangwana, a Zimbabwean politician on the EU sanctions list. In
mid-2003, the
South African minister of health threatened to walk out of a
meeting of
health ministers in Geneva if her counterpart from Zimbabwe was
not allowed
to participate. There has been a clear demonstration of
solidarity with
Mugabe amid the human rights, governance and economic crisis
in his country,
sufficient to make Mugabe confident enough to say recently
that Harare and
Pretoria are in solidarity.
South African foreign affairs official
Welile Hlapo seemed to have found a
convenient way in 2001 to deflect
attention from human rights issues when he
insinuated that the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change was allegedly
"the recipient of funds from
the United Kingdom's Westminster Foundation",
as reported in the Daily News
of November 6 2001. Against the background of
electoral fraud, intimidation,
murder and press gagging, it is the South
African official delegation that
certified as "legitimate" the 2002
presidential election that many other
international observers found to be
unacceptable. When, three years later, a
chance could have been seized to
bring the country back to political
legitimacy, it was some African
delegations, including the one led by the
South African Labour Minister
Membathisi Mdladlana, that found the deeply
flawed elections in March to
have reflected the will of the Zimbabweans.
Some African leaders, and
Pretoria in particular, have simply not been able
to call Mugabe's human
rights abuses by their name.
When South
African politicians have spoken about the situation in Zimbabwe,
they have
done so with water in their mouths. Over the past five years there
have been
key opportunities to speak clearly about human rights abuses in
Zimbabwe,
for example, Mbeki's answers to questions in the National Assembly
(March 26
2003); then deputy president Jacob Zuma's answers in the National
Assembly
(September 11 2002), among others. Harare has often promised Mbeki
that a
solution was on its way. An understanding of the way Mugabe operates
would
show that there is no reason to take such assurances seriously.
Recently the
Zimbabwean minister of local government said his government
does not need
help to implement the so-called Operation Restore Order. But
the government
has now asked South Africa for a $1-billion loan.
Pretoria needs to
make the deals with Harare transparent, not only because
these debts are
borne by Zimbabweans, but because it enables Zimbabweans to
demand
accountability for how these resources are used. If there is any
"synchronisation", as Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said last
week, needed, it is between what Pretoria is doing on the one hand and, on
the other, the efforts in relation to Zimbabwe of leaders such as Zwelinzima
Vavi, Molefe Tsele, Jody Kollapen, Van Zyl Slabbert, Archbishop Njongokulu
Ndungane, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jeremy Cronin, Hassan Loggart, Elinor
Sisulu, Mazibuko Jara, Sheila Meintjes, Venitia Govender and the
organisations they all work with. There is no doubt that there are many in
the South African government who harbour some level of private discomfort
about Mugabe. In his book, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the
ANC, William Mervin Gumede writes of his interview with Deputy Minister of
Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad on September 23 2003, disclosing how a frustrated
Mbeki had at some point sighed: "Why can't he [Mugabe] just leave, resign?"
Mugabe needs to know that, far from having a fan club in Pretoria, he is
only being tolerated for a specific short time, to enforce specific
reforms.
Pretoria must not hesitate to read to the Zanu PF leadership
that ultimate
threat - that if it does not turn the corner within a set
time, then it
risks being "discouraged" from using South Africa as a haven,
from keeping
its children in South African schools as it destroys the
Zimbabwean
schooling system, from buying its victuals in South Africa as
Zimbabweans
starve. In May 2003 Finance Minister Trevor Manuel dramatised
the discourse
that there is no alternative to so-called "quiet diplomacy"
when he charged:
"They say quiet diplomacy has failed. Should we act like
Ariel Sharon?
Should we just go in there; kick butt? If there are
alternative solutions,
let's hear what they are." I have presented a few.
Zimbabwean people, not
its government, have many more.
Tawanda
Mutasah was the founding convenor and moderator of Zimbabwe's
National
Constitutional Assembly, a civic coalition campaigning for reform
IOL
Transfrontier Park will open in August
July 27 2005 at
11:51AM
Plans to open the world's largest wildlife reserve, the
Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, next month were on track, Kruger
National Park
spokesperson Raymond Travers said on Tuesday.
But
Travers said a date for the opening, which will be attended by the
presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, has not been decided
yet.
"We're not sure of the date but the opening of the park
will
definitely go ahead in August," Travers said.
The Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park will become the biggest
wildlife reserve in the
world. It will accommodate 147 different kinds of
mammals, 505 bird species
and 116 types of reptiles.
The mega-park links
South Africa's Kruger National Park with
Mozambique's Limpopo and Zimbabwe's
Gonarezhou National Park. The park is
made up of 58 percent South African,
24 percent Mozambican and 18 percent
Zimbabwean territory.
"This is a long-term project that will have great tourism
opportunities in
the future," said Travers.
He said opportunities would come in the
form of packages between the
three countries.
"Tourists will
have a chance to participate in activities across the
countries," he
said.
Currently, international tourists travel to Cape Town, the
Kruger
National Park and Johannesburg before returning home.
Travers said tourists would now opt for the "bush to beach"
experience,
which involves visiting the Kruger National Park and then
travelling to
Mozambican beaches.
The Kruger National Park has finished
constructing the Giriyondo
border post between the South African and
Mozambican part of the
transfrontier park. Travers said the border post
would control movements
between the parks.
"A tourist will only
need a passport when travelling through the
Giriyondo post into Mozambique,"
he said.
Fences between the parks will be brought down even though
there will
be a border post. The removal of fences would, said Travers,
allow animals
to roam freely.
He warned that visitors who don't
use the border post would be
considered illegal immigrants when they cross
to the Mozambican or
Zimbabwean side. The three countries would continue
running the parks
separately.
"Profits from Kruger will
continue going through to South African
National Parks and the same will
apply in the Mozambican and Zimbabwean
parks," he said. - African Eye News
Service
This article was originally published on page 4 of
Pretoria News on
July 27, 2005