| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
CAPITOL HILL, Washington DC—The United States Senate sub-committee on African Affairs on Thursday night approved the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act 2001 which slaps travel restrictions on President Mugabe, his ministers, service chiefs and their families.
The bill, which was first introduced into the Senate last year, went through two readings in the Senate before being referred to the foreign relations committee. The committee approved the bill on Thursday, paving way for the proposed law to sail unopposed through the House of Representatives.
The bill will restrict President Mugabe, his immediate family, his cabinet ministers, government officials and the Zanu PF henchman implicated in political violence, from travelling to the United States.
The American government and all institutions with American links will also be barred from dealing with the Zimbabwean government. It will also stop aid and bilateral trade worth millions of United States dollars, dealing a body blow to the already ailing Zimbabwean economy.
Pre-requisites for restoring normal relations include: “The restoration of the rule of law, respect for ownership and title to property, freedom of speech and association, an end to lawlessness, violence, and intimidation which is sponsored, condoned, or tolerated by the Government of Zimbabwe, the ruling party and their supporters or entities.”
Reads part of the bill: “It is the policy of the United States to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to effect peaceful, democratic change, achieve broad-based and equitable economic growth, and restore the rule of law.
“It is the sense of Congress that the (American) President should begin immediate consultation with the governments of European Union member states, Canada, and other appropriate foreign countries, on ways in which to identify and share information regarding individuals responsible for the deliberate breakdown of the rule of law, politically motivated violence, and intimidation in Zimbabwe; to identify the assets of those individuals which are held outside Zimbabwe; implement travel and economic restrictions against those individuals and their associates and families and provide for the eventual removal or amendment of those sanctions.”
United States senator, Bill Frist, who introduced the bill told The Standard in Washington on Friday that the bill sought to restore economic prosperity and good governance in Zimbabwe.
“The crisis in Zimbabwe raises the possibility of a complete collapse of economic and social cohesion in a country which has historically served as a stable and promising anchor on a troubled continent.
“If we allow Zimbabwe to continue down its current path, we risk further instability in Southern Africa. This legislation represents an immediate, positive response that the United States can take to improve stability and economic growth for the entire region,” said Frist.
Senator Russ Fiengold, who seconded the bill said: “I am pleased to join Senator Frist in offering the Zimbabwe Democracy Act, and I hope that it will win support in the full Senate.
“The senate sub-committee on African Affairs recently held a hearing on the situation in Zimbabwe, and much of the testimony given at that hearing was truly distressing. Over the past year and half, conditions in Zimbabwe have deteriorated dramatically. This downward spiral of lawlessness and economic collapse is tragic as it is occurring in a remarkable country, one that is rich in human capital, had a sophisticated economy and boasts a vibrant civil society.
“This bill imposes no sanctions and cuts off no sources of assistance that have not already been suspended. It does lay out reasonable conditions for the resumption of assistance and authorises meaningful conditions for assistance to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery, including support for rule-governed land reform, once conditions have improved.”
The bill notes that the Zimbabwean people are suffering because of the government's mismanagement of the eco-nomy: “Through economic mismanagement, undemocratic practices, and the costly deployment of troops to the DRC, the Government of Zimbabwe has rendered itself ineligible to participate in International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Monetary Fund programmes, which would otherwise be providing substantial resources to assist in the recovery and modernisation of Zimbabwe’s economy.
“The people of Zimbabwe have been denied the economic and democratic benefits envisioned by the donors of such programmes, including the United States.”
The proposed law sets a number of measures to be taken by the US government should Zimbabwe meet conditions such as the holding of free and fair presidential elections, an equitable, transparent and legal land reform, restoration of the rule of law, a fulfilment of the Lusaka Peace Accord to end the DRC war, and a commitment that the police and army be subordinate to a civilian government.
Once these conditions are met, the bill states: The (American) secretary of the treasury shall:
• Undertake a review of the feasibility of restructuring, rescheduling, or eliminating the sovereign debt of Zimbabwe held by any agency of the United States of America.
• Direct the United States director of each international financial institution to which the United States is a member, to propose to undertake financial and technical support for Zimbabwe, especially support that is intended to promote Zimbabwe's economic recovery and development, the stabilisation of the Zimbabwe dollar, and the viability of Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions.
• The (American) President should direct the establishment of a Southern Africa Finance Centre located in Zimbabwe that will include regional offices of the Overseas Private Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Trade and Development Agency, for the purpose of facilitating the development of commercial projects in Zimbabwe and the Southern Africa region.
The bill also states the US government’s commitment to supporting Zimbabwe's land reform programme in the context of the International Donors’ Conference held in Harare in 1998.
At the conference, Zimbabwe undertook to carry out land reform in a transparent and legal manner. However, after last year's general election which Zanu PF narrowly won, government reneged on its promise, when it unleashed war veterans onto farms. The invasions set the tone for a chaotic land reform programme which has reduced Zimbabwe to Africa's basket case.
Zimbabwe Standard, 15 July
Colleagues killed my husband – Chitepo
Victoria Chitepo, widow of the late national hero, Herbert Chitepo, has for the first time publicly acknowledged that her husband was killed by his associates in the liberation war. Chitepo was commenting on contents of The Story of my Life, a book written by the late vice-president, Joshua Nkomo. The book has never been readily available in Zimbabwe and was only briefly serialised in The Herald. In the book, Nkomo alleges that Chitepo was killed by his colleagues.
The serialisation of Nkomo’s book, highly critical of President Mugabe, in the state-owned newspapers was prematurely brought to an end two weeks ago. In an interview with The Standard on Thursday, Chitepo said she did not want to make a big issue out of her husband’s death but confirmed he was murdered by his liberation war comrades. Chitepo, who was the Zanu PF chairman, was killed by a car bomb in Zambia in 1975. Ever since, Zanu PF officials have consistently blamed Rhodesian security agents for Chitepo’s death.
A report produced by a commission of inquiry into Chitepo’s death has never been made public in Zimbabwe. The inquiry was instituted by the Zambian government at the height of the liberation war. Commenting on the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo’s statement that Chitepo was killed by his allies, the national hero’s widow said it was public knowledge that her husband’s murderers had gone scot free. In his controversial book, Nkomo said Chitepo was murdered by his colleagues in the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla). Wrote Nkomo: "From Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia were . . . Herbert Chitepo, who became a brilliant lawyer - having been my friend, he later became my great adversary, until he was murdered by his own associates in Zambia in 1975."
His widow confirmed Nkomo’s version of events: "I don’t have anything new to add to this issue. What has been said by Nkomo is not new. It is public knowledge and I cannot add anything new. The people who killed my husband have never been held accountable for their action. So talking about it will not open a new chapter. In fact, your paper has done very well to highlight this issue and to question why the people who killed my husband are still free men."
It is widely believed that Chitepo was murdered in the course of a power struggle by close Zanu PF allies. Soon after his death, the Kenneth Kaunda-led Zambian government detained the Zanla leadership over Chitepo’s death after they had aroused suspicion by leaving Zambia soon after Chitepo’s burial. In an interview with The Standard in 1999, when visiting Nkomo’s grave, Kaunda said the actions of the Zanla leadership on the aftermath of Chitepo’s death had caused suspicion. He expressed surprise that the Zanla leadership had not bothered to investigate Chitepo’s death.
"Chitepo was a committed leader. And some day we will talk about how he died. It is one blot in the history, a sad reflection of the whole liberation of this region. Some of the Zanla leadership left Zambia soon after the burial. I didn’t expect them to leave immediately...this was their death. It was our death too, and it required all of us to work together on it," said Kaunda. Although Kaunda refused to name the Zanla leaders who had made the suspiciously early departure, he alluded to problems within Zanla forces which had led to "some sad developments".
By David Blair in London
The exploits of Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer in Animal Farm have been gripping readers of Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper as they revel in its striking parallels with the autocratic President Robert Mugabe.
The Daily News, the biggest- selling independent newspaper, has criticised Mr Mugabe (right) and suffered two bomb attacks and several violent demonstrations. Yet its serialisation of Animal Farm has marked its most effective attack on his Government.
Kingston's bookshop, the largest in Harare, sold out of copies of George Orwell's book within days of the serialisation beginning last month. In the daily instalments, Napoleon, the greedy and brutal pig who leads the revolution, is depicted in the black, thick-rimmed spectacles favoured by Mr Mugabe.
The newspaper's editor-in-chief, Mr Geoffrey Nyarota, said: "Animal Farm is not only relevant but pertinent to the situation in Zimbabwe. The animals in the book won independence by working together. But in due course some of them became drunk with power." Government figures had privately expressed their disquiet over the serialisation, he said. "Our leaders have been stung by this."
Any tale about a farmer being driven off his land bears obvious comparison with events in Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe's followers have occupied almost 1,700 white-owned farms. Orwell's story ends with the pigs running Manor Farm in their own interests and proving ruthless oppressors of the other animals.
For Mr Mugabe's critics the analogies need no explaining; just as Napoleon turns on Snowball, once his fellow revolutionary, and drives him off the farm, so Mr Mugabe turned on Mr Joshua Nkomo, the late nationalist leader, and forced him into exile in Britain in 1983.
Napoleon ordered celebrations to mark his birthday; Mr Mugabe, 77, has established a youth brigade called the 22nd February Movement that fetes him each year. Orwell's pigs were ordered to chant "Long live Comrade Napoleon"; Mr Mugabe's followers greet him with cries of "Forward with Comrade Mugabe".
Mr Mugabe's followers also bear comparison with Orwell's characters. Squealer, the faithful lackey and propagandist for Napoleon, is strikingly similar to the Information Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo.
Yet comparison between Mr Mugabe and Napoleon fails on one point: Orwell writes that Napoleon's speeches are invariably "short and to the point".
The Telegraph, London
Sunday Telegraph (UK), 15 July
Mugabe regime squeals at Animal Farm success
The exploits of Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer in Animal Farm have been gripping readers of Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper as they revel in its striking parallels with the autocratic President Robert Mugabe. The Daily News, the biggest selling independent newspaper, has criticised Mr Mugabe and suffered two bomb attacks and numerous violent demonstrations. Yet its serialisation of Animal Farm, in which George Orwell sought to parody the communism which swept Russia and was spreading to Europe, has marked its most effective attack on his government.
Kingston's bookshop, the largest in Harare, sold out of copies of Orwell's book within days of the serialisation beginning last month. In the daily instalments Napoleon, the greedy and brutal pig who leads the revolution, is depicted in the black thick-rimmed spectacles favoured by Mr Mugabe. Geoffrey Nyarota, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, who has infuriated the government once again, said: "Animal Farm is not only relevant but pertinent to Zimbabwe. The animals in the book won independence by working together. But in due course some became drunk with power."
Any tale about a farmer being driven off his land bears obvious comparison with events in Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe's followers have occupied almost 1,700 white-owned farms. Orwell's story ends with the pigs running Manor Farm in their own interests and proving ruthless oppressors of the other animals. To many Zimbabweans, Mr Mugabe's words and behaviour seem almost modelled on those of the pigs. For the president's critics, the analogies do not need explaining: just as Napoleon turns on Snowball, once his fellow revolutionary, and drives him off the farm, Mr Mugabe turned on Joshua Nkomo, the late nationalist leader, and forced him into exile in Britain in 1983. Only after agreeing to the dissolution of his Zapu Party was Mr Nkomo rehabilitated.
Napoleon ordered celebrations to mark his birthday. Mr Mugabe, 77, has established a youth brigade called the 21st February Movement that fetes him every year. Orwell's pigs were ordered to chant "Long live Comrade Napoleon". Mr Mugabe's followers greet him with cries of "Forward with Comrade Mugabe". Mr Mugabe's followers also bear comparison with Orwell's characters. Squealer, the faithful lackey and propagandist for Napoleon, always ready to propound a logical contradiction, is strikingly similar to Prof Jonathan Moyo, the information minister.
The Daily News has been demonised by Prof Moyo as a "British-sponsored" newspaper bent on overthrowing Mr Mugabe. Since an anti-tank mine destroyed its press on January 28, only 60,000 copies have been produced each day. Before the attack, believed to have been perpetrated by the Zimbabwean army, at least 100,000 copies were sold. The serialisation of Animal Farm has made the Daily News even more villainous in the regime's eyes. Yet comparison between Mr Mugabe and Napoleon fails on one point. Orwell writes that Napoleon's speeches are invariably "short and to the point".
The Mail & Guardian (SA), 14 July
Think-tank urges sanctions on Mugabe
Brussels – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his entourage should face targeted personal sanctions if he fails to allow free and fair elections next year, a think-tank said in a report published this weekend. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and other key global players should carefully coordinate policy towards Zimbabwe to prevent it from sinking deeper into chaos. "It is up to the people of Zimbabwe to determine their future - but at the moment they have no chance of being able to do that, and the pro-reform movement needs all the international support it can get," said ICG president Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister.
The ICG report calls for a Zimbabwe strategy similar to the one adopted by Western governments towards Yugoslavia in their ultimately successful bid to oust former president Slobodan Milosevic and restore democracy in the Balkan country. The strategy would include imposing travel restrictions and a freeze on assets held overseas by Mugabe, his family and senior members of his Zanu PF party. The Commonwealth, which groups Britain and its former colonies, should suspend Zimbabwe's membership when it next meets in Australia in October, the ICG said. Its proposals would come into effect if Mugabe failed to meet certain conditions for the 2002 presidential election. These conditions would include establishing an independent election commission, reorganisation of voter rolls, international monitoring before, during and after the election and a free rein for the media, the ICG said. The think-tank also said the World Bank and donor governments should try to resolve the troubled land issue with Zimbabwe before the election takes place.
Zimbabwe has been suffering an economic and political crisis since February when self-styled war veterans, encouraged by the state, seized hundreds of white-owned farms across the country. The land chaos has sparked fears of food shortages. Zimbabwe has run out of foreign exchange, while inflation and unemployment are at record levels. Mugabe says Britain must pay compensation for the thousands of farms the state plans to seize and redistribute to blacks. London says it will not finance land reform amid chaos and disregard for the rule of law.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo announced on Saturday the government is preparing a law targeting "unprofessionalism in journalism" practised, according to him, by the independent opposition press. Moyo, whose remarks were broadcast on state television, accused the opposition press of "inventing stories", in particular concerning alleged rifts between President Robert Mugabe and his vice president, and between the latter and other government ministers. "That kind of misconduct needs legislative intervention," Moyo said. He added that the legislation being envisaged would protect "the privacy of both public (officials) and private citizens." Relations between Mugabe's government and the independent local and the foreign media is severely strained. The authorities have forced three foreign journalists to leave the country this year and has enacted a law that has effectively blocked private broadcasters from operating. The printing press of the nation's only private daily paper, the Daily News, was destroyed in a January 2001 bomb blast. Many local journalists have become victims of aggression and intimidation by the authorities.
The Sunday Times (SA), 15 July
SA ready to put 'pressure' on Zimbabwe
South Africa is to make a "big push" to get Zimbabwe to comply with measures spelt out by the Organisation of African Unity this week for African states to meet requirements for its strategy for economic recovery, peace and political stability. The head of the presidency in the ANC, Smuts Ngonyama, said now that broad principles for setting Africa on a path of development and unity had been defined by the OAU, "significant pressure" would be placed on errant states like Zimbabwe.
As preconditions for the new African Initiative, the 53-member OAU said African states should achieve peace and security, democracy, sound financial management and regional cooperation and integration. "The Southern African Development Community has been stalling on dealing with these problems, but, now that there is agreement from the entire continent, there can be pressure from regional level," Ngonyama said. "Issues such as the land grabs in Zimbabwe have been playing on the wrong side of economic development and stability. We are now in a position to assist with managing such situations." Foreign Affairs deputy director-general Welile Nhlapo said conflict-ridden African states would inhibit the even development of the continent. Regional blocs such as the SADC would be strengthened in terms of the new recovery plan and would step up pressure on non-compliant governments to achieve stability.
Harare - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
flew out of Zimbabwe on Saturday, leaving a trail of racial broadsides on whites
in his wake.
"The liberation battle is not over until all whites leave. If the white man
has to stay and live with us, they have to be our servants, then we can
reconsider living with them," Gaddafi said according to a report in the
state-controlled Herald newspaper Saturday.
Gaddafi also called on the West to pay compensation for "the brutal slavery"
inflicted on Africans in the colonial era. He made no mention of Arab slave
traders.
Independent reporters were denied access to Gaddafi during his two-day trip.
Gaddafi was scheduled to hold talks on Friday with Mugabe on the possibility of
Libya providing petroleum products to Zimbabwe, gripped by acute gasoline
shortages since 1999. No details of the talks were released.
The Libyan leader swept across the border from neighbouring Zambia on
Thursday in a 100 vehicle motorcade.
He left on Saturday for Uganda after inspecting a troupe of tribal dancers
and an honour guard at Harare's main airport, where two Libyan freight planes
carried away the massive motorcade, state radio reported.
Before leaving Gaddafi re-emphasised the need for blacks to seize farms from
whites "and fully utilise land to uplift the masses," according to the radio.
Gaddafi had repeatedly praised President Robert Mugabe's programme to seize
thousands of white-owned farms without paying compensation. A few thousand
whites own more than one-third of the arable land in this country of 11 million
people.
Gaddafi said whites in Zimbabwe seized land from blacks before independence
in 1980, according to The Herald.
"What was taken by force, you get back by force. The whole of Africa is with
you. Our sacred land is not for bargaining. You have been patient more than
necessary," he said.
Gaddafi said he had forced Italian colonialists to leave Libya, according to
The Herald.
"I confiscated all the property the Italians had ... workshops, farms,
houses, shops, cars and gave them to Libyans," he said.
"We could have killed, slaughtered [them] because they invaded our land and
killed our people. But because we were civilised and forgiving ... we let them
go to Italy with hands over their heads," he said.
Gaddafi's extravagant, gas-guzzling motorcade drove 500km from the Zambian
capital, Lusaka, where Gaddafi and Mugabe attended a three-day summit of Africa
leaders. The parade of vehicles was guarded by Zimbabwe military helicopters and
escorted by armoured cars, wailing police cruisers and motorcycle outriders.
Mugabe had said Gaddafi travelled by road to see firsthand the severity of
the nation's gasoline shortages - caused by a shortage of hard currency - and to
assess threats of Western economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The threatened sanctions are a protest against land seizures, declared
illegal by the country's highest court, and political violence blamed mostly on
ruling party militants that has crippled the agriculture-based economy.
The Herald said Mugabe applauded Gaddafi for his stand against the Western
imperialism that was re-emerging in Africa.
"We need greater support more than before so that monster can have its head
crushed," Mugabe said.
| 13/07/2001 08:27 - (SA) |
Shonhiwa Muzengu
The last fuel rise led to a two-day mass stayaway which cost the country an estimated R2 billion in lost production and exports. And tension is still high. Trade unions gave the government another 14 days notice to reverse the now old increase as a condition for paving the way for dialogue.
The government's debt-ridden National Oil Company of Zimbabwe Limited (Noczim) has indicated that another increase was necessary because of fluctuations in international oil prices.
Fuel price increase cannot be ruled out
John Robertson, an economist, told the independent Daily News that a fuel price increase could not be ruled out because international fuel prices constantly changed and Zimbabwe needed money to repay its debt, anyway.
Factored into the last fuel price increase was what Noczim called an Amortisation Levy of R1 a litre for all motorists, who were also made to fork out a R1 road user levy, another R1 for the Noczim Bond, and a duty of about 50 cents.
The new proposal, however, comes amid a stand-off between the ZCTU and the government over the last increases which led to the recent two-day stayaway.
Noczim officials confirmed that the company needed more money to remain afloat, service debts and procure more fuel. "An increase is definite. About 20 percent or so. Soon," said an official who requested anonymity, citing what he called the politically sensitive nature of the subject as the reason.
Oil company will be making regular price adjustments
On 12 June, when the hotly contested increase was announced, the Noczim chairperson, Nicholas Kitikiti, said: "In keeping with the Millennium Economic Recovery Programme, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe will be making regular price adjustments in line with the movement of the exogenous factors which affect prices of petroleum products on the international oil market.
"These factors are crude oil prices, Free On Board (FOB) prices of refined petroleum products, exchange rate movements and interest rates on the local market."
Zimbabwe spends about R240 million a month on fuel imports. Analysts say with the foreign currency shortage and the general poverty worsened by the loss of international confidence on Zimbabwe, it had become difficult for Noczim to source foreign currency at the official exchange rate of Z$55 to the US dollar.
Noczim, like most Zimbabweans and their companies, has had to resort to what the government prefers to call the parallel market which is asking for at least Z$140 to the US dollar.
The fuel increase has hiked the cost of living to a level where Zimbabwe has become a very unsecure place to live, said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe. "Most families are hungry and this makes everybody unsafe," he said.
|
July 12 2001 at 08:55PM |
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has suffered a new blow to his attempt to
seize white land after a court ruled that it would hear no more applications to
approve confiscations until the rule of law had been restored on the country's
commercial farmland.
The ruling on Wednesday by Judge Alfas Chitakunye
of the administrative court meant that "government acquisition of the land was
illegal in terms of the law, until law and order is restored", advocate Adrian
de Bourbon said on Thursday.
Approval by the administrative court is the
last step in a complex legal and bureaucratic process in the "compulsory
acquisition of land" by the government, and where owners can object to the
confiscation of their land.
If the court finds the government has taken
all steps laid down by the law, the government can formally declare the land to
be state property and evict the owner.
However, in December last year
the supreme court gave the government six months in which to end the anarchy on
thousands of white-owned farms invaded by ruling party militias and illegally
declared "state property" by government officials.
The deadline expired
on July 1. On Wednesday, in the first case since then, the court sat to hear
objections from farmer Chris Grobler over the seizing of his farm in the Makoni
district. The court found against the state. - Sapa-DPA