"The end of an era"
"Tomorrow, 31st July 2002, we pack up and move off
our Y. farm. We bought this farm in 1984, after the Government took
over all our land holdings in the Z. area. We did not inherit
this land, we were not given it as a post war gift. We worked for it, X and
I, we paid for it, and now it is being taken from us.
The sun will set on this farm tomorrow. Like every
other day, but the difference will be that the productive and enterprising hand
of the rightful owner will be severed. No commercial food crops will be grown
there, no commercial beef herd will be raised there, no foreign currency earning
gold leaf of tobacco will be grown and the timber plantations will not be
managed and sustained. The tobacco curing facilities will lie silent. The house
will be empty, the sheds swept and tidy. How long before looters come in and
remove the roofing iron, door frames, window frames, baths basins toilets etc?
The paddock fencing has already been removed. Eaten? Perhaps, because there is
absolutely no evidence of it anywhere. No gardens fenced in or shanty town huts
fenced off. Just gone.
Forty farm workers families will pack their meagre
belongings and walk to the bus stop on the tar road. There will be no farm
transport to take them, because at this stage they have no final destination.
Yes, they have money. Not that there is much they can buy with it. There is a
new law, so many new ones these days. Farmers are obliged to pay severence
packages, relocations fees etc to all farm workers. No compensation is being
paid for the land or improvements and this in spite of the fact that you want to
continue farming and sustaining the national economy. Our country is facing the
worst famine ever in history, let alone living memory, and the goose that can
produce the golden egg is being sacrificed for the need to hold onto
power.
In spite of this, we consider ourselves blessed. We
are still in Zimbabwe, the land of our birth, we still have a place to farm, be
it as it may much smaller than before. We have each other, and we are proud of
the achievements we made when we had the chance. We have our wonderful memories,
and knowledge that we started again once before, we can start again now. "It is
not what you have lost, but what you have left that counts.""
ID's removed for protection
From BBC News, 29 July
Eyewitness: search for food
By Grant Ferrett BBC correspondent, recently in Zimbabwe
A few hours after I arrived in Zimbabwe, I went through my first police
roadblock. As I was there without official permission, I felt rather anxious. I
need not have worried. The police were not looking for foreign journalists -
they were looking for food. Anyone found carrying more than a single bag of
maize - the staple diet in Zimbabwe - has their cargo confiscated. When I left
Zimbabwe in February last year, a week before my colleague Joseph Winter was
thrown out, the queues were for fuel. Now they are for food. The whole country
is affected, including the capital, Harare. I went to what used to be my local
supermarket to see if the reports of severe shortages were true. They were.
There was no maize meal, no cooking oil, no sugar and no salt. Instead, in an
effort to give an impression of normality, the shelves were stacked with toilet
rolls and expensive breakfast cereals. When food does arrive, the shops no
longer bother putting it on display because of the chaos it causes. The supplies
are distributed from the back of the supermarket. The police are on hand to keep
order and take their cut of the food ahead of the shoppers. With the shops
largely empty of basics, many people turn either to the black market or
state-run grain depots. Each have their problems. Prices on the black market are
prohibitively expensive, while at the grain depots, you are asked to produce
your ruling party membership card before be allowed to buy maize. I spoke to
several people who said they bought a party card purely to get grain. This ploy
does not work, though, if you are a known opposition supporter. These are
routinely refused food and risk being beaten up.
In spite of all this, several of those I spoke to in Harare said that
although they were reduced to eating a single meal a day, they were lucky
compared with those in rural areas. So I went to a rural area to see for myself.
It was not difficult to find people suffering from hunger on the road to Binga,
in the remote north-west, on the banks of Lake Kariba. In fact, the very first
family I spoke to said they had been without maize for months. How were they
surviving? On a diet of leaves. "And what else?" I asked. "Leaves," they
replied. "Just leaves." I am ashamed to admit I did not believe them. But sure
enough, there on the fire was a pot of thick, bubbling leaves. here are food aid
programmes designed to help such families. The problem is that they are being
manipulated for political ends by President Mugabe's supporters. In Binga and
neighbouring Hwange West, I heard complaint after complaint that ruling party
militants who call themselves war veterans were interrupting relief supplies or
blocking them altogether. The aim is to prevent opposition supporters from
receiving food, starving the people into submission. With the next harvest six
months away, many more Zimbabweans are likely to be turning to leaves, if they
still have the energy to look.
Business Report
Zimbabwe's finance minister throws tobacco farmers a
lifeline
Basildon Peta
July 30 2002 at 09:43AM
Johannesburg -
Zimbabwean finance minister Simba Makoni has devalued the
Zimbabwe dollar for
the tobacco sector, throwing a major lifeline to
embattled tobacco
farmers.
They will be paid Z$317 for every US dollar earned on the
tobacco auction
floors, with immediate effect. The move comes after Makoni
announced a new
exchange rate on imported luxury goods. Luxury goods such as
passenger
vehicles, beverages and oil fats are now being charged import duty
at an
exchange rate of Z$300 to the US dollar.
Makoni's
decision to
resort to sector devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar seems to
have been caused
by President Robert Mugabe's categorical refusal to
consider a general
devaluation.
Last week Mugabe made a veiled attack on his finance
minister when he
branded people agitating for a devaluation as enemies of the
state.
"Devaluation is dead," Mugabe declared.
Makoni has publicly
supported calls by the industrial sector for a
devaluation. He seems to have
angered Mugabe by openly describing the
current fixed exchange rate policy as
being "thoroughly discredited".
Zimbabwe's currency is officially pegged
at Z$55 to the US dollar, yet on
the black market each greenback fetches
anything above Z$625. One rand
officially buys Z$8, yet it fetches more than
Z$50 on the black market.
Farmers and industrialists complain that they
have to buy foreign currency
at exorbitant prices on the black market for
inputs. They must then sell
their products at a loss since the government has
imposed price controls on
a wide range of goods. - Independent Foreign
Service
Daily News
20 gold panners feared dead
7/30/02 8:56:51
AM (GMT +2)
From Precious Shumba in Mhondoro
ABOUT
20 illegal gold panners are reported to have died last Tuesday
in the disused
Village Mine, at Zimbo in Mhondoro when the mine-shaft
collapsed burying them
alive.
Their bodies have not been recovered.
Rescue teams from the police, army and the nearby Makwiro Platinum
Mine in
Selous were only able to rescue one panner on the fateful day. He
was
identified only as Francis, who died on the way to Chegutu
Hospital.
Yesterday, relatives were making frantic efforts to get
assistance to
retrieve the bodies from the pit.
Peter Mandizadza
of Msengezi said his son, Itayi, 26, was among the
dead.
Mandizadza, 64, who was at the mine when The Daily News crew visited
the
scene of the tragedy yesterday, said the police response was
not
helpful.
"We only need the police or the army to help us to
exhume Itayi's body
which has remained trapped underground since Tuesday last
week," Mandizadza
said, "but they are not responding positively as is
expected when many lives
are lost in an accident."
Noah Mucheri,
27, an illegal gold panner who witnessed the shaft
collapse, said they were
disappointed by the inaction of the police and the
army to retrieve the
decomposing bodies of the panners.
Mucheri, of Chegutu, said the
police and some members of the army
visited the scene on Tuesday but only
took notes.
Forget Moyo, 26, another illegal gold panner at the
scene, said the
police and an official from the Ministry of Mines and Energy
identified as
Fidelis Manyange, had ordered the relatives not to try to
retrieve the
bodies as they risked being entombed in the shaft.
"What help will it be to wait?" Moyo said. "The police have done
nothing but
several bodies are decomposing."
Inspector Leonard Matuku, the
officer-in-charge at Selous police
station confirmed the deaths of several
people at the mine but could not say
how many and what action they have taken
to retrieve the bodies extreme
underground.
He said: "We are not
involved. An Inspector Ndlovu in Kadoma from the
Ministry of Mines and Energy
is responsible. Some people are still trapped
inside. Relatives have made
reports to us."
The Village Mine is reportedly owned by Morelife
Mukandla of Kadoma
and John Sithole of Chegutu, trading as B and J Mining
Syndicate.
Both men could not be reached for comment.
Moyo said the syndicate employed a private security company to guard
the mine
but it failed to control the number of people entering the shaft.
"The security guards let in more gold panners during the night," Moyo
said.
"Some of them are inexperienced." He said. "When the mineshaft
collapsed,
some were asleep and could not escape."
Vutsa Nyarumbu, the safety
and security manager at Makwiro platinum
mine, formerly Broken Hill
Properties mine, said they received a call from
Selous police station but
they only managed to rescue one person, identified
only as
Francis.
"When we arrived we found four other dead bodies near the
entrance
which were trapped beneath boulders," Nyarumbu said. "One person was
still
alive though and we tried to save his life, in vainordered the
relatives not
to try to retrieve the bodies as they risked being entombed in
the shaft.
"What help will it be to wait?" Moyo said. "The police
have done
absolutely nothing while several bodies are
decomposing."
Inspector Leonard Matuku, the officer-in-charge at
Selous Police
Station, confirmed the deaths at the mine, but could not give
the number and
or say whether any measures had been taken to retrieve the
bodies.
He said: "We are not involved. An Inspector Ndlovu in
Kadoma from the
Ministry of Mines and Energy is responsible. Some people are
still trapped
inside. Relatives have made reports to us."
Village Mine is reportedly owned by Morelife Mkandla of Kadoma and
John
Sithole of Chegutu, trading as B and J Mining Syndicate.
Both men
could not be reached for comment.
Moyo said the syndicate employed
a private security company to guard
the mine but still failed to control the
number of people entering the
shaft.
"The security guards let in
more gold panners during the night," Moyo
said, "some of them
inexperienced.
"When the mine-shaft collapsed, some were asleep and
could not
escape."
Vutsa Nyarumbu, the safety and security
manager at Makwiro Platinum
Mine, formerly Broken Hill Properties Mine, said
they received a call from
Selous Police Station but they only managed to
rescue one person, identified
only as Francis.
"When we arrived
we found four other dead bodies near the entrance
which were trapped beneath
boulders," Nyarumbu said. "One person was still
alive though and we tried to
save his life, but in vain."
Daily News
Mutare business community denounces police-army
raids
7/30/02 9:05:15 AM (GMT +2)
From Brian
Mangwende in Mutare
MUTARE businessmen last week blasted law
enforcement agents for
seizing goods worth millions of dollars from major
wholesalers.
The combined police-army operation in the city is
aimed at stopping
hoarding of basic commodities.
There has been
a serious shortage of cooking oil, sugar, salt and
mealie-meal and
bread.
The wholesalers were accused of hoarding and selling the
basic
commodities for resale to illegal traders at a profit, shunning the
local
market.
This month, the uniformed officers on two
occasions raided major
wholesalers
including Bhadella Wholesalers,
Mupfumi Investments, Olivine
Industries, Gulch Wholesalers, TM Supermarket in
Dangamvura, and Wholesale
Centre.
A businessman who refused to
be named said: "We held a meeting with
the police this week and we asked them
whether they knew or believed what
they were doing. What is hoarding? Do they
understand the concept of being a
wholesaler?
"They come to our
premises and embarrass managers in front of their
juniors. We buy in bulk for
resale. As soon as our products arrive we
account, store and
sell.
"But the police and soldiers come just after the products
have been
off-loaded and seize them."
Another businessman, who
spoke on condition of anonymity fearing
reprisals and further raids, said the
police were being overzealous.
"There is a complete breakdown of
the rule of law in his city,'' the
businessman said. "These people don't know
what they are doing. How can they
raid our stock? Where are we supposed to
store our commodities?
"They jotted down our queries and said they
would get back to us after
consulting their bosses," he said.
The goods which were removed to the main police camp have since
been
delivered back to the wholesalers.
Philip Chiyangwa, the
former president of the Affirmative Action Group
and
Member of
Parliament for Chegutu, applauded the raids and said they
should continue.
"All businessmen hoarding basic commodities should be
arrested," he
said.
Daily News
MP Sikhala sues Zimpapers for defamation
7/30/02 9:06:06 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
JOB
Sikhala, the MP for St Mary's, on Sunday said he had instructed
his lawyer,
Simbarashe Muzenda of Muzenda and Maganga Associates, to sue
Zimbabwe
Newspapers (1980) Limited, publishers of The Herald and The Sunday
Mail, for
defamation.
Sikhala alleges that his lawyer also has
instructions to sue
Munyaradzi Huni, the writer of the story entitled:
"Terror goes one gear up,
from shoelaces to knives," in which he described
the MDC legislator as a
"troublesome child".
The story in
question was published in the The Sunday Mail this week.
Part of
the story, described by Sikhala as "ominous and highly
defamatory", reads:
"In the meantime, the MDC will call Mr Sikhala its
'troublesome child' but if
the party's leadership continues to cheer the
'child' in him, then another
tragic incident is waiting to happen."
Sikhala said the article was
not only disturbing but was also very
misleading and had caused so much
trauma to his family, particularly as it
sought to prophecy that the MP was
going to do something tragic.
Sikhala said: "I have an obligation
to protect myself and my family
from the reckless and misguided reporting
displayed by The Sunday Mail.
"The relentless attack on my personal
integrity must be brought to an
end.
"Accordingly I have now
instructed my lawyers to take legal action
against Zimpapers and its
employees for tarnishing my image."
Daily News
Headmaster flees as hysteria grips school
7/30/02 9:01:43 AM (GMT +2)
Staff Reporter
THE
headmaster of St Mark's Secondary School in Mhondoro has fled the
school
following accusations by parents that he possesses goblins which
have
sexually harassed female students and teachers.
Last Wednesday, the school was closed over the allegations which have
sent
shock-waves throughout the rural community.
Angry parents were on
Tuesday collecting their children from the
school, demanding to see the
headmaster, who was understood to have fled the
school.
Reporters arriving at the school heard female students and teachers
complain
of sexual harassment and of being beaten up by "invisible objects".
Most students had by late Wednesday afternoon left the school while
the
remaining few could be seen milling around, waiting for their parents to
come
and take them home. Teachers said those affected by the activities of
the
alleged goblins would behave in a strange manner, characterised
by
hysteria.
"I witnessed one incident when a student went into
a trance," said a
teacher who refused to be named for fear of
victimisation.
"He was demanding meat, threatening that after
finishing with the
students, the spirits would attack the teachers next. We
are living in fear
here."
The incidents have disrupted the
mid-year examinations which were in
progress at the school. Schools are due
to close for holidays on 1 August.
The school's deputy headmaster
was evasive about the alleged evil
spirits at the school and referred all
questions to the regional offices of
the Ministry of Education, Sports and
Culture in Chegutu.
"As far as we are concerned, things are normal
here. We will still
carry on with lessons with the remaining students and
life goes on," he
said.
The deputy headmaster would not allow
his name to be published because
of Public Services regulations.
Ignatius Angara, the District Education Officer for Mhondoro,
confirmed the
incidents had been reported to their offices.
"We have heard that
the children are praying about it, but I can't
really say much.
We are still investigating," said Angara. Reverend Rinashe of the
Anglican
Church, which runs the school, said there was no need for all
the
panic.
He said: "Everything is now back to normal and I
understand lessons
have resumed." But some of the teachers said it was highly
unlikely that
lessons would continue as schools were about to close soon
anyway.
The mysterious incidents started about six weeks ago when
students
complained of
being harassed by "mysterious beings" during
the night, believed to be
goblins,
known in Shona as zvikwambo,
mubobobo or as tokoloshe in Zulu.
"About 30 students have been
victims of the attacks and we can't bear
spending another night at this
haunted place," said a student.
"A friend of mine was bitten on the
arm after she wrestled with a
ghost which wanted to sleep with her," she
said.
A number of female teachers are reportedly contemplating
leaving the
school.
The teachers put some of their allegations
in writing for the benefit
of reporters. They allege they are being sexually
abused by mysterious
entities at night.
"Sometimes we get up in
the morning to find the bedding mysteriously
wet and we suspect foul play,"
says the statement.
One teacher said at the height of the
incidents, many students joined
the school's Scripture Union (SU) group where
they held regular prayer
meetings in the hope the evil spirits would be
exorcised.
The headmaster was allegedly annoyed with this
development. He is said
to have acted against the SU.
Daily News
No television cameras, no show, says Msipa
7/30/02 8:59:28 AM (GMT +2)
From Our Correspondent in
Gweru
Cephas Msipa, the Midlands governor, apparently taking a cue
from a
former Cabinet minister obsessed with television cameras, on Saturday
asked
for the official opening of the Midlands Agricultural Show to be
delayed -
until the cameras were in place.
Msipa
asked the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema, to
delay the
opening until the ZBC-TV news crew arrived - which they did, but
40 minutes
later.
Nhema, the Zanu PF MP for Shurugwi, was the guest of
honour.
The visibly worried Msipa ordered the show organisers to
play music to
pacify the restive crowd of 25 000 while he made frantic
telephone calls to
establish the whereabouts of the State-controlled
broadcaster's news crew.
The ZBC-TV crew arrived 40 minutes later
with the chief executive
officer, Munyaradzi Hwengwere, Abigail Mvududu, the
head of radio services,
and 3FM boss Joseph Nhara in tow.
"This
obsession with the ZBC cameras must be stopped," said a delegate
at the VIP
stand.
A former Cabinet minister, Enos Chikowore, earned himself
the dubious
distinction of being the Zanu PF government's minister most
obsessed with
television. He acquired an unmatched reputation for holding up
functions
until they could be captured on TV.
The Midlands show,
held against a backdrop of a severe drought, harsh
economic environment and
political turmoil, was marred by the absence of
cattle exhibits. The
organisers attributed this to an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease and the
shortage of stockfeeds.
The problems were compounded by the
government's controversial land
reform programme in which about 2 900 white
commercial farmers were thrown
out of their properties.
Nhema
said this year's theme, Save Our Environment, could not have
come at a more
appropriate time.
"We do not want to leave behind a legacy of
plunder of our natural
resources and destruction of our environment where our
children will look at
us with scorn," said Nhema. "My ministry has developed
an integrated
conservation plan for the fast-track resettlement programme to
minimise
damage to the environment during the exercise."
Daily News
Mugabe off to Malaysia
7/30/02 8:58:38 AM
(GMT +2)
Political Editor
Barely ten days after
returning from a visit to Cuba, President Mugabe
is off again, this time to
Malaysia, for six days.
Mugabe, together with 71 of his
top Zanu PF and government officials,
who has been barred from travelling to
Europe under the EU's targeted
sanctions imposed just before the
controversial March presidential
elections, is expected to meet his Malaysian
counterpart and government
officials.
Mahathir Mohamad, Mugabe's
long-time ally, has announced his
intentions to leave office unlike his
counterpart, who chose to remain at
the helm after going through a
controversial election.
It was not immediately clear what Mugabe's
itinerary would be but in
Cuba he concentrated on visiting technological
centres and scientific
centres dealing with the HIV/Aids scourge.
Daily News
Zanu PF breaks MDC's stranglehold in towns
7/30/02 8:57:43 AM (GMT +2)
From Luke Tamborinyoka in
Kadoma
THE MDC's dominance in urban areas was broken yesterday when
Zanu PF's
Fani Phiri won the Kadoma mayoral election by a narrow margin of
672 votes.
Phiri polled 6 886 votes against 6 214
polled by Editor Matamisa, the
first female to be fielded as a mayoral
candidate by the MDC.
The elections were marred by clashes between
party supporters.
A total of 13 161 people cast their votes in the
two-day polls and 61
votes were spoilt in the municipal election for which 38
739 had registered
to vote.
The MDC has won in previous mayoral
elections in Harare, Bulawayo,
Chitungwiza Masvingo and Chegutu.
Zanu PF's victory was preceded by an influx into Kadoma of members of
the
notorious youth brigade, senior Zanu PF officials and the party's
supporters,
most of whom were still booked at Westview Lodge, Kadoma Hotel
and Conference
Centre, and Specks Hotel yesterday.
Matamisa, a former head teacher
who resigned from her post on 30 June
this year, immediately dismissed the
result as a fraud.
"I will contest the result as this is definitely
not a reflection of
the will of the people. There was massive bussing of
people from outside the
municipal boundaries and I will certainly mount a
legal challenge because of
this and other irregularities,'' Matamisa
said.
She had to be escorted through a back entrance at the
counting centre
as Zanu PF supporters threatened to beat her up.
Phiri becomes the first Zanu PF candidate to win in mayoral elections
since
the MDC was formed in September 1999.
"The poll was both fair and
tight,'' Phiri said before he was
immediately whisked away by jubilant Zanu
PF supporters.
An hour before the results were officially
announced, Zanu PF
supporters erupted into song and dance outside the
counting centre at
Jameson High School.
A convoy of cars led by
Philip Chiyangwa, the Zanu PF chairman for
Mashonaland West province and MP
for Chinhoyi, drove around the town before
he addressed an impromptu
rally.
Under the draconian Public Order and Security Act, prior
notice must
be given to the police before any political
gathering.
It was not clear whether Chiyangwa and his colleagues
had sought
permission from the police before convening the political
rally.
Other Zanu PF heavyweights in the convoy included former
minister Enos
Chikowore and Paul Mangwana, the Deputy Minister of Justice,
Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs.Matamisa alleged that Zanu PF had bussed in
people
from as far away as Sanyati, Chegutu, Damvuri and Nyamatani
resettlement
areas outside Kadoma town.
Before counting started,
the riot police had dispersed MDC supporters
outside the counting centre
after their Zanu PF counterparts attacked them.
The police said
they were dispersing them for their own safety.
Several MDC supporters were
injured in the attack, including 22-year-old
Edison Muzira.
News24
Zanu-PF wins urban seat
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party was declared the
winner on Monday night of a
controversial mayoral election in a northern
town in a rare urban victory
over the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.
State radio said
Zanu-PF candidate Fani Phiri got 6 886 votes against 6 214
for the MDC's
Edita Matamisa in the textile manufacturing town of Kadoma
about 100km west
of Harare.
The MDC immediately dismissed the result as a result of
rigging. "There is
no longer any chance of holding free and fair elections,"
said MDC
secretary-general Welshman Ncube. "We reject the results as
legitimate."
The run-up to voting in what was regarded as a safe
opposition seat was
characterised by violent intimidation of the MDC by
Zanu-PF elections,
arbitrary arrests of MDC officials and the bussing of
hundreds of voters to
Kadoma.
"This must be unique in the history of
voting that one of the parties (the
MDC) was not allowed to hold a single
campaign meeting," said Ncube.
Counting of results was carried out by
local ruling party councillors, and
MDC agents were prevented from examining
bundles of ballot papers they
suspected contained MDC votes.
During
the two days of voting, independent election monitors said, bands of
feared
ruling party youth militias in party T-shirts sang war songs and
brandished
axes and cudgels within 100m of polling stations.
Incongruent
Reg
Matchaba-Hove, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network
which
carries out independent monitoring of elections, said that the results
were
"incongruent with the results of previous elections".
In parliamentary
elections in 2000, Kadoma was easily won by the MDC
candidate, and in
presidential elections in March this year, Mugabe received
far less votes in
Kadoma than did his opponent, MDC presidential candidate
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe was declared the winner of the presidential elections
by 15% but the
result has been widely dismissed as the result of intimidation
and rigging.
Mugabe's traditional support lies in rural areas in a
central chunk of the
country running north-south, but he has been defeated in
all but one of the
previous parliamentary, presidential and council ballots
and in by-elections
since June 2000.
Mugabe launched a massive
campaign of repression of his opponents in
February 2000, immediately after
he was beaten by pro-democracy supporters
in a referendum over a new national
constitution.
Daily News
Chitungwiza councillors allocate themselves
stands
7/30/02 8:36:27 AM (GMT +2)
By Sam
Munyavi
Chitungwiza councillors last Wednesday allocated themselves
commercial
stands as "exit packages" ahead of several eligible
applicants.
Misheck Shoko, the executive mayor, said yesterday he
had failed to
stop the allocations, conducted by the executive
committee.
All the members of the committee, except Shoko, who is a
member of the
opposition MDC party, are ruling Zanu PF party
members.
The committee consists of the mayor, his deputy and the
five chairmen
of the council's committees.
Shoko said he had
asked Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and
National Housing, whether the councillors were
entitled to the so-called
"exit packages".
Shoko said Chombo replied to his letter with only
four words: "They
should apply also."
Twenty-one of the 23
councillors were elected on a Zanu PF ticket and
are apparently fearful that
they will lose their seats in polls due in
August next year. In the 2000
parliamentary election the MDC took all three
constituencies in Chitungwiza
by wide margins.
Last year the councillors approved a lavish exit
package, running into
millions of dollars, for Zanu PF's Joseph Macheka, the
departing mayor who
lost to Shoko in the mayoral election last
March.
Macheka, among other benefits, took away his official
Mercedes Benz
vehicle and an industrial stand.
Shoko said: "I
pointed out to the councillors that they should let the
residents know they
were awarding themselves the stands. I said everything
must be done in a
transparent manner."
He said the committee even wanted to allocate
a stand to Elias
Chingoka, the councillor who died on 1 July.
Shoko said: "I stood my ground. Where a councillor did not meet
the
requirements I stood my ground, but I was outvoted. They actually
allocated
a stand to me, but I turned it down. I had not even
applied."
Shoko said only one councillor, Lovemore Murape, had not
been given a
stand because he had not met the absolute minimum
requirements.
The council initially required applicants to provide
financial proof
that they would be able to erect buildings of a certain
minimum value, but
this was later revised by the councillors to accommodate
themselves.
One applicant provided proof of capital of $20 million
and a bank
guarantee. However, the stand, for a shop in Seke Unit G, was
awarded to
Councillor Stephen Chidzere, who provided proof of capital of only
$641 000.
Chidzere took the stand ahead of the 15 other applicants,
only two of
whom had lower capital than himself.
Lawson Thekiso
had proof of capital of about $2 million. He applied
for a stand on which to
build a cocktail bar in Seke Unit M and was given it
ahead of eight other
applicants, one of them with proof of capital of about
$17,5
million.
Frederick Mabamba, the deputy mayor, obtained a stand for
a cinema
complex in Unit G after providing proof of capital of $1,5 million
while a
company with $8,7 million failed to make it.
Generally,
other councillors with lesser amounts were allocated the
stands in
question.They included Lazarus Mhurushomana, who produced a
guarantee letter
for $1 million and proof of savings of $377 028, and was
given a stand for a
hotel in Unit G .
Shoko warned yesterday that the council would
repossess the stands if
the councillors failed to develop them.
He said he was aware of talk that some of the councillors intended to
sell
the stands. Shoko said: "It is alleged this is the position but I have
no
evidence. As soon as I get evidence I will act firmly. You are not
allowed to
sell a stand if you have not developed it."
Telegraph
Britain stealing Harare nurses, claims Mugabe
By Peta
Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: 30/07/2002)
Robert Mugabe has
accused Britain of "stealing" doctors and nurses from
Zimbabwe after hundreds
of medical personnel went on strike for pay rises to
make up for triple-digit
inflation.
Most government hospitals were paralysed yesterday, with
hundreds of
state-employed doctors staying away from work and describing
their salaries
as "pitiful".
At a nurses' conference at the weekend,
Mr Mugabe said: "We have created the
environment that allows that upliftment
of nurses. That's why even Britain
comes in the dead of night to steal our
people. They are recruiting
pharmacists, doctors and nurses."
Dr
Howard Mutsando, 26, chairman of the Hospital Doctors' Association, said:
"No
one is stealing us. We don't want to leave home. We are forced to
leave
Zimbabwe to earn enough money to live. Many of us try to go to
Britain
because our studies were based on British standards."
He said
the strike had been called because a pay rise promised four months
ago had
not materialised. "Nothing will happen if we don't take drastic
action. We
are worried about our patients and want to return to work.
"You have to
be really committed to work in a Zimbabwe government hospital
because basic
materials are missing, like gloves and nasal tubes."
He began working for
the state in January last year and said that of 87
graduates from his year at
least 25 had already left for Britain or South
Africa. "Another 10 are
leaving in September and the rest of us are forced
to make plans, although
that is not what we want."
Junior doctors earn 53,000 Zimbabwe dollars a
month, which at the official
exchange rate is £595. At black market rates it
equates to £53 a month.
Dr Mutsando estimated that there were about 750
state-employed doctors in
Zimbabwe, about half the minimum needed according
to recent Health Ministry
calculations.
The state says about 170 Cuban
doctors have been recruited to fill vacancies
left by Zimbabweans. The public
health service is collapsing fast and in
rural areas many clinics have no
medicines.
. Mr Mugabe, his wife, Grace, and a large retinue of officials
left for
Malaysia yesterday on what the state press said was an official
visit.
The president has returned from previous trips to Kuala Lumpur
claiming to
have secured trade agreements, particularly for Zimbabwean
agricultural
exports. None can be fulfilled as Zimbabwean farming has been
devastated by
land seizures.
ATTN SUBSCRIBERS: Please note the correction to the item moved yesterday. The
original story incorrectly said that Shuvai Mahofa, the deputy minister of youth
development, had applied for a Swedish visa.
JOHANNESBURG, 29 Jul 2002
(IRIN) - Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs John Nkomo has dismissed the impact
of expanded European Union (EU) sanctions on the country's ruling elite, despite
four government officials being denied entry to Europe at the
weekend.
Nkomo told IRIN on Monday that a decision by Sweden not to grant
visas to three ZANU-PF officials to attend a women's conference "only
strengthened the government's resolve in following through with the land
redistribution policy".
"The EU is only a part of a broader world. There
are still many countries who have no problem in dealing with us. By broadening
their list means that what we are doing is effective or else they wouldn't have
bothered," he said.
The three women, Edna Madzongwe, the deputy speaker
of parliament, Olivia Muchena, the minister of state in Vice-President Joseph
Msiki's office and Flora Bhuka, the minister of state in Vice-President Simon
Muzenda's office, were supposed to visit the Scandinavian country to attend a
women's conference.
An official from the Swedish embassy in Harare
confirmed that the country had refused to grant the three permission to visit
Sweden.
"The decision is as a result of the extended EU list. We have
gone ahead and implemented what was decided in Brussels," charge d'affairs, Abdi
Foum, told IRIN.
In a separate incident, the deputy secretary for the
disabled and disadvantaged, Joshua Malinga, was detained at Gatwick
International Airport in London. Malinga was sent back to Zimbabwe on the first
available flight.
Amid concerns over human rights, foreign ministers of
the 15-nation EU last week voted to add 52 new names to a list of 20 leading
ZANU-PF and government officials slapped with sanctions just before the
controversial March presidential election.
Under the amended list, the 72
officials were banned from travelling in the EU, and assets held in Europe were
frozen.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legal affairs secretary,
David Coltart, welcomed the use of "smart sanctions".
"The MDC is wholly
supportive of these travel bans as it is a crucial way of asserting leverage
over the regime without hurting innocent people. All of those targeted have
willingly supported the regime and violence. None of them have spoken out.
Malinga, although disabled himself, has not spoken out about how through
political violence hundreds of people have been maimed," he
said.
Meanwhile, ZANU-PF and the MDC clashed over the weekend in the town
of Kadoma, west of Harare, in the first mayoral election since President Robert
Mugabe's controversial re-election. The MDC alleged that ZANU-PF militants had
attacked their supporters in the lead-up to the local poll.
"ZANU-PF acts
as if the MDC is an illegal organisation in the country. During the campaign a
number of MDC district officials were harassed by the police for reasons
unknown," MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube told IRIN.
"Young men and
women wearing MDC t-shirts have been beaten up on the streets and in beer halls.
It has become impossible to express ones political affiliation. We are
constantly under fire from ZANU-PF militia and even from the very police that is
supposed to protect its citizens," he said.
A low voter turn-out was
reported in the Kadoma poll.
See the full list of those "blacklisted" by
the EU.
IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11
447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za
[This Item is
Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian
information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United
Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your
keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print,
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Reposting by commercial
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ArabNews (Saudi Arabia)
Zimbabwe
Arab News Editorial 30 July
2002
Some 70 years ago, Stalin used famine as a weapon to eliminate
Russia's
richer peasants whom he saw as a potential threat. Tens of millions
died as
a result. Zimbabwe's President Mugabe has learned from the Russian
tyrant.
There, the authorities are using a famine to starve those who support
the
opposition. Food aid is being blocked in places that voted against
President
Mugabe during the March elections.
There are few countries
in the world facing such a mountain of calamities as
Zimbabwe. More than a
third of Zimbabweans are HIV-positive. The ruling
ZANU-PF party relies
increasingly on brute force to maintain itself in
power. It gerrymandered the
springtime election and the main leaders of the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change have now been arrested on patently
trumped-up charges. A
coercive and ill-thought out land redistribution
program has exacerbated food
shortages and that of foreign exchange
earnings. The government continues its
cripplingly expensive foreign
military adventure in Congo. And now drought
has compounded the problem.
Half the population is threatened with famine.
Zimbabwe faces not so much
famine as potential extinction. It is in need of
serious help.
Yet the help that is on offer, in the form of food aid, is
being used by the
regime to reinforce itself. There are reports that, in
famine areas, people
are being refused permission to buy food unless they can
produce a ruling
party membership card. Now, from aid agencies, come stories
of children
dying of malnutrition-related illnesses. There is every reason to
fear that
situation will worsen. The reduction in food stockpiles, the
continuing
decrease in rural productivity, small holders' inability through
poverty to
purchase seed, and the inability of the once-thriving private
sector to
import food put ever more power into the hands of a government
already
willing to use its role as food distributor to attack its enemies and
favor
its friends.
Far away in Europe and the US, governments are now
of a mind that the only
way of improving the lot of ordinary Zimbabweans is
through Mugabe's
removal. Their disgust with him has finally started to
produce sanctions.
Closer to home, countries like South Africa, fearful that
unless there is
political change there will be violence, want to work with
Mugabe. President
Thabo Mbeki has suggested that his Zimbabwean counterpart
share power with
the opposition. But neither approach is working. It is
ordinary people who
pay the price of sanctions which, ironically, thus become
a means of
strengthening the regime; it uses them to oppress those it fears
while
rewarding its friends. Meanwhile, South Africa's suggestion is
simply
ignored.
If ever a regime needed changing, it is Zimbabwe's. It
is rotten from top to
bottom. Its use of food as a weapon against its own
people is repulsive. But
Western stick and South African tolerance clearly
are not going to work.
Inside the country, Mugabe still holds the trump
cards. A little Western
carrot balanced by some South African stick might be
more productive. As
regional superpower, Pretoria has the means to make
Zimbabwe sit up and
listen. So far the will is not there. Perhaps the arrival
of starving
refugees on its border will make it look at the situation
differently. That
may not take long.
Hi J ,
Sorry that I have taken so long in coming back
to you, but I have been very busy with exposing the Maize food corruption in the
Chiredzi North & South constituencies. How the hell can anybody think that
The ZANU PF would not corrupt the food program. The only way to stop this
curruption is to stop sending food for a while. The world food program is only
feeding the bad guys anyway.
Poaching is very bad all over, it seems that
some police are saying that the ranchers must not arrest people as they are
hungry, and also the ranchers have had section 8's and should not be there
anyway.
This came from a high up cop in
Chikombedzi.
In the last month and a half I have lost: 1
Sable, leaving me 8 out of 70. 1 Tsessebe, 6 wildebeest, 3 Zebra and 2 Eland.
There may be more that we do not know about. I have 7 game guards out most of
the time, some ranchers are not antipoaching at all now,because of
finance.
There is no doubt that if this continues much
longer there will be no wild life left on privately owned game ranchers at
all.
It seems that there is nothing that we can do to
stop this distruction, the rest of the world does not seem to be seriously
interested in our problems.
Regards,
WG
Peoples daily - China
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July
30, 2002
Conservation Plan for New Farmers Launched in
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean Ministry of Environment and Tourism Monday launched
an
integrated conservation plan for farmers resettled under the fast track
land
resettlement program.
Zimbabwean Ministry of Environment and
Tourism Monday launched an
integrated conservation plan for farmers resettled
under the fast track land
resettlement program.
Department of
Natural Resources director Mutsa Chasi said the plan
would involve the
setting up of sub-committees in the resettlement and
rural
areas.
"As a department we can only assist new farmers but
the actual act of
conserving their natural resources in the resettlement
areas will depend on
their own initiative," Chasi said.
The
director said the sub-committees' duties would include encouraging
the new
farmers to look beyond growing ordinary crops and look at other
income
generating projects like the tourism and campfire programs, which
were
environmentally friendly.
She said the sub-committees would ensure
that farmers who were into
tobacco and cotton production strictly adhered to
laid down procedures
especially with regards to destruction of stalks after
harvesting.
"The clearing of land under the fast track program will
definitely
require the cutting down of trees but our emphasis is on the new
farmers
clearing only the areas they want to put under production," she
said.
News24
4 more ministers denied visas
Harare - Four women
ministers of Zimbabwe President Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF
party have been
barred from travelling to Sweden in accordance with the
European Union (EU)
sanctions against senior officials of Mugabe's
government, Swedish embassy
officials confirmed on Monday.
The four ministers were involved in the
second case of travel sanctions
invoked against Zimbabwean politicians since
last Friday.
Wheelchair-bound Joshua Malinga, secretary for the disabled
on Zanu-PF's
executive committee, became the first victim of the enlarged
list when he
was stopped at London's Gatwick airport on the way to a
conference in New
York for the disabled, and sent back home on the next
aircraft.
The latest to be banned are Edna Madzongwe, deputy speaker of
parliament,
Shuvai Mahofa, deputy minister of youth, gender and employment
creation,
Olivia Muchena, minister of state in the office of one of the
country's two
vice-presidents, and Flora Bhuka, minister of state for the
second
vice-president.
The four women had applied for visas to attend
a programme in Sweden to
introduce African women politicians to Swedish
democracy.
However, they were part of the EU's list of Mugabe officials
banned from
entering or holding assets in the EU and the Swedish government
was bound by
this list, Swedish Embassy secretary Abdi Foum said. The list
was expanded
last week from 20 to 72.
He declined to give further
details, but the independent Daily News quoted
embassy official Irina
Schoulvin as saying: "The issue is quite
straightforward. They do not qualify
to visit any EU country under the
extended list of people barred from
travelling to European countries.
"The whole idea is just to send a
message that the politics currently
prevailing in Zimbabwe is bad and that if
you are part of the politics, you
are set to be affected."
The visit
had been organised by Sweden's Women in Parliament Support Unit
and the Olaf
Palme Centre, named after the former prime minister
assassinated in the 80s.
- Sapa-DPA
Peoples Daily
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 30,
2002
Zimbabwe, S. Africa Mozambique Pull Down Park
Borders
Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique have pulled down their
national park
borders to create the world's largest animal kingdom straddling
the three
countries,according to the Herald Tuesday.
Zimbabwe, South
Africa and Mozambique have pulled down their national park
borders to create
the world's largest animal kingdom straddling the three
countries,according
to the Herald Tuesday.
The new Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park comprises
Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou
National Park, South Africa's Kruger National Park and
Mozambique's Gaza
National Park.
Zimbabwean Minister of Environment
and Tourism Francis Nhema said visitors
to the park were no longer required
to hold visas when they travel to Kruger
National Park, Gaza National Park
and Gonarezhou National Park in the
Lowveld.
"The creation of the
Great Transfrontier Park project was set to create
massive employment
activities and would keep Zimbabwe's tourism product more
attractive," he
said.
Nhema said there were no full-scale operations within the 90,000
square
kilometers park because of the poor road network.
Ministers of
tourism from the three countries met in Maputo, Mozambique,
last week to
discuss the progress made on the establishment of an
international treaty
that would regulate all matters concerning the
Transfrontier
Park.
"What is left now is for the three of us to establish a joint
management
board to carry over the daily activities of the big park. The
board will
come up with a management plan," he said.
"We also
discussed the strategy for the three parks as it relates to tourism
marketing
of the countries and how surrounding communities will benefit
through the
project," he added.
The Zimbabwean minister stressed that branding of
Great LimpopoPark would
help in tourism development and this could increase
tourist arrivals.
The development would add value to the three countries'
economies and other
regional states, as this would create a vibrant and
sustainable tourism
economy.
South Africa dismantled the
dreaded electric fence that separated Kruger
from Mozambique at the end of
last year and translocated part of its 1,000
elephants into Gaza National
Park of Mozambique at a cost of 20 million
Zimbabwean dollars (about 363,636
US dollars).
The bulk of elephants would be translocated over the next
three years.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe opposition rejects mayoral poll
defeat
HARARE, July 30 - Zimbabwe's main opposition on Tuesday
rejected as
fraudulent the victory by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party
in a
mayoral election held at the weekend.
In results announced
on Monday for the ballot in the central town of
Kadoma, Fanie Phiri of
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party polled 6,886 votes against
6,214 for the Movement for
Democratic Change's Editor Matamisa.
The narrow win came after the
ruling party lost five similar polls in
the capital Harare and other major
cities to the MDC over the past year.
''We reject the results of the
Kadoma mayoral elections as a complete
fraud,'' MDC Secretary-General
Welshmen Ncube said in a statement on
Tuesday.
''In the same manner
that ZANU-PF has repeatedly stolen the people's
victory in past elections,
the ZANU-PF machinery was involved in
constructing a warped victory against a
genuine expression by the people of
Kadoma,'' Ncube added.
He said
electoral officials denied opposition agents access to
polling stations and
barred the MDC candidate from verifying the ballot
papers during
counting.
ZANU-PF Information Secretary Nathan Shamuyarira rejected
the MDC
accusation.
''That is what they always say. The MDC stance
is that if they lose
any election, it was fraud, if they win it was free and
fair. It has no
relevance to the fact of the matter,'' Shamuyarira told
Reuters.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was declared the loser in
presidential
elections last March but he retained support in major urban
areas where
Zimbabweans are grappling with economic hardships largely blamed
on
government mismanagement.
Tsvangirai is challenging Mugabe's
presidential poll victory in the
courts.
Daily News
Farmers Reject New Maize Prices
The Daily News
(Harare)
July 30, 2002
Posted to the web July 30,
2002
Farmers have rejected the new maize and wheat producer prices
announced by
the govt last is week saying farmer viability will not be
achieved.
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister, Dr Joseph
Made,
increased the producer prices of maize from $15 000 a tonne to $28 000
and
of wheat from $25 000 to $40 000 a tonne. His reasons for reviewing
the
prices was to cushion farmers against high input
costs.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union economist, Jabulani Gwaringa said
the new wheat and
maize prices were "too low" and would affect the
small-scale farming sector
more than they would the commercial farming
industry, which has the
advantage of producing higher yields.
Gwaringa
said: "The government is killing the industry which it claims to
be
promoting. Farmers will only be able to go back to the field if a
producer
price of between $45 000 and $50 000 a tonne is offered."
He
said using current input costs for maize production, a farmer needs about
$37
000 for fertiliser, seed and tillage, excluding the costs of labour
and
chemicals to farm one hectare (ha). "With the small-scale farmer low
yields
of 0,5 tonnes a hectare, a farmer then makes losses in maize
production,"
Gwaringa said. In this case a farmer produces 0,5 tonnes of
maize a ha and
is paid about $14 000 while production costs were more than
$37 000.
Indigenous Commercial Farmers' Union acting director, John
Mautsa said:
"From my previous meetings with the farmers, they were expecting
higher
prices. The farmers said maize producer prices ranging from $35 000 to
$40
000 a tonne would make farmers viable. Wheat farmers were expecting
a
producer price of $60 000 a tonne."
Commercial Farmers' Union
vice-president responsible for commodities, Doug
Taylor-Freeme said: "Both
prices are unrealistic in a hyper inflation
environment we are operating
in."
Zimbabwe farmers are being paid lower prices than what other farmers
in the
Southern Africa region are receiving. "Our government is prepared to
pay
farmers outside Zimbabwe an import parity of $100 000 a tonne for
maize
while we only receive $28 000 a tonne. We are concerned as the new
prices do
not give incentives for local farmers to produce more."
On
wheat, Taylor-Freeme said while fertiliser prices had been increased
and
electricity charges had gone up by 40 percent, the new producer price
would
not cover these expenses. "We expected prices of between $65 000 and
$75 000
a tonne for wheat, which are the price ranges for the barley,
an
uncontrolled product and this would have been realistic prices."
ZIMBABWE: Irrigation schemes would allow year round farming,
FAO
JOHANNESBURG, 30 July (IRIN) - Irrigation schemes would substantially
increase agricultural production in drought stricken Zimbabwe, but projects that
were meant to have started years ago remain dormant due to a lack of
funds.
About six million people face hunger in Zimbabwe mainly due to
drought and the government's fast-track land resettlement programme that has
disrupted commercial farming, according to a report by the UN's World Food
Programme (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
Zimbabwe is
the worst affected country in a region where about 14 million people are in need
of food aid to stave off hunger.
An official in the Department of
Irrigation told IRIN on Tuesday that a newspaper article which outlined the
government's plan to establish 36 irrigation schemes, could not be confirmed as
some of the projects listed in the article had so far been hamstrung by
budgetary constraints.
The Herald reported that the irrigation schemes
would allow for farming on 7,956 hectares of dry land in communal and
resettlement areas. The state-controlled newspaper said that the schemes would
cost Zim $3.8 billion (US $69 million).
"The new irrigation schemes are
going to utilise water from already existing dams and this new project is to
ensure that the communal farmers who have for long not been utilising their
quota do so under these new irrigation schemes," Director of Water in the
Ministry of Rural Resources and Water Development, Vavarirai Choga, was quoted
as saying.
However, the Department of Irrigation official, who asked not
to be named, said: "We're not sure what the official government position is.
We've had people sitting in offices because they don't have money to put
programmes in place, we are waiting for instructions from our superiors that
money is available so that we can begin programmes.
"We don't know which
programmes have money or not. So from an operational point of view there's been
no instruction to say where the money's coming from [for the irrigation
schemes]. Most of those projects listed in The Herald, some of them have even
been around for more than five or six years, the feasibility reports are done
etcetera. But due to budgetary constraints we have been unable to implement
those projects."
Lee Tirivamwe, national irrigation engineer for FAO in
Zimbabwe, told IRIN the agency had not been approached for assistance with
regard to establishing the irrigation schemes reported in The
Herald.
Tirivamwe said there were many benefits to irrigation
agriculture. "You get increased yields and afford employment opportunities to
the rural people. Once they go into irrigation they can farm practically
throughout the year [not just during certain seasons]," he said.
Although
there was no confirmation from government that the schemes would go ahead,
Tirivamwe said there existed sufficient bodies of water for the reported number
of schemes.
"I'm sure there is enough water, there are a few dams not
being fully utilised. For example, Diri dam, in the northeast of the country,
and also Osborne dam, in the eastern parts of the country," he said. But
Tirivamwe cautioned against taking at face value figures that had appeared in
the press, as these could be "unrealistic".
For rural farmers to benefit
immediately from such irrigation schemes, they would have to be government
funded. "Otherwise it would take years for a farmer to recoup the costs,"
Tirivamwe said.
[ENDS]
MSNBC
Zimbabwe journalists challenge Mugabe media
laws
HARARE, July 30 - An association of independent Zimbabwean
journalists has
filed a court challenge questioning the constitutional
validity of tough
media laws which critics say curb press freedom.
The Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) filed its
papers
with the country's highest court on Monday, IJAZ President Abel
Mutsakani
said in a statement on Tuesday.
''We want the Supreme Court to declare
as unconstitutional
sections...which if read together require that
journalists be registered by
the government's media commission in order for
them to carry out their
work,'' he said.
Mutsakani said this was
the first of many challenges of the new media
laws that his association was
planning.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe brought the new laws into
force
soon after his controversial re-election, saying they were necessary
to
restore ethics in the profession.
The Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act punishes
''abuse of journalistic privilege'' such
as publishing falsehoods with fines
and up to two years in prison.
The new laws ban foreigners from working in the country as
correspondents for
foreign media.
The measures face several legal challenges, including
one from the
Foreign Correspondents Association of Zimbabwe which is also
contesting the
constitutionality of parts of the new laws.
A U.S.
citizen and correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper,
Andrew Meldrum,
was acquitted this month of charges he faced under the act
for reproducing a
false story although he is challenging his deportation
order from
Zimbabwe.
Eleven other journalists have been charged under the act.