CNN
POSTED:
1701 GMT (0101 HKT), June 21, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- The value of
the Zimbabwean dollar suffered its
worst crash in memory, dealers said
Thursday, sparking a run on dollars and
forcing stores to close early to put
new prices on their meager stock.
Black market exchange rates -- fueled
by the central bank buying at the
illegal rates to pay the mounting debts of
crumbling state fuel and power
utilities -- rose to upward of 300,000
Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar
in large offshore deals, said one
trader.
The official exchange rate is 15,000-1.
"It's gone crazy,"
said the trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because his dealings
are illegal. "People are holding out for the highest
bidder and mentioning
as much as 400,000-1 which could be tomorrow's price.
It's changing by the
hour."
The going rate doubled since Monday, he said
In local
deals, the U.S. currency fetched at least 140,000-1 in cash and
around
200,000-1 in electronic bank transfers. Shortages of Zimbabwe bank
notes
created the premium on bank transfers, said the illegal dealer.
Zimbabwe
has the world's highest rate of inflation, estimated officially at
around
4,500 percent but calculated by independent finance houses at closer
to
9,000 percent.
A hardware store in northern Harare closed its doors
Monday through Tuesday
to re-price all its goods. Supermarkets and other
shops are planning to
shorten opening hours to make price changes, enabling
them to buy
replacement stock at higher prices.
A journalist for
Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper reported that she had
returned home
from a week in South Africa to discover that during her
absence the price of
beef had increased 2.5 times, a bottle of cooking oil
had doubled and bus
fares had gone up between three and fivefold.
"The price movements in the
past week are nothing short of total madness,"
wrote Victoria Ruzvidzo in
Thursday's edition of the newspaper, a government
mouthpiece.
Store
managers say the range of goods on sale has diminished drastically --
imported products are expensive and local factories are too crippled by
inflation to produce goods. Meanwhile, the few workers who can afford the
fuel to get to work are demanding higher wages.
"If it goes on like
this, we'll have nothing to sell, we'll have no staff
and we'll have to
close down completely," said one store manager who asked
not to be
identified out of fear of being targeted for being "a prophet of
doom" by
often-violent ruling party militants.
The illegal black market money
dealer said talks held in South Africa this
week between the Zimbabwe
government and the country's political opposition
also led to business
uncertainty.
The official media on Thursday accused the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change of negotiating "in bad faith" to end the
nation's
political deadlock.
The Herald quoted government sources
saying current visits to Europe by
opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara were meant to
scuttle the regional initiative led by South
African President to bring the
two sides to the table.
It described
the opposition leaders' trip to meet with European leaders and
canvass for
support from incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as
"provocative."
President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly accused Britain
and the United States
of backing a campaign by his opponents to oust him
with funding and
expertise.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was
to report to an African Union summit
the end of next week on the state of
the negotiations, his Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad said
Thursday.
Zimbabwe's official media also alleged Thursday it received "a
secret
document" on a plot by Western countries to undermine the economy
masterminded by Zimbabweans and foreigners known as the Fishmongers
Group.
Western economic measures including a freeze on balance of
payments loans
and curbs on investment and aid.
Once longtime ruler
Mugabe left office, Western countries planned to step in
with a $3 billion
rescue package to rebuild the nation, the state daily
Chronicle reported in
the second city of Bulawayo.
Western officials have confirmed the
existence of budget proposals for food
support, public services reform and
the rebuilding of agriculture and
general infrastructure over five years in
a new political landscape led by
reformist Zimbabwean
politicians.
But according to the fiercely pro-Mugabe official media, the
so-called
Fishmongers Group was "working overtime to destroy the economy,
mutilate the
Zimbabwe dollar, foment civil unrest and then dangle a rescue
package to win
the support of gullible politicians."
Andrew Meldrum in
Johannesburg
Thursday June 21, 2007
Guardian
Unlimited
Zimbabwe's inflation will rocket to 1.5m% before
the end of the year, the US
ambassador to Harare predicted today,
forecasting massive disruption and
instability that will drive President
Robert Mugabe from office.
In a telephone interview with the Guardian,
Christopher Dell said prices
were going up twice a day, sapping popular
confidence in a government that
is now "committing regime change on
itself".
"I believe inflation will hit 1.5m% by the end of 2007, if not
before," Mr
Dell said. "I know that sounds stratospheric but, looking at the
way things
are going, I believe it is a modest forecast."
Zimbabwe's
official inflation is 4,500% but independent economists and
retailers say it
is actually above 11,000% and picking up speed. The black
market rate for
the pound soared from Z$160,000 last week to Z$400,000 this
week. The US
dollar rate has topped Z$250,000, while the official rate is
fixed at just
Z$250. Mr Mugabe stubbornly insists that the Zimbabwe currency
must not be
devalued.
"Prices are going up twice a day, in some cases doubling several
times a
week," said Mr Dell, who is approaching the end of his posting to
Zimbabwe.
"It destabilises everything. People have completely lost faith in
the
currency and that means they have lost faith in the government that
issues
it.
"By carrying out disastrous economic policies, the Mugabe
government is
committing regime change upon itself," he said. "Things have
reached a
critical point. I believe the excitement will come in a matter of
months, if
not weeks. The Mugabe government is reaching end game, it is
running out of
options."
For Zimbabweans living in the turmoil of
economic meltdown, hyperinflation
is spreading poverty, as even basic goods
become unaffordable. Supermarkets'
trollies lie idle as few can afford to
buy more than a handful of goods.
Government regulations will only permit
withdrawals from banks of Z$1.5m per
day, which is not enough to buy a
week's worth of groceries.
At golf courses, golfers pay for their drinks
before they set off on their
round, because the price will have gone up by
the time they have finished
the 18th hole. One individual was recently told
by a pension company that it
would no longer send him statements as his fund
was worth less than the
price of a stamp.
"I can barely cope with
inflation in the thousands, but millions? We will
die," said Iddah Mandaza,
a Harare factory worker. Mr Mandaza said some
workers are now saving on
transport costs by "going to their jobs on Monday
and sleeping at the
workplace until Friday. They all share their meals.
That's what they do to
get by."
Many Zimbabweans are resorting to barter. "I traded some soap
for two
buckets of maize meal [Zimbabwe's staple food]. It was far much
better than
trying to buy it in the shops," said worker Richard Mukondo.
"People in the
rural areas are even worse off. You can see they are hungry
and their
clothes are in tatters. They trade in whatever they can produce:
tomatoes,
onions, chickens and eggs."
Tony Hawkins, professor of
economics at the University of Zimbabwe, said
that no one holds cash in the
country any more. "People spend it as soon as
they get it. Goods hold their
value, not money. The government has run out
of solutions. At this rate
perhaps inflation could hit 1m%, but one gets a
sense that things will crack
before then."
At the other end of the technological scale, enterprising
Zimbabweans abroad
have set up internet trading schemes, such as Mukuru.com,
in which
Zimbabweans overseas pay for goods with foreign currency and then
vouchers
for fuel, food and medicines are sent to recipients in Zimbabwe via
email or
on their cell phones.
This business has thrived because more
than three million Zimbabweans - a
quarter of the country's 12 million
people - now live abroad. Half of
Zimbabwe's families depend on remittances
from overseas to pay basic monthly
bills, according to a recent survey by
the University of Zimbabwe.
Mr Dell, 51, who has had a tumultuous three
years as ambassador to Zimbabwe,
said that Mr Mugabe faces further trouble
from his army, which used to be
considered solidly loyal to the president.
Last week six men, including an
army private and a retired senior officer,
were charged in court for
plotting against the president. He said the
allegations of the coup plot
show divisions within Mr Mugabe's ruling party,
the Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
"I
don't believe it was a real coup plot. I think it shows one side of
Zanu-PF
plotting against the other. The bitter factional infighting is now
dragging
in the military. That cannot be good news for Mugabe," said Mr
Dell. South
African president Thabo Mbeki's efforts to mediate between
Zanu-PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are "the
last great hope for
a peaceful resolution to Zimbabwe's crisis", Mr Dell
said.
Yahoo News
HARARE
(AFP) - Zimbabwe has set up a task force to monitor prices of basic
goods
and probe shortages fuelling the country's runanawy inflation, a
cabinet
minister said Thursday.
"The task force is being set up to monitor the
prices (of goods) and their
disappearance from the formal market," Industry
and International Trade
Minister Obert Mpofu told AFP.
"It was approved
by cabinet on Tuesday. We have realised that firms are
hiking their prices
almost everyday."
"The task force was set up in line with the signing of
the incomes and
stabilisation protocol."
President Robert Mugabe last
month signed the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission Act as part of a
clutch of measures aimed to rein back galloping
price rises which is
believed to have reached 4,500 percent.
Mpofu said the task force will
compel manufacturers to display selling
prices for controlled
goods.
The creation of the task force came amid a spate of price
increases over the
past three weeks with a litre of petrol going up from
60,000 Zimbabwean
dollars (240 US dollars at the official rate but 41 US
cents at the black
market) to 180,000 dollars and bus fares from the city
centre to the suburbs
jumping more than 200 percent.
Analysts however
warned that the appointment of the task force to control
prices will spawn a
burgeoning parallel market of the monitored products.
"These populist
policies do not work," independent economist Victor Zirebgwa
said.
"The parallel market of the products they want to monitor will
simply crop
up. I am yet to see a regulated commodity that is efficiently
supplied."
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Callisto Jokonya said:
"Controls will
not give you results."
The southern African country is
in the midst of an economic recession
characterised by high inflation,
massive unemployment and chronic shortages
of foreign currency and basic
goods like fuel and the staple cornmeal,
largely blamed on Mugabe's
government.
Mugabe however blames the woes on targeted sanctions imposed
on himself and
members of his inner circle by Western powers.
Sokwanele Civic Action Support Group (Sokwanele)
Date: 21 Jun
2007
Yesterday was World Refugee Day. Many
Zimbabweans have been left homeless
and struggling to survive as a result of
the government's senseless
'Operation Murambatvina' - a policy of 'clearing
out the trash', which
manifested itself in the destruction of homes, trading
stalls and the theft
of property. What kind of leaders, are these, who
destroy peoples' homes at
the height of a harsh winter leaving women and
children at the mercy of the
elements? What kind of mind conceives such an
evil and heartless thought? We
asked a supporter to write us a piece that
included real-life stories of
Murambatsvina refugees in Zimbabwe. Names have
been changed in this article.
It is winter again, a time when the
majority of Zimbabweans are reflecting
on the beginning of the most barbaric
and catastrophic act, by a
totalitarian regime, in 2005. The satanic act,
which was engaged without
proper consideration of the repercussions,
continues to wreak havoc on the
lives of millions of poor Zimbabweans. Since
2005, winter has been
characterized with bitter memories of the loss of
homes, house hold
property, flea markets, offices, the pain from beatings
and torture and
unfortunate deaths of some loved ones, during another act of
madness by
Mugabe, the second after Gukuruhundi.
Mugabe, Chihuri and
Chombo defended "Op M" (Operation Murambatsvina) as a
clean up exercise
meant to wean the unwanted garbage, which later turned out
to be humans in
the form of city dwellers, perceived to the sympathetic to
the opposition
MDC.
Tempers were beginning to boil two months after another rigged 2005
parliamentary election which pitted the ruling Zanu PF party against the
MDC, giving the ruling party the required two thirds, to amend the
constitution. To counter a possible uprising, Mugabe acting upon
intelligence from the JOC (Joint Operation Command) embarked on the
operation which not only caused massive sufferings but invited condemnations
from the UN and the world over.
Society was disintegrated, those with
rural homes leaving towns for good.
The remaining folks were with either
forcibly moved to unknown places or
detention centers where they were
quarantined. Sources of income were
destroyed and rentals shot to alarming
rates, making the cost of living in
cities very high. The drama is still
unfolding.
Sally Phiri (35), a mother of three and a widow, had her flea
markets along
what was formerly Union Avenue and Rezende Street, closed,
losing all her
wares in the process (the Police and City Police claimed
vendors goods for
themselves).
"I lost everything, they took goods
worth $30 million by then, I remember a
police officer complaining that we
should suffer because we voted for MDC"
Sally Phiri said.
Back home,
Sally's brick walled cabin was destroyed in Mbare, leaving her
with nowhere
to go. As a 'Phiri', Sally's origin is Malawi - a country she
has never even
visited before. At the Malawi High Commission, she was asked
to denounce
Zimbabwean citizenship before attaining Malawian status since
she is above
21 years of age. The dilemma Sally found herself in has reduced
her to a
beggar, and she now lives in the open air in the same yard of her
former
lodgings.
Sally's new home has beds, wardrobe, cardboard boxes and
plastic functioning
as walls, exposing her and her three children to cold
and rain.
Sally Phiri is not the only one in this predicament. Currently
in most
high-density areas of Harare, families are still sleeping in the
open,
especially in back yards. Those with houses had their extensions
destroyed
leaving as much as twelve people in the same family sleeping in
two or three
roomed houses. Thus the social moral fibre has been eroded
since boys and
girls are forced to sleep in one room.
"All I need is
a place where I can access a toilet and clean water. I will
never forgive
Mugabe and his people for doing this to me" said Sally.
In Kuwadzana
Stembile Moyo (38) a divorcee and mother of four now lives in
an old and
disused car at a former home industry site where the only toilet
was closed.
The place has no clean water and the few families now living
there fetch
their water from a well, where litter such as "used condoms" are
found.
"I cannot afford to pay rent anymore so I was chased from by
lodgings. I am
a vendor at a beerhall as well as a lady of the night, but I
am still
finding it tough because customers are shying away because of the
HIV/AIDS
scourge" said Moyo.
Both Phiri and Moyo expressed bitterness
at the criteria used by the
Zimbabwean government to allocate "Operation
Garikayi" stands and homes.
Coincidentally they both registered to benefit
from "GariKai" at the same
time but were shocked to hear that only civil
servants from the Zimbabwe
Republic Police, Zimbabwe National Army, Air
Force and Zanu PF activists and
other government departments benefited
instead.
Those allocated stands at Snake Park, Hopely Farm and Calidonia
Farm, have
however not been allowed to finish building, not even their
toilets. The
places do not have running water except at Caledonia farm,
where an NGO
donated a borehole, which also feeds the entire Tafara area.
The plastic
walls demarcating the houses have been blamed for fueling
prostitution as
privacy no longer exists.
School girls have also been
reported to be engaging in prostitution as well
because their families were
displaced by Op M and forced to relocate to
areas far from their schools.
Parents are failing to give them bus fares,
leaving them
vulnerable.
In the run up to the Budiriro by-election in 2006,
unconfirmed reports from
MDC indicate that, most people who registered to
benefit from Op Garikayi
had their names obliterated from the voters roll.
MDC argued that without a
general nation wide election, there was no way the
government could have
known who might have relocated from Budiriro. In
essence the Mugabe regime
started their preparation for the 2008 election
long back.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: June 21,
2007
PRETORIA, South Africa: South African President Thabo Mbeki
will report to
African leaders at the end of next week on the state of
negotiations to
solve Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad said Thursday that Mbeki would brief the
Southern
African Development Community on the progress with his Zimbabwe
mediation
efforts, most likely on the sidelines of the African Union summit
in Ghana
July 1-3.
Southern African states named Mbeki as mediator earlier this
year at the
height of an international furor over the Zimbabwe government's
brutal
clampdown on opposition leaders. Mbeki advocates quiet diplomacy
rather than
public criticism.
Two Zimbabwe government ministers met
earlier this week with leaders of the
Movement for Democratic Change in
Pretoria, but there has been no word about
the outcome.
The talks
have been cloaked in such secrecy that Pahad denied all knowledge
of them,
even though they were reported in Zimbabwe's official media.
"As the
Department of Foreign Affairs, we are not aware of any meeting that
has
taken place," he told a regular press conference.
Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said Wednesday that the focus of the
negotiations with the
government was on presidential elections scheduled
next March.
"We
are bit anxious what needs to be done to create the conditions for free
and
fair elections," Tsvangirai said in Brussels during a a tour of European
capitals. "We may actually be running out (of time) for it."
Monsters and critics
Jun 21, 2007, 8:39 GMT
Johannesburg - Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and
the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) have agreed on the
agenda for talks aimed at
ending the country's political crisis, the Star
newspaper reported
Thursday.
After two days of talks behind closed doors in South Africa
party officials
have agreed to discuss issues persistently raised by both
parties, the Star,
which has well-placed sources within the MDC,
said.
These included such opposition beefs as the need for a new
constitution, the
reopening of closed independent newspapers, the
establishment of new,
independent electoral bodies and the restoration of
the rule of law.
In return, the MDC agreed to discuss some of Zanu-PF's
favourite themes,
such as Mugabe's claims that the country's economic crisis
is the result of
Western sanctions and of unfulfilled promises on land
reform.
The octogenarian Zimbabwean leader, who is seeking re-election in
2008, has
repeatedly claimed that Britain reneged on an agreement to fund
land reform
in its former colony - a charge Britain denies.
South
African President Thabo Mbeki has been tasked by the Southern African
Development Community to mediate in the Zimbabwean crisis in the run-up to
next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Mbeki is due to
report back on his progress by the end of the month.
This week's talks in
Pretoria were the first direct official talks between
Zanu-PF and the
MDC.
Further talks are planned in the coming weeks, with the BBC quoting
MDC
officials as talking of another round as soon as Friday.
© 2007
dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
SW Radio Africa
(London)
21 June 2007
Posted to the web 21 June 2007
Violet
Gonda
After reports of much disagreement the opposition and the
ruling party have
finally agreed on the agenda for talks. But observers say
the sticking point
will be whether or not there is political will. Agreeing
on the agenda does
not mean progress in terms of the final
outcome.
It is understood that the only reason ZANU PF is in these talks
is out of
fear of losing SADC support if they are not seen to be
co-operating with the
regional initiative. ZANU PF had already spurned the
talks twice and was
reportedly warned by Mbeki that he will not tolerate any
more delaying
tactics.
Journalist Basildon Peta who has been
following events closely in South
Africa said because of the clear
reluctance of the ruling party to be part
of this dialogue, some South
African officials are only "cautiously
optimistic" about the outcome. He
said: "Yes they have agreed on the agenda,
now it comes to the substance and
if you look at the positions of the two
parties, their differences are like
the distance between the North and South
Poles so it is going to be
difficult to get agreements in the end."
The talks have now been
adjourned to early July and South African President
Thabo Mbeki is expected
to report to his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya
Kikwete next week. Kikwete is
the Chairperson of the SADC troika on Defence,
Politics and Security. Mbeki
is expected to reconvene the dialogue in early
July where the substantive
issues will be discussed.
Peta said sources close to the talks say topics
the opposition has managed
to get on the agenda include the controversial
issue of a new constitution,
how to ensure free and fair elections next
year, the amendment of repressive
legislations, the re-opening of closed
newspapers and the restoration of the
rule of law.
"And on the ZANU
PF side they managed to put on the agenda issues close to
their heart. Land
reform and the role of external players in Zimbabwe and
regime change
allegations," the journalist added.
Sources say the meeting was nearly
derailed by the rants of the ZANU PF
officials, especially from the Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa who at
times became militant.
Peta says
this is why many rule out any prospects of this dialogue achieving
anything
tangible. He said: "ZANU PF has become a moribund entity, an
anachronistic
institution. I just don't see anyone to knock any sense into
Chinamasa and
Goche's heads to accept the reality that they ought to accept,
if there is
going to be any significant change in Zimbabwe in terms of
ensuring free and
fair elections."
But while the political parties are talking about talks,
observers say there
is a real risk that the talks will be eclipsed by the
economic collapse.
Analysts say runaway inflation may result in an early
exit for Robert
Mugabe.
Jun 21st 2007 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist
print edition
More dissent in the ruling party and in the army does not
mean the end is
nigh
THE political temperature in Zimbabwe may be
rising again. Last week seven
men, including serving and retired soldiers,
appeared in court, accused of
plotting a coup to overthrow President Robert
Mugabe. This week, under South
African stewardship, a delegation from
Zimbabwe's ruling party met both
factions of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in Pretoria,
South Africa's capital. In March
leaders of the 14-country Southern African
Development Community had asked
Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, to
facilitate such discussions to
prepare for elections in Zimbabwe next year.
Does this mean Mr Mugabe is on
his last legs?
Not yet. But Mr Mugabe may be rattled by discord within
the armed forces,
albeit apparently at quite a low level. The alleged
plotters say they were
only trying to create a new political party. But
discontent in the military
rank and file, badly hurt by the economic
meltdown, is rising.
Though the top brass is a lot better off, the armed
forces may at other
levels be splitting along the same fault-line that runs
through Mr Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party. Some Zimbabweans say that Emmerson
Mnangagwa, a former
speaker of Parliament and long-time security minister,
and Solomon Mujuru,
the vice-president's husband and a former army head, may
be linked to the
alleged plot, though this may just be speculation. Mr
Mnangagwa strongly
denies involvement.
The opposition has laid out a
road map towards the elections due next year.
It wants to scrap laws
curtailing freedom of the press and of assembly. It
also wants new electoral
rules, reform of the constitution and an end to
state-sponsored violence and
intimidation. And it wants the 3m or so
Zimbabweans who have left the
country to be allowed to vote. For its part,
the ruling Zanu-PF wants
sanctions lifted and Britain to help with land
reform. This week the two
sides apparently agreed to an agenda for
discussion.
Yet, at the same
time, Mr Mugabe's government is pushing controversial laws
through
parliament. One allows for phone calls and e-mails to be monitored.
Next
month the ruling party is expected to table constitutional amendments
that
would tighten its grip on power. For instance, Parliament, rather than
the
Zimbabwean people in a direct vote, would pick a new president, were the
incumbent to step down between elections. Another proposed change would
boost parliamentary representation in rural areas, where Zanu-PF has its
base, and give fewer seats to the towns, where the MDC
predominates.
Meanwhile, inflation is hovering around 4,500%, and eight
Zimbabweans in ten
do not have formal jobs. Some aid agencies say the
government may fall
within six months or so, as the economy collapses, but
they have been saying
so for some time. Though the formal economy is in dire
straits, Zimbabweans
have learnt to cope in other ways, mainly by relying on
the black market and
getting help from friends and family abroad. The UN's
World Food Programme
says that by next year 4.1m Zimbabweans may need food
handouts, otherwise
they may starve.
"African economies, like old
soldiers, do not die," says Arthur Mutambara,
the leader of a breakaway
faction of the MDC whose passport has just been
confiscated. At least the
grimness of the economy gives Zimbabwe's
neighbours some levers: they can
dangle promises of economic help to nudge
negotiations along. But a small
elite connected to Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF has
vested interests in the current
system, where price controls and an
artificial exchange rate offer juicy
possibilities for making fortunes. It
is not at all clear that they would
risk a settlement that might see them
booted out of power.
Leader
Thursday June 21, 2007
The
Guardian
This week it was revealed that talks were taking place in
Pretoria between
Zimbabwe's government and the two wings of its main
opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They have been
under way for some
time, but in keeping with South Africa's policy of quiet
diplomacy, few
details have emerged, other than the names of the
participants. If and when
progress is reached, it will be announced by South
Africa's president Thabo
Mbeki, who was appointed as a mediator by the
Southern African Development
Community.
Article
continues
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This
is a welcome development - at face value. International aid agencies
warned
recently that with inflation running at over 3,700%, Zimbabwe's
economy
could collapse within six months. Up to a third of the country's 12
million
people could be on food aid by the end of the year because of
drought.
Already up to 3 million Zimbabweans have crossed the border into
South
Africa. Wait any longer and South Africa could have a major
humanitarian
crisis on its doorstep.
There is, however, good reason for scepticism that a
breakthrough will be
achieved. The ANC has always been reluctant to hold a
fellow freedom fighter
like Robert Mugabe up to the standards it sets for
the rest of the continent
and it has consistently endorsed as free and fair
elections that were
condemned by the rest of the world. If the two sides in
the Pretoria were
talking exclusively about the conditions in which new
elections would be
held next year, (that they should have foreign observers,
that Zimbabweans
who have fled the country should be allowed to vote), there
would be every
reason to believe that Mr Mugabe would carry on, as he always
has done.
The standard by which these talks should be judged is a
transfer of power
now to a coalition government formed by Zanu-PF and both
wings of the MDC,
leading to constitutional change and elections held in the
full glare of
international scrutiny. Even that standard contains major
potential
pitfalls, such is the potential for playing on the splits within
the MDC by
buying off individual members.
If Britain's megaphone
diplomacy manifestly failed, Mr Mbeki's more muted
version can only work if
he is prepared to bring real pressure to bear on Mr
Mugabe. The government
in Pretoria argues that if it were to cut off the
electricity it supplies to
Zimbabwe, or close the border, it would only be
meting out more punishment
to the victims of Mr Mugabe's regime. Better, the
argument goes, to seek a
constituency within Zanu-PF strong enough to tell
Mr Mugabe to go. If that
happens, not only would Mr Mbeki be vindicated, but
South Africa could truly
show its leadership in Africa.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
21 June 2007
05:35
A fire that broke out this week at Zimbabwe's only
newsprint
producer has crippled production, the official Herald daily said
on
Thursday.
Newsprint for the handful of newspapers
still operating in
Zimbabwe comes from the eastern border city of Mutare,
which lies close to a
number of timber plantations.
But
in a dire blow for the struggling newspaper industry,
firefighters had to be
called in to Mutare Board and Paper Mills on Tuesday
night to douse the
flames of the freak fire, the report said.
"An alert worker
on duty noticed the fire and tried to put it
out, but failed. He then raised
the fire alarm, said police spokesperson
Brian Makomeke.
There was no water in the fire hydrant to put out the blaze,
worsening the
damage, the report said.
At least one machine has been
severely damaged and pulp products
destroyed. No foul play is
suspected.
Residents of Mutare said there were no copies of
the Herald on
sale early on Thursday morning. The price of the paper was
raised again last
week to Z$25 000, the same as a loaf of
bread.
The newspaper industry is struggling to keep pace with
Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation, believed to have topped 4 530% in May.
The authorities have yet to release official figures.
Operations at Mutare Board and Paper Mills were expected to
return to normal
in seven days, the Herald said. -- Sapa-dpa
Reuters
Thu 21 Jun
2007, 5:51 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has imported 60,000 tonnes of
wheat worth $25
million to ease bread shortages after millers in the
crisis-hit southern
African country ran out of the grain, the official
Herald newspaper reported
on Thursday.
Wheat is Zimbabwe's second
staple grain, after maize, but the country -- a
regional breadbasket before
President Robert Mugabe's drive to seize land
from whites to resettle
landless blacks -- has failed to meet its annual
consumption requirements of
between 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes.
Earlier this year, Mugabe's
government revealed Zimbabwe would miss its
target of 400,000 tonnes as most
of the newly resettled farmers did not have
sufficient inputs such as seed,
fuel and fertiliser.
The Herald said the central bank had given the
state-owned Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) $25 million to import wheat from
Argentina after stocks ran out.
"The imports would ensure uninterrupted
wheat supply for the next three
months," the newspaper said, adding that
deliveries had started arriving in
the country this week.
Due to the
shortage, the GMB had cut weekly wheat supplies to millers from
6,000 tonnes
to 3,000 tonnes, the newspaper reported.
Zimbabwe also faces a huge maize
deficit and plans to import at least
500,000 tonnes of the staple
grain.
Multilateral agencies, the U.N Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) and
the World Food Programme (WFP) have said more than a third of
Zimbabweans
will need food aid by early 2008, following another poor harvest
this year.
Critics say Mugabe's land seizure drive has caused food
shortages, but the
veteran leader denies this charge and blames droughts and
western sanctions
for the dip in agricultural production.
The Zimbabwean
(21-06-07)
By Mercy Mujuru
HARARE:
IN a desperate bid to entice farmers into delivering their grain to
Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) currently running empty silos the government has
offered to issue empty maize bags on credit to farmers.
Addressing
journalists in Harare this afternoon, agriculture deputy
minister, David
Chapfika said GMB will soon be issuing empty maize bags to
farmers on credit
and will recover the money on delivery of grain to the
parastatal.
Said Chapfika, "The GMB has been instructed to issue the
available grain
bags on credit in manageable tranches to bona-fide farmers
and these will be
recovered on delivery of grain.
"Those farmers who
are able to provide their own bags will be refunded for
the cost of such
bags.I am also pleased to advise that individuals
transporting maize for own
domestic consumption will be allowed a maximum of
three 50kg
bags,".
He pleaded with farmers to deliver their grain "in bulk" to their
nearest
GMB depots.
He also said government was going to open new GMB
grain collection centres
countrywide before July 1.
"Deliveries of up
to 10 tonnes will be paid for in cash or by cheque on
delivery at a price of
$4,2 million per tonne. Adequate resources have been
mobilised to ensure all
maize deliveries are timeously paid for", he said.
He warned farmers and
other traders against side-marketing, saying the
statutory instrument
classifying maize and wheat as controlled commodities
was still in
force.
"These commodities can only be marketed through the GMB and any
dealing
outside of the official channel is illegal.
"Farmers are,
therefore, required to abide by these requirements of the law
by marketing
all their surplus grain through the GMB", he warned.
His warning came
amid reports that most grain producers were resorting to
side-marketing in a
bid to break even as GMB returns were "too low".
Once known as the
bread-basket of Southern Africa Development Community,
Zimbabwe is battling
severe grain shortage, due to poor agricultural seasons
culminating from the
government orchestrated land reform programme which
drove more than 3 000
experienced white commercial farmers out of the
country since 2000- CAJ
News.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
New report suggests runaway inflation will drive Zimbabwe out of
business by
year end, but experts say this ignores the underlying resilience
of
grassroots economic activity.
By Florence Ushe in Harare (AR No.
118, 21-June-07)
International aid agencies based in Zimbabwe are
predicting that the country's
economy will implode within the next six
months, potentially leading to
major social unrest.
But economists
interviewed by IWPR disagree, saying total meltdown is not
imminent, and
crediting Zimbabwe's informal sector with keeping disaster at
bay when under
normal circumstances everything should have ground to a halt
a long time
ago.
The Heads of Agencies Contact Group, which represents close to 40
aid groups
and other non-government organisations, including the United
Nations, the
Red Cross and Oxfam, have warned that the country's economy
will completely
cease to function by December this year.
The Heads of
Agencies report, issued last week and compiled by private
consultants to
raise awareness among international organisations, donors and
their staff in
Zimbabwe, said aid groups should brace themselves for a
scenario where shops
and businesses closed, the Zimbabwean currency became
utterly worthless;
unrest broke out among a destitute population; and a
state of emergency was
declared by the government.
The key trigger for disintegration, according
to the report's authors, is an
acceleration in the already headlong gallop
of retail price rises - the
world's highest rate of inflation.
In
May, inflation stood at 4,500 per cent compared with the same month in
2006.
Year-on-year inflation has been in the thousands for some time,
but what
worries the consultants who wrote the report is the speeding up of
price
rises from month to month. By the end of May, prices were 100 per cent
higher than they had been at the end of April, so that as the report put it,
wages and money held in the bank halved in value in the space of four
weeks.
This monthly jump has accelerated the trend for shops to
constantly change
price-tags on the goods they are selling. As well as
doubling prices over
the course of May, the report said retailers were
doubling them again in
anticipation of the need to restock at much higher
prices.
Indications that money was quickly becoming worthless were that
price
quotations were now being quoted as valid for a day - even an hour -
instead
of seven to 14 days; wages were being paid weekly instead of
monthly, and
sometimes in kind rather than in cash; and the rate of business
closures was
higher than in previous months.
If this trend continued,
"doubling the current [month-on-month] inflation
for each of the seven
remaining months of 2007 gives 512,000 per cent
[year-on-year inflation],
thus the economic collapse is expected before the
end of 2007", the report's
authors said.
The Zimbabwean dollar is already depreciating fast in real
terms, and the
government policy of pegging the official exchange rate at
250 to the dollar
has only created a burgeoning black market in scarce
foreign currency. But
if inflation continues to rise at present rates, the
report says the
national currency will go out of use altogether, to be
replaced by a mix of
barter and payment in foreign currency.
When
that point comes, the forecast is gloomy - "shops and services
substantially
cease to function", unemployment becomes near universal, and
there is
"concomitantly increased crime and possible civil disturbances",
according
to the report.
Many people think the economy has pretty much fallen apart
already. Most
members of this once relatively prosperous nation are close to
destitution.
Power and water utilities are slowing to a halt, with long
daily cuts
experienced across the country. Telecommunications are poor and
the already
faltering education system has deteriorated further.
The
health sector, according to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for
Human
Rights, has already ground to a halt following a recent strike by
staff at
the country's major health institutions. Public hospitals have
closed their
doors to the public and have been emptying their wards.
Yet some local
economists argue that while the economy is "deeply stressed",
it is unlikely
to collapse in the next six months - because it is being
saved by the
relatively vibrant "informal sector". This term means small
businesses,
traders, and craftsmen and women, and service providers who
operate outside
the reach of the taxman and whose activities are not
captured in national
statistics.
Economists polled by IWPR said Zimbabwe has defied all
conventional economic
and political theories, so that predicting the
imminent demise of its
economy is risky.
Under normal circumstances,
no country that was not actually at war would
have survived such high
inflation rates and parallel exchange rates 100 or
more times the official
rate.
"My understanding is that [the economy] hasn't collapsed because of
the
people who are the bottom of the pyramid; that is, the informal sector,"
said Crispen Mawadza, whose company finances small- to medium-sized
businesses.
Zimbabweans were naturally endowed with entrepreneurial
skills, he said. Had
this not been the case, many more children would have
had to drop out of
school, and industries would have gone
under.
Economist David Mupamhadzi concurred with this view, saying it was
misleading to posit economic meltdown on inflation indicators alone. Before
this happened, other key economic variables would need to have deteriorated
to unmanageable levels, including unemployment and social indicators such as
the functioning of healthcare.
"It will not happen in Zimbabwe - not
in six months," predicted Mupamhadzi.
"It is a fact that our economy is
overheated and most of the key indicators
are in the negative - the economy
is in dire stress.
"However, if you look at Zimbabwe's economy, what is
carrying it is the
informal sector. The informal sector is driving
Zimbabwe's economy as it
tends to cushion people [from their hardships]. If
the economy was totally
formal, it would have totally collapsed a long time
ago."
He concluded, "Zimbabwe's economy has defied all conventional
logic."
Another local economist, John Robertson, said it was not easy to
define
exactly when a country could be said to have collapsed.
"Total
collapse does not actually happen. People are making comparisons of
countries like they are talking about companies. A country never ceases to
exist. A collapse happens when the current system of governance breaks down
completely.
"What I can say about Zimbabwe is that there is a state
of collapse of
certain systems like traffic lights, water, telephones, power
and health.
There can be total collapse when people lose confidence in the
use of their
own currency - when workers say they want to be paid in foreign
currency and
shops demand foreign exchange for purchases."
Another
prerequisite for this would, he said, be that the large public
sector -
civil servants and the military - said would have to say they could
no
longer subsist on payments in Zimbabwean dollars. This would trigger a
loss
of confidence and the breakdown of financial systems like banks.
Another
factor, not mentioned by these economists, is the safety net
provided by the
substantial remittances that Zimbabweans receive from
relatives
abroad.
Comprehensive data are difficult to come by, but a study by the
Global
Poverty Research Group last year showed that of 300 households
surveyed in
Harare and Bulawayo, half had received cash, goods or food from
abroad,
almost all within the last year.
This represented "an
extraordinarily high density of receipt", the report
said, concluding that
it reflected the reality that migratory flows had
become "key coping
strategies" in recent years.
The two main locations for relatives were
Britain and South Africa, with
Botswana and other countries some way
behind.
Florence Ushe is the pseudonym used by a journalist in Zimbabwe.
Click to read a very intersting document...
A Preliminary Report on Human Rights Violations on Commercial Farms, 2000 to 2005.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
21 June 2007
11:58
Police investigating a string of petrol-bomb attacks in
politically tense Zimbabwe claim they have been barred from pursuing their
probe in South Africa, reports said on Thursday.
Zimbabwe
authorities claim members of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) carried out the attacks on supermarkets and
police stations in the
weeks following the high-profile arrest of party
leader Morgan Tsvangirai on
March 11.
While a group of MDC activists has been held in
police custody
on terrorism charges connected with the bombings since March,
investigations
so far appear to have yielded little.
More
than a dozen are still in custody, and several are reported
to have been
badly assaulted.
The MDC denies it had anything to do with
the bombings, which
left a number of police officers nursing serious
burns.
The party says the attacks were the work of President
Robert
Mugabe's much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and were
designed to prove to outside observers that the MDC was a violent party, as
Mugabe claims.
The Zimbabwe authorities claim that the
men had undergone
terrorist training at bases in South
Africa.
Testifying at the High Court in Harare on Wednesday,
prosecutor
Tawanda Zvekare said a police team from Zimbabwe had already been
to South
Africa twice to pursue investigations, according to the official
Herald
newspaper.
But now the authorities there have told
the police they must
follow proper channels before entering the country,
Zvekare said.
"Initially the police relied on strong ties
that existed between
Zimbabwe and South Africa police to an extent that
police details went to
that country without invoking formal procedures that
are required when
conducting extra-territorial investigation," he
said.
But recently the investigators, who were in the company
of state
witnesses, were turned back at Beitbridge border post, he
claimed.
"When they arrived at Beitbridge they were informed
by their
counterparts that if ever they set their foot in South Africa they
would be
arrested immediately under that country's terrorism law," he
said.
South Africa and Zimbabwe are normally very close
allies.
The Zimbabwe authorities rely heavily upon South
African
President Thabo Mbeki's refusal to criticise the Mugabe government,
preferring to pursue a policy of quiet diplomacy.
In
fact, Mbeki is leading efforts to bring Zimbabwe's opposition
and Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party to the negotiating table ahead of next
year's
polls.
But in recent days, suspicion of the South Africans
has crept
into Zimbabwean state media, which closely reflects the government
line.
Earlier this week, the Herald accused South African
veterinary
authorities of racism after 100 cattle belonging to Zimbabwean
villagers
were shot in what may have been an attempt to stop the spread of
foot-and-mouth disease. -- Sapa-dpa
The Daily Catalyst
20 JUNE 2007
"The will of the people shall be the
basis of the authority of government;
this will shall be expressed in
periodic and genuine elections which shall
be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot or by
equivalent free voting
procedures."
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 21
(1948)
On Monday 18, 2007, the Registrar-General's office pronounced that
the
registration for both the parliamentary and the presidential elections
had
been officially opened to members of the public. The people from this
time
onwards are therefore entitled to start registering to participate in
both
the presidential and the parliamentary elections in
2008.
This is in line with the provisions of the African Charter on
Human and
Peoples' Rights [Banjul] (ACHPR) adopted June 27, 1981, article 13
states
the following in relation to issues of elections and democratic
participation:
1. Every citizen shall have the right to
participate freely in the
government of his country, either directly or
through freely chosen
representatives in accordance with the provisions of
the law.
2. Every citizen shall have the right of equal access to the
public service
of his country.
3. Every individual shall have the
right of access to public property and
services in strict equality of all
persons before the law.
It is in line with such legal framework that
we call upon the people of
Zimbabwe to register their names at any nearest
Registrar-General's offices
and register their names so that they can become
eligible to vote in the
2008 presidential elections. Every person of 18
years and above, is entitled
to cast a vote. The people of Zimbabwe are
entitled to cast their ballots
for any candidate of their choice in their
bid to decide their own destiny.
In the same spirit and in line with
the dictates of ACHPR, we call upon the
government of Zimbabwe to open up
democratic space and give Zimbabweans in
the Diaspora an opportunity to
exercise their suffrage right. Currently, the
legal framework within which
elections are conducted in Zimbabwe does not
allow free and fair
elections.
Crisis Coalition urges Zimbabweans to go and inspect the
voters roll and
update their information so that they are not denied their
right to vote in
next year's general elections. We also call upon the
government of Zimbabwe
to allow professional , non-partisan non-governmental
organizations to
conduct voter education is part of a basket of measures to
deepen democracy
in Zimbabwe.
The government must dismantle the
infrastructure of violence which is still
intact and poses a threat to the
credibility of next year's harmonized
elections. There is need to reform
abusive institutions such as the police
and the military so that they
execute their mandate in a professional and
non-partisan manner. The Border
Gezi youth militia must be disbanded if next
year's elections are to be
conducted in a free and fair manner , without
intimidation of the
opposition.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
June 22, 2007
Just days after banning Amakhosi Theatre's
play The Good President, police
have ordered the producers of a play about
AIDs to cancel the opening
scheduled for Friday. Titled "Everyday Soldier",
the play was directed by
Cont Mhlanga, whose case over The Good President
was heard in the High Court
last Friday. He was denied permission to
continue its run and his lawyers
plan to return to the High Court focusing
on police objections to the
script.
The play about AIDs came to
police attention when they found the fliers
distributed by the writer
Raisdon Baya and producer Joshua Nyabingi. This
time the police asked the
writer to bring a letter asking for permission to
run the play starting
Friday. When Baya complied, they also asked for a copy
of the script. He
brought them one, and they proceeded to underline many
lines in red,
demanding that they be taken out of the script because they
contravened the
Public order and Security Act. One of the lines said simply:
"Strange things
happen in this country." Mhlanga disgreed with the
censorship, saying the
police cannot censor facts.
With 2 plays that he directed now banned in
the same month, Mhlanga
expressed concern about the future of theatre in
Zimbabwe. He asked: "Where
have you ever heard of the police censoring
scripts. Pretty soon playwrights
will be jobless."
Mhlanga explained
that theatre is a reflection of what is going on in any
society, and for
this reason it cannot be censored. He said some of lines
that the police
objected were inspired by events that actually took place in
Zimbabwe. In
the new play one of the characters asks: "What type of head of
state
celebrates violence?" The police objected to that, saying it
undermines the
authority of the president. There is also a scene where the
police use brute
force to disperse a crowd. Mhlanga said these things happen
in Zimbabwe, and
art imitates life.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald (Harare) Published
by the government of Zimbabwe
COLUMN
21 June 2007
Posted to the web
21 June 2007
Victoria Ruzvidzo
Harare
SHEER madness! I have
often been attacked for criticising the massive price
hikes that seem to be
in fashion in Zimbabwe in recent months, but I am sure
even the most ardent
of my critics agree with me that price movements in the
past week are
nothing short of total madness.
I was away for a week, attending the
World Economic Forum on Africa summit
in Cape Town, South Africa, and when I
came back my high spirits were
dampened when I was confronted by price jumps
that made me wonder whether I
was having a bad dream or
what.
Never mind that we have already been subjected to price spikes,
particularly
since November last year. The latest round of increases, in my
view, seems
to be the sharpest. It could also be a reflection of the growing
mismatch
between our salaries and the prices of goods and
services.
When is all this going to end? What does it take for parties to
agree on
pricing strategies that do not seem to punish
consumers?
These are some of the questions that people seem to be asking.
Others have
even gone to the extent of sending hate mail to some of us,
blaming us for
the seeming failure of the social contract to arrest the
situation.
I, for one, have been supportive of the social covenant as key
in ending the
pricing chaos and other challenges that are currently
besetting our economy.
"Like most Zimbabweans I woke up this morning
without any food in my house.
"But seeing as though I now live in South
Africa I was actually able to go
to the shop and buy some eggs, bacon and
bread and made myself a fantastic
meal.
"Over breakfast I read your
column from some time back about the social
contract and your lauding it as
the panacea to all our country's ills.
"But seeing as though all the
stakeholders have not signed all the protocols
(something which seems to be
missing from your column) I don't see how it
can cure all the ills . . . "
wrote Mr Alex Johnson from South Africa.
Of course, there is no love lost
between me and him. Besides people are
entitled to their own opinion but he
is one guy who has made it his business
to see no good and hear no good
coming out of this country.
But in this instance I can understand him.
Many are asking questions as to
why the effects of the signing of the three
protocols a few weeks ago are
still to manifest in the economy.
At
some point I thought they were being unfair to the process, which needed
time to sink into all systems. But then again I realised that time for one,
two, testing . . . we do not have.
I may not have a fuller
appreciation of the matrix behind the pricing
structures and modalities used
by industry but I do not have to have a
doctorate in economics to know that
what we have seen in this country in
terms of willy-nilly price increases is
not justifiable.
I know on this one I could engage in quite some argument
with my good
brother Mr Callisto Jokonya and his colleagues at the
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries but I am sure they also now realise
that we cannot
progress much as a country if things continue at this
pace.
Everyone, right from the supplier of raw materials, the
manufacturer, the
wholesaler and the retailer need to sober up and realise
that the short-term
gains of massive price jumps cannot be
sustained.
At the end of the day, the consumer may end up, as is already
the case in
some cases, not buying some of the goods because they are priced
well beyond
him.
This obviously affects the profitability of any
business ultimately.
If in a week, a kilogramme of beef blade can rise
from $90 000 to $230 000
while a two-litre bottle of cooking oil is now
going for about $400 000 from
an average $200 000 and commuter omnibuses
charge between $30 000 and $50
000 from $10 00 a few days ago, then it all
ceases to make sense.
Such are the characteristics of a highly
inflationary environment, some may
argue but how far can this go. Inflation
causing inflation.
A ray of hope swept across the country early this
month when Government,
business and labour signed the Incomes and Pricing
Stabilisation Protocol,
the Restoration of Production Viability Protocol and
the Protocol on
Management of Foreign Currency.
Although many mistook
it to mean an immediate freeze in prices and wages,
among other
deliverables, we all hoped that the signatures were a display of
maturity by
the three parties and the realisation that time had come for a
give-and-take, win-win and prosper-thy-neighbour attitude, viewed as the key
foundation for economic regeneration.
But many are beginning to
question the sincerity of some of the partners. We
can only hope they are
reading wrongly into the whole issue.
We still hope everyone signed with
good intentions and that developments
over the past weak are only a reminder
of the extent to which things can go
if the three social partners delay the
implementation of the agreements.
A key principle guiding the Incomes and
Pricing Stabilisation Protocol is
quoted on point 2.5 of the protocol sating
"Subordinanting sectoral
interests to national interests".
This is
well supported by 2.1 and 2.2 which state "Cultivating a culture of
tolerance and restraint" and "Sharing a common vision regarding the future
development of the country".
One of the major objectives of this
protocol is "To ensure that any agreed
formula of restraining price
movements takes into account legitimate cost
increases in a transparent and
accountable manner".
All this reads very well and the three partners
sound very sincere but can
someone please tell us what has gone wrong, only
a few days after signing
the protocol?
Mind you, business as
represented by CZI, the Employers Confederation of
Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe
National Chamber of Commerce, labour, as
represented by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, the Zimbabwe
Federation of Trade Unions and the
Apex Council, and Government, represented
by the Minister of Economic
Development, Mr Sylvester Nguni, all signed this
particular
protocol.
Watching the processes that went on before signing, they all
seemed well
informed and appraised of the contents of the protocol and what
it meant.
I heard them pledge to "Put Zimbabwe First".
So what has
gone wrong? We beg for an answer.
Hopes are also pinned on the
appointment of the well-intended National
Incomes and Prices Commission,
largely expected to come up with pricing and
incomes formulae. We continue
to hope for a Zimbabwe in which going about
normal business such as hiking
into town and buying grocery will not be as
agonising but a pleasure to
undertake!
In God I trust!
SW Radio
Africa (London)
21 June 2007
Posted to the web 21 June
2007
Lance Guma
A magistrate's court on Wednesday dropped
charges against Gift Phiri a
journalist working for London based newspaper
The Zimbabwean. The state had
charged that Phiri abused journalistic
privilege by writing false stories.
He was arrested on the 1st April this
year and severely tortured by police
whilst in custody. The courts however
removed him from remand following the
dismissal of the charges by magistrate
Gloria Takundwa. Legal experts say
prosecutors shot themselves in the foot
by using a non-existent section of
the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The
magistrate reminded prosecutors that the section
they were trying to use had
been repealed in June 2003.
The stories
which irked authorities included 'Go now- Generals tell Mugabe
as Zanu PF
loses support' and 'ZRP denies torture charge' in which the
police were
accused of torturing labour leaders Wellington Chibhebhe and
others.
Speaking from London publisher Wilf Mbanga said they remained
quietly
confident throughout the case that Phiri would be cleared of the
charges. He
said the paper takes its hat off to Phiri for the courage he has
shown in
reporting in Zimbabwe amidst the state sponsored thuggery directed
at
perceived opponents. The common thread with most cases similar to Phiri's
is
that the state never secures a conviction and innocent people are made to
suffer in custody only to be released later, Mbanga
added.
Meanwhile on Wednesday the state tried to prolong the
incarceration of
several MDC activists held in remand prison over terrorism
charges by
claiming a team of police officers investigating 'banditry
training' in
South Africa had been denied entry into that country.
Prosecutor Tawanda
Zvekare told the High Court that the police officers had
been to South
Africa twice before but were blocked from entering this time
around. When
they arrived in Beitbridge they were informed they would be
arrested
immediately under that country's terrorism law. They were also
advised to
request assistance through proper diplomatic channels and that
these could
take at least three months.
NB: Don't miss Behind the
Headlines this week as Lance Guma speaks to the
publisher of The Zimbabwean
newspaper Wilf Mbanga. The programme captures
the papers' struggles against
a despotic regime hell-bent on shutting them
down.
By Tichaona Sibanda
21 June
2007
Peter Chingoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket has only been
granted a
5-day visa to attend the International Cricket Council executive
meeting
scheduled for next week in London, Newsreel learned on
Thursday.
Usually the world travelled Chingoka would get a six month visa
on any visit
to the UK but it seems all that has changed as the British
government
tightens its screws on anyone with close links to the regime. The
announcement of his visit has irked many Zimbabwean exiles in the UK who are
already planning protests during his stay. Free-Zim Youth co-ordinator Alois
Mbawara said they have already started mobilising their members to visit the
Lords cricket ground next week 'tell Chingoka in his face that they have
destroyed cricket'.
'This is an opportunity given to us to express
our disgust at the way they
have killed cricket and destroyed the
livelihoods of a number our promising
players,' Mbawara
said.
According to Cricinfo, the British Embassy in Harare had
recommended to its
government that Chingoka be refused admission to the UK
on account of his
associations with the government of Robert Mugabe. The ban
was however
blocked by Richard Caborn, the sports minister, who feared that
such move
could jeopardise the bid to have David Morgan, the England Cricket
Board
chairman elected as ICC president in 2008.
'The Foreign Office
compromised and have only given Chingoka a visa for five
days. He cannot
start his journey until Monday, June 25 and must be out of
the country by
Saturday, June 30. This will enable him to attend the
directors' meeting on
Wednesday and Thursday, and the ICC annual meeting
which follows, but that's
all,' Cricinfo said.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and
Sport said that they
'did not comment on individual visa cases'. Kate Hoey,
Caborn's predecessor
as sports minister and the chairperson of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group
on Zimbabwe, said she was 'disappointed' with Caborn's
intervention. She
added; 'Zimbabwe's cricket officials are at the heart of
the dictatorship's
web of corruption and political oppression. It is sad
that the sports
ministry has used Morgan's chances, which are really no
chance at all, of
becoming ICC president to ask the FCO to go against their
better judgment
and grant a visa. This sort of unprincipled manoeuvring
looks very bad when
we are asking other countries to stand firm in isolating
those at the heart
of Mugabe's regime'.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe (London)
21
June 2007
Posted to the web 21 June 2007
Lebo
Nkatazo
ZIMBABWE's retired United Methodist Church bishop Abel
Muzorewa is
contemplating a political comeback ahead of the 2008
presidential,
parliamentary and municipal polls, claiming people want him to
be the
country's head of state.
In a statement Thursday, Muzorewa
said many people, both white and black
were asking him to come and "lead the
country."
Muzorewa, 82, said: "People are coming to my house in small
and large groups
and as individuals. Some stop me in the streets. Both black
and white people
are saying to me, 'come back and lead the country, we are
now burning bricks
with straw!'
"When they describe in detail their
suffering you can see that indeed they
are bleeding, economically and
socially. It is painful to listen to them
talk."
The retired bishop
would not say whether he would run in the next elections.
He said Zanu PF
and the opposition MDC -- the only participants in ongoing
talks brokered by
President Thabo Mbeki -- should be guided by the national
interest and not
self-interest.
He added: "I am also appealing to all people of all
denominations who
believe in God and the power of prayer to pray for the
fruitful and
successful outcome of the talks and the salvation of Zimbabwe,
economically,
socially and politically."
Muzorewa was prime minister
of the short-lived coalition government in what
was called Zimbabwe
Rhodesia, holding office for only a few months in 1979.
From iafrica.com, 21 June
How
does a Zimbabwean golfer avoid hyperinflation? By paying for their
halfway
and 19th hole beers before teeing off. This is the advice from the
CEO of
the Harare-based Imara Asset Management, John Legat, after the beer a
four-ball ordered before teeing off at one of Harare's championship golf
courses had risen in price by the time they reached the turn. The bad news
was that by post-match drinks, the prices had risen again. Legat says: "Such
is life under hyperinflation that reached 12 000 percent for May, according
to accounting firm PWC and somewhere around 16 000 percent in the
supermarkets. "Most Zimbabweans have a sense of humour that keeps everyone
relatively sane, but, even then, day-to-day living and working is becoming
increasingly difficult, if not impossible." At the same time, Zimbabwe has
been in the focus of international investor interest following big stock
market gains - which has largely become a measure of future inflation. The
Harare exchange recently recorded its biggest ever index gain in a single
day - 54 percent - and rose 236 percent in the first two weeks of June
alone. Legat describes Zimbabwe's economy as one in which companies build up
six to 12 months of stock or inputs and move out of cash.
Stock piles
are so high that further stockpiling becomes pointless. At least
one
company, Innscor, pays monthly dividends, putting the onus on
shareholders
to find a home for the skyrocketing currency. Locals in
Zimbabwe are also
look to spend their money as fast as they can, though
physical constraints
are setting in. The pay of most formal sector employees
is transferred
electronically into bank, building society or post office
accounts.
Individuals can withdraw Z$1.5-million. The largest note is Z$100
000 or
less than one US dollar and the printing presses run overtime to keep
pace
with hyperinflation. Legat warns: "Unless the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)
issues a much higher denomination note urgently or a new currency with
fewer
noughts, we can easily envisage the banks, building societies and post
office not having enough physical cash to provide to deposit-holders." As
the RBZ no longer publishes updated monetary statistics, the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE) has become a proxy for assessing future inflation. By March
the ZSE was up 13 000 percent year on year. Two months later, Zimbabwe hit
12 000 percent inflation. By early June, the ZSE index was up by 80 000
percent year-on-year. Legat says: "On that simple basis, we should not be
surprised to see PWC inflation figures head toward 80 000 percent by
September/October - probably best to remain at the bar rather than play the
18 holes."
The Zimbabwean
(21-06-07)
BY CAJ
NEWS
HARARE
THE political situation in Zimbabwe has led to
the cancellation of the
country's first international golf championship in
years, the Dale Hayes
Super Golf Challenge, after South African golfers
pulled out citing security
reasons.
The country last hosted an
international golf championship, the Zimbabwe
Open, in 2000. But the
championship, which attracted the world's best
golfers like Nick Price, was
put on the backburner by the Zimbabwe
Professional Golfers Association due
to a serious foreign currency crisis
gripping the country. The professionals
are paid prize money in hard
currency.
The latest setback for
Zimbabwe's embattled sports fraternity came this
week, when the Dale Hayes
event, scheduled for 8 June to 12 June at Elephant
Hills, Victoria Falls,
was cancelled.
The resort town had been scheduled to host probably its
first international
golfing event but the country is the midst of a crisis
characterised by
galloping inflation, blackouts and fuel
shortages.
Roger Baylis, the president of the Zimbabwe Junior Golfers
Association,
confirmed that the Dale Hayes Super Golf Challenge had been
called off.
"Most South African golfers are afraid to come here," Baylis
said.
Shirley Njolomole, director of Sunset Tours who were selling the
'golf and
holiday' package, confirmed that the Challenge had been cancelled
because of
"the poor numbers".
"The numbers were just not coming. We
sold the idea to the golf clubs and
associations in the country and South
Africa but the numbers were just too
low to go ahead with the golf
tournament. Dale Hayes was also supposed to be
coming," Njolomole
said.
A golf association executive said that the championship has been
cancelled
because the South Africa golfers were not happy with the political
situation
in the country and feared for their security. Another executive
said the
"country was burning" and not even a sack of money could bring the
South
African golfers here.
Hayes - who presents Super Golf, a golf
magazine programme on SuperSport
which began in August 2004 - was set to
grace the tournament. The former
European Tour golfer is also involved with
The Compleat Golfer magazine and
co-ordinates golf days and events and
conducts fun golf clinics for
corporate golf days.
He is a director
of Matkovich & Hayes Golf Course Architects and a member of
the golf
commentary team for the Golf Channel (USA) - international feed of
the
European Tour and SuperSport. Dale is an Honorary Member of South
African
Professional Golfers Association.
With such a high profile and legion of
South African golfers said to be
coming, the spotlight was set to be on
Zimbabwe this week. Now, sadly it is
not.