Earth Times
Posted :
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:30:01GMT
Author : DPA
Harare - The Zimbabwe police
Saturday
extended their ban on demonstrations and rallies in central Harare
by a
month as President Robert Mugabe's government continues its clampdown
on
dissent. "Disturbances in Harare Central District and the surrounding
areas
in the past months have forced me to issue this temporary
prohibition
order," Isaac Tayengwa, a chief superintendent in the Zimbabwean
police said
in an order published in the official Herald daily.
The
ban on rallies, demonstrations and political gatherings would last from
Sunday
until July 23, the order said.
A similar ban on rallies
across most of Harare's suburbs, known to be
hotbeds of
support for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) expired on
Friday.
It was
not clear whether the government would soon renew the ban in those
areas.
Police first began imposing bans on demonstrations and rallies
in February.
A prayer
rally attended by opposition officials in Harare in
March was crushed by the
police, and
dozens of opposition officials and
activists were severely assaulted.
The crackdown caused a storm of
international protest. South African
President Thabo
Mbeki has since been
appointed to mediate between the MDC and Mugabe's party
to quell tensions
ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections due in
March.
The
announcement by the police came as the country's information minister
said
Saturday
that despite dire economic hardships the government continued to
enjoy
popular support
and would defend itself against any attempt to
overthrow it.
Reuters
Sat 23 Jun
2007, 12:58 GMT
By Christina Amann
BERLIN (Reuters) - The mass
emigration from Zimbabwe could hurt the
country's opposition in next year's
election where it hopes to gain some
ground on President Robert Mugabe's
ruling party, a leading opposition
figure said.
Thousands of
Zimbabweans have fled their country to escape the world's
fastest shrinking
economy outside a war zone. Today some 2 million out of
the country's
estimated 12 million people live in South Africa.
Experts say tens of
thousands of others have left Zimbabwe for other African
countries and
Europe, especially Britain. Many of those are professionals.
Abednico
Bhebhe, deputy spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change's
(MDC) parliamentary faction, said that exodus could hurt the
opposition's
chances to put a dent in the ruling ZANU-PF's grip on power.
"Our active
voters are going to South Africa or Europe," he told Reuters on
Friday.
Voter registration for next year's election opened this
month, amid charges
from civic groups and the opposition that the process
was tilted towards
ZANU-PF's rural support bases.
Many
third-generation Zimbabweans, mostly farm labourers and mineworkers who
had
been disqualified from voting after citizenship laws were amended in
2003,
have been asked to re-apply to have their citizenship
reinstated.
Mugabe's government is also currently pushing for a
constitutional amendment
to, among other provisions, increase the number of
seats in the lower house
of parliament from 150 to 210, with most of the
existing rural
constituencies expected to be split up.
Bhebhe is part
of a group of opposition activists close to MDC faction
leader Arthur
Mutambara who came to Germany to meet with officials to
discuss the
situation in their country. They also plan visits to Britain and
the United
States.
He warned the situation in Zimbabwe was fragile and there could
be more
violence.
"The anger is there and you can't rule it out," he
said about the
possibility tensions could spill onto the
streets.
"Whoever's sitting in the kitchen can feel the heat and the
people of
Zimbabwe are sitting in kitchen," he said.
Critics blame
Mugabe and his government for the country's economic crisis,
marked by
inflation of more than 3,700 percent, high unemployment, rising
poverty and
chronic shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency.
Mugabe says the
crisis is a result of sabotage by former colonial power
Britain and other
Western nations who he says are punishing his government
for seizing white
farms and redistributing the land to poor blacks.
Bhebhe called for
international food aid to alleviate the suffering of
hungry people in
Zimbabwe. He also called for a global ban on travel for
Mugabe and other
high-ranking members of his ZANU-PF party.
Most importantly, he said, the
opposition needed to take control. "We have
to do everything we can to get
into power," Bhebhe said.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
23 June 2007 10:26
The
government of the Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe still
has the support
of the country's people, the information minister said on
Saturday,
dismissing predictions by the United States ambassador to Harare
that regime
change is imminent.
US Ambassador Christopher Dell told the
Guardian newspaper this
week that Mugabe's government is likely to inflict
regime change through
mismanaging the economy.
He
predicted Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate -- already the
highest in the
world at more than 4 500% -- would reach 1,5-million percent
by the end of
the year.
"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, he
said.
"By carrying out disastrous economic policies, the
Mugabe
government is committing regime change upon itself," said the
ambassador,
who is due to leave Harare next month for a new posting to
Afghanistan.
Stronger position
Information
Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told state radio that
Zimbabwe was in a much
stronger position now politically and economically
than ever
before.
The government continues to enjoy the support of its
people and
is more than ready to defend itself against any illegal attempts
to
overthrow it, the radio quoted him as saying.
He
chastised what he termed gullible Western media for repeating
the US envoys
comments without seeking the government's side of the story.
The minister repeated Harare's line that Zimbabwe's hardships
have been
caused by sanctions imposed by the US, Britain and other Western
countries.
Targeted sanctions, including a travel ban, an
arms embargo and
asset freezes have been imposed on Mugabe and his inner
circle, but the
government says critical financial aid and donor funds have
also dried up.
"The US envoy can celebrate the misery and
suffering of
Zimbabweans brought about by his government through the
imposition of
self-serving illegal economic sanctions against the government
but that does
not translate into the failure of the government," said
Ndlovu.
The ministers comments come amid reports that a few
businesses
in Zimbabwe have temporarily closed shop to avoid selling stock
for
fast-devaluing Zimbabwe dollars that would not be able to buy
replacements.
The Zimbabwe dollar, which officially trades at
15 000 to the
greenback is reported to have slumped to around 400 000 to the
dollar for
large transactions on the black market.
Firms
to cede 51% equity
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government on Friday
published a Bill
designed to ensure that a majority stake in all
public-owned companies ends
up in the hands of the indigenous black
population.
The draft Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Bill provides
for the establishment of an empowerment fund which will offer
assistance to
the "financing of share acquisitions" from the public-owned
firms or assist
in "management buy-ins and buy-outs".
"The government shall, through this act ... endeavour to secure
that at
least 51% of the shares of every public-owned company and any other
business
shall be owned by indigenous Zimbabweans," reads the Bill.
Some of the firms dually listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
and London
Securities Exchange firms include Old Mutual, NMB bank and
Hwange.
Multinational firms that may be affected by the
new policy
include Barclays Bank, Bindura Nickel Corporation and mining
giant Rio Zim.
The Bill defines indigenous Zimbabweans as any
person who,
before independence in 1980 was "disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination on
the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such
person, and
includes any company, association, syndicate or partnership of
which
indigenous Zimbabweans form the majority of the members or hold the
controlling interest".
The Bill also states that no
projected or proposed investment,
shall be approved unless a controlling
interest is reserved for indigenous
Zimbabweans.
All
government departments, statutory bodies will also be asked
to procure 51%
of their goods and services from businesses in which
controlling interest is
held by indigenous Zimbabweans.
Last year, many of Zimbabwe's
platinum, diamond and other
mineral mines warned that they would be forced
to close if Mugabe's
government takes a majority stake in the
companies.
The Chamber of Mines, representing 200 mining
houses in
Zimbabwe, said proposed amendments to the Minerals and Mines Act
would
effectively kill off investment needed to keep the mines open. -
Sapa-AFP,
Sapa-DPA
New York Times
By
MICHAEL WINES
Published: June 23, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, June 22 - As
Zimbabwe's disintegration gathers potentially
unstoppable momentum, a
swelling tide of migrants is moving into neighboring
South Africa, driven
into exile by oppression, unemployment and inflation so
relentless that many
goods now double in price weekly.
South Africa is deporting an average of
3,900 illegal Zimbabwean migrants
every week, the International Organization
for Migration says. That is up
more than 40 percent from the second half of
2006, and six times the number
South African officials said they were
expelling in late 2003.
And that reflects only those who are captured.
Many more Zimbabweans slip
into the country undetected, although estimates
vary wildly. In a nation of
46 million, most experts say, undocumented
Zimbabweans could number several
hundred thousand to two
million.
Social tensions are ratcheting up in both nations, as Zimbabwe's
adult
population dwindles and South Africans, already burdened by high
unemployment, face new competition for jobs and housing. The migrants also
pose a diplomatic problem, because South Africa is trying to broker an end
to Zimbabwe's long political crisis without criticizing its government or
appearing to have a major stake in the outcome.
The situation is
inflicting ever more misery on the Zimbabweans. The vast
majority flee their
country's penury to find a way to support their families
back home. But in
South Africa they often find xenophobia, exploitation and
a government
unwilling and ill-equipped to help them.
"There's a lot of competition"
with South Africans "for other resources like
housing in informal
settlements, access to limited primary health care and
education," said
Chris Maroleng, an expert on Zimbabwe at the Institute for
Security Studies,
a research organization in Pretoria.
South Africa's government already
struggles to provide free housing, medical
care and employment for its own
poorest, including the millions living in
shantytowns. Here, where
joblessness runs from 25 to 40 percent of adult
workers, the Zimbabweans -
now the nation's largest migrant group - are
increasingly seen as intruders,
not victims, and clashes between the groups
are not
uncommon.
Unquestionably, the Zimbabweans are victims first. A rising
number claim to
be refugees from persecution by President Robert G. Mugabe's
police and by
supporters of his ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front. Just six Zimbabweans sought political asylum in South
Africa in 2001; last year, the total was nearly 19,000, more than a third of
all asylum applications in South Africa.
But most are fleeing
privation, not persecution. Zimbabwe's annual inflation
rate was officially
4,530 percent in May; economists say it is at least
twice that. Industries
are operating at barely 30 percent of capacity,
unemployment exceeds 80
percent and a disastrous harvest is likely to leave
up to four million in
need of food aid this year.
A memorandum prepared by 34 international aid
agencies, including the United
Nations and the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, predicted this month that the
country's economy would cease to
function by the end of this
year.
Remittances keep the economy afloat: half of all households get
most of
their money from distant friends and relatives, a Global Poverty
Research
survey concluded last June. More than one in five of those who sent
money
lived in South Africa, the most of any nation except
Britain.
Magugu Nyathi arrived in Johannesburg two and a half years ago
and found
work as a journalist for a Zimbabwe news organization. Her aunt,
an office
worker in Bulawayo, earns 400,000 Zimbabwe dollars a month - about
$9, until
the Zimbabwe dollar plummeted this week.
Now the aunt's
monthly salary is worth about $2. She survives in part on a
stipend from Ms.
Nyathi.
"There are families who don't have a kid outside the country,"
said Ms.
Nyathi, who lives in Cape Town. "How are they surviving? Just think
of it."
Ms. Nyathi is lucky as migrants go: she has a skill and has
obtained a
temporary permit that allows her to remain legally in South
Africa while her
application for asylum is processed. Because Zimbabwe was
long one of the
best-educated nations in Africa, a share of migrants -
particularly
teachers, who have often been targets of harassment by Mr.
Mugabe's
supporters - stand a good chance of finding work in South Africa,
legally or
not.
Johannesburg's government said this week that 8 in 10
people who had visited
a new office for migrant assistance were Zimbabwean,
and that the visitors
included mathematicians, geologists, engineers and
experts in computers and
aviation.
But skills are no guarantee of
employment. At the Central Methodist Church
in downtown Johannesburg,
hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees gather every
evening, waiting for the doors
to open so they can spend the night. They
occupy several floors of the
building, from the foyer to stairwells and
meeting rooms.
"Some of
the people we have in this building are amazing," said the Rev.
Paul Verryn,
the Methodist bishop of Johannesburg. "We have a doctor, two
accountants,
teachers, a health inspector - all sleeping on the floor."
Even qualified
migrants find it hard to get jobs without work permits or
temporary permits
that allow migrants to stay while they apply for asylum.
The permits are
issued only in a handful of offices, and only at limited
times. The Home
Affairs Ministry, which regulates immigration, is frequently
accused by
Zimbabweans and advocacy groups of deliberately withholding
permits, perhaps
to force them to return home. More likely, it is simply
overwhelmed: in
Pretoria, for example, refugees often sleep on the streets
outside the
office to be the first of hundreds and even thousands who line
up to apply
for asylum.
Those who apply for asylum wait years for a decision, as
officials tackle a
vast backlog. Last year, as nearly 19,000 Zimbabwean
applications for asylum
flooded in, Home Affairs processed fewer than 2,000
requests from past years
and granted asylum to a mere 103 people.
The
growing crush of applicants presents the government with a delicate
problem.
During his seven years in office, President Thabo Mbeki has
studiously
avoided criticizing Mr. Mugabe's authoritarian rule, and is
trying to
present himself as an impartial broker in negotiations between Mr.
Mugabe
and opposition politicians to lay the groundwork for a presidential
election
next year.
When a leading opposition politician, Roy Bennett, fled
Zimbabwe last year
under threat of arrest, his application for political
asylum was denied
because the South African government decided that his
claims of persecution
were not founded. Mr. Bennett's farm had been seized
by the government, he
had been imprisoned for a year for shoving a member of
Parliament and he had
been accused by the Zimbabwe police of plotting to
murder Mr. Mugabe.
Mr. Bennett eventually won asylum, but only after
going to court.
"The problem in giving someone asylum is that you have to
make a statement
about the country that individual is fleeing," said Mr.
Maroleng, at the
Pretoria institute. "Politically, it raises questions, and
it undermines the
government's policy on Zimbabwe, which is not to engage
the government of
Zimbabwe" on questions of repression and
misrule.
So migrants wait for a chance at legal residence that may never
arrive. On
Thursday, a schoolteacher and union official from Harare used his
Zimbabwe
civil-service passport to walk across the border in Beitbridge and
make his
way to Johannesburg.
The teacher, who insisted on anonymity,
said he had left his wife and two
children behind because he was living in
fear. He had been arrested and
beaten after joining a union march in
September, he said. "As we go forward
toward elections in 2008," he said,
"we are again targets of violence. Every
morning, my life was very much in
danger."
But he might have stayed, he said, had his monthly salary not
been the
equivalent of $15.
Another teacher, a friend, had fled
Zimbabwe last year after government
spies mistook a wake in her parlor for a
meeting of opposition members, and
set fire to her house, she
said.
"You don't feel the pain on somebody when it's not happening to
you," she
said in a Johannesburg clinic for migrants seeking legal advice.
"I never
expected such a life. But I think there's a reason why God wants
this."
But for the moment, she said: "I just want a job. I can do dishes.
I don't
mind that I was a teacher."
http://www.cathybuckle.com/thisweek.shtml
Saturday 23rd June 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
I
am writing this letter late at night when the electricity is on because
supplies during the day, both in the week and at weekends, are now very
sporadic. At any time, without warning the power goes off, sometimes for
just an hour or two but more often it is for solid chunks of 8 or even 10
hours at a time. When all these power cuts began we were told that it was
because all the electricity we had was going to go to the wheat farmers who
needed to irrigate the crop for the nation's daily bread. Some people sort
of half heartedly believed that story but not for long. As it was last year
and the two previous years - the growing wheat crop is just not there for us
to see.
This week the propaganda peddlers began preparing the way for
yet another
disaster. As always they treat us like complete idiots! Ignoring
the fact
that we are all sitting in the cold and dark because they'd told us
all the
electricity was irrigating wheat, this week they told us that the
projected
crop is going to be far less than anticipated. This is apparently
because
the wheat farmers can't irrigate because of the electricity
cuts.
Even this ludicrous irony doesn't ring true because for most of us
the last
report we saw on the winter wheat crop was in the government
sponsored
Herald newspaper and that took the Emperors clothes off for all to
see.
Written just ten days before the last date for planting wheat in late
May,
the report said that Secretary for Agriculture Dr Shadreck Mlambo had
addressed a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee. The report stated, and I
quote: "of the projected 76 000 hectares, only 8 000 hectares have so far
been put under wheat."
It's hard to believe that a massive 68
thousand hectares of wheat were
planted in those last few days of May -
before it was too late - but now,
another new spin is
emerging.
Government agricultural voices have begun warning that quelea
birds are
preparing to decimate the country's winter wheat crop - the crop
that either
wasn't planted in the first place or hasn't been watered because
there's
been no electricity for the irrigation pumps.
We are told
that there is only one aeroplane in the country that can be used
to spray
the birds and apparently four are needed to "cover the whole crop".
Its not
being said if the whole crop consists of 8 thousand hectares spread
out in
lots of little squares or if its actually 76 thousand hectares.
Keeping
up with both the facts and the propaganda about events in Zimbabwe
has
become almost impossible as electricity cuts silence all but the most
determined and innovative lines of communication. It took a message from
outside of Zimbabwe to tell me what our Minister of Lands said this week and
for millions of cold, tired and hungry Zimbabweans, they are sickening
words. Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa said: "The position is that food
shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining
whites. We would all rather die of hunger but knowing full well that the
land is in the hands of black people."
Until next week, thanks for
reading, love cathy.
http://www.cathybuckle.com/indexph.shtml
Friday 22nd June 2007
Dear
Friends.
This is a true story of an incident that happened this week. A
Zimbabwean
who had just arrived in the UK was passing a cheap clothing shop
somewhere
in London (Chinese-made goods, probably, the Brits have their
zhing zhong
too!) where he saw a dress marked £5.00. The Zimbabwean turned
to his
companion in absolute astonishment and exclaimed, 'You mean they
still have
items costing single digits here in the UK?' The man who,
remember, had just
come from a country where even the price of one single
sweet for a child
runs into four digits simply could not get his head round
the idea things of
being priced in single digits!
That little anecdote
illustrates in reverse the reaction that Zims here in
the diaspora have when
we look at what's happening to the prices back home.
There are just too many
digits! I know that I spend half my days with a
calculator trying to work
out how much so and so will get in Zim dollars if
I send £10 or £20 and
whether it will be enough to pay the school fees or
medical expenses or even
just buy a few basic groceries. But - as
Zimbabweans know only too well -
even that calculation is bound to fail
because in Zimbabwe prices never stay
the same. They have only one
direction - and that's up. If you are an
ordinary Zimbabwean and not a
Cabinet Minister or someone on the gravy train
of corruption, you may manage
to afford food today but you can't be sure you
will eat again tomorrow.
So it was doubly shocking to read the comments of
Didymus Mutasa, the
Minister of Lands this week. He's still droning on about
getting rid of all
the remaining white farmers, most of whom are Zimbabwean
citizens, by the
way, and not Brits as the Zimbabwean government claims.
Commenting on a UN
Report that Zimbabwe will face even more food shortages
in the coming
months, Minister Mutasa said, 'The position is that food
shortages or no
food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining
whites' and he
added, ' we would all rather die of hunger but knowing full
well that that
the land is in the hands of black people.'
You have to
wonder who the Minister is speaking for. On behalf of millions
of his fellow
countrymen and women, Didymus Mutasa volunteers death rather
than the
'dishonour' of eating food grown by whites. 'We would all rather
die of
hunger 'he says. But then that's easy for him to say isn't it? He and
his
fellow Ministers will not be the ones to pay with their lives the price
of
this government's criminal and racist policies. I don't suppose for one
moment that my friends back home give a damn who grows the food as long as
they and their children and relatives get to eat even one decent meal a day.
But then logic and plain common sense isn't in Zanu PF's vocabulary - and
neither, it seems, is common humanity.
Meanwhile, people like Kenneth
Kaunda the former President of Zambia and
others of the Pan-Africanist
persuasion continue to defend Mugabe and his
policies. Writing in the
current issue of Focus on Africa, the BBC magazine,
Kaunda says that Mugabe
should not be 'demonised' by the west because ' they
do not understand what
Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his fellow freedom fighters
have gone through'.
Kaunda traces the history of Zimbabwe's struggle for
freedom and Mugabe's
part in that struggle including his imprisonment by the
Smith regime. Like
all Pan-Africanists, Kaunda goes back into the distant
past for
justification of present actions. He describes how the land was
stolen from
the African people, how they were pushed onto the infertile land
while the
whites kept the best for themselves. Those are facts that no one
disputes.
Colonialism by its very nature is racist and chauvinistic and Ian
Smith's
Rhodesia was simply apartheid without the label. Thousands died in
the war
to end the Smith regime. There was immense suffering on all sides,
not least
by the villagers who risked their lives daily, caught in the
middle between
Freedom Fighters and Rhodesian troops. That war, Kaunda
claims was about
land. True, but he omits to tell his readers that it was
also a war to bring
democracy to the African people. The slogan of 'One man
one vote' was
central to the struggle for freedom. That is an inconvenient
truth which
Kaunda prefers to ignore, concentrating instead on the land
issue, or
Mugabe's version of it.
Bringing his argument right up to the present day,
Kaunda says, 'There have
been allegations of corruption in relation to land
allocation. Well, the
corruption should have been dealt with by all.
Stopping the land programme
and doing nothing, was not the
solution.'
It's hard to see how the corruption could have been dealt with
when the
people who were administering the programme and making the laws
were
themselves corrupt! Kaunda goes on to admit that 'There are some things
which President Mugabe has done which I totally disagree with' He cites the
police beating of Morgan Tsvangirai as one example but adds, 'On the other
hand, given their experience, I can understand the fury that goes through
President Mugabe and his colleagues.'
Am I missing something here? I
cannot for the life of me see the logic of
this argument. Kenneth Kaunda
seems not to have understood that the 'fury'
Mugabe and his colleagues
allegedly feel is being unleashed against his own
people, against black
Zimbabweans. Now why should President Mugabe be
'furious' with his own
people.unless of course he feels they will no longer
vote to keep him in
power.
To attempt to justify the President's furious onslaught against
his own
people, as Kaunda does, on the grounds of Mugabe's past suffering is
bad
logic and bad psychology. Africa's colonial past needs to be
acknowledged
for the harm that it did; understanding the past, however
painful that may
be certainly helps us to understand ourselves but
constantly blaming the
past for everything we do is simply an easy way out
of taking responsibility
for our own behaviour. It's called emotional
immaturity, a common
characteristic of dictators.
Ndini shamwari yenyu.
PH.
Boston Globe
By Robert I. Rotberg |
June 23, 2007
CHINA IS transforming Africa, for good and ill. The United
States and other
traditional trading and aid partners of Africa need to help
Africans craft
policies that welcome Chinese investment and trade but
condemn the taking of
African jobs and the destruction of African
industries. Africa and the West
also need to dissuade China from supporting
Africa's most reviled
dictatorships.
China has become the largest new
investor, trader, buyer, and aid donor in a
raft of African countries and a
major new economic force in sub-Saharan
Africa . Chinese trade with Africa
is growing at 50 percent a year. Already,
that trade has jumped in value
from $10 billion in 2000 to $25 billion last
year. (US trade with
sub-Saharan Africa in 2005 totaled nearly $61 billion.)
China is building
roads, railways, harbors, petrochemical installations, and
military
barracks; it is pumping oil, farming, taking trees, supplying
laborers, and
offering physicians. A number of African nations now depend
critically on
Chinese cash and initiative.
Growing rapidly and bursting out of its long
underdeveloped cocoon to become
a major world power and global economic
source, China needs sources of
energy and the raw materials -- including
copper, cobalt, cadmium,
magnesium, platinum, nickel, lead, zinc, coltan,
titanium -- that African
nations can supply. China competes with the United
States for Angola's oil,
controls most of the Sudan's oil, and is exploring
for oil onshore and
offshore in five other African countries. It is a major
purchaser of timber
from West Africa.
President Hu Jintao of China
has visited Africa three times since 2003.
China has embassies in more
African countries than does the United States.
China is a force for GDP
growth in Africa, but it also is a modern colonial
colossus intent on
stripping Africa of its wealth without leaving
sustainable structures
behind. A flood of cheap goods, especially textiles
and apparel, has already
begun to undermine and bankrupt local industry,
forcing hundreds of
thousands of Africans out of work.
The use of imported Chinese rather
than local labor to build roads, mines,
and factories -- a common phenomenon
-- deprives Africans of employment
opportunities.
In many cases,
China has also buttressed the harsh rule of indigenous
authoritarian
governments. China implicitly backs odious regimes, propping
some of them
up, supplying corrupt rents to many, and always reinforcing a
regime's least
participatory instincts. In the Sudan, Zimbabwe, and
elsewhere, China is
supporting regimes condemned by the United Nations and
world leaders. It
supplies small arms and other weapons -- sometimes
aircraft --
indiscriminately, and in defiance of UN strictures.
China respects local
sovereignty. But given the genocide in Darfur, isn't
influencing the
Khartoum government to end mayhem a potentially better
strategy than the one
of laissez-faire complicity? By leaning on the Sudan
over Darfur, China
could win friends and partners in Africa and around the
world without losing
a source of oil.
The same logic holds true with regard to Zimbabwe, where
China is the main
buttress of the cruel and corrupt government of President
Robert Mugabe.
Good deeds now would unlock the potential of Africa for
China. They would
raise China's moral stature and emphasize its
self-professed break with
earlier colonial endeavors. Doing so would also
lessen threats of a
potential boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing.
Africans have so far been uncertain how best to respond to
China. Neither
the African Union nor sub regional organizations like the
Southern African
Development Community have an articulated policy regarding
China and Chinese
influence. Each of the 48 sub-Saharan countries goes its
own way, responding
to China and Chinese entreaties (or Taiwanese in five
cases)
idiosyncratically.
The African petroleum producers, the
African hard mineral producers, and the
African vulnerable industrial cases
would each benefit by developing
specific policies toward China and by
bargaining with China on the basis of
such new functional groupings. Africa
surely needs policies regarding the
importation of Chinese laborers, special
taxation privileges or not for
Chinese firms (many are state owned), and
protection or not for domestically
produced goods. That complaint drove
Zambian and Nigerian protesters earlier
this year.
Africans welcome
Chinese aid -- a promised $20 billion -- because it comes
without
immediately obvious strings (the Taiwanese question aside). For that
reason,
and because the Chinese espouse fundamentally different approaches
to
governance questions than the West does, the West (and Africa) should now
encourage China to embrace positive principles for Africa's growth. China is
a possible force for good in Africa; the West should help harness that
potential.
Robert I. Rotberg is director of the Kennedy School of
Government's Program
on Intrastate Conflict and president of the World Peace
Foundation.
The Zimbabwean
(22-06-07)
By Peter
Kadiki
HARARE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is fearing for his safety in Harare
and is now
sleeping in Zvimba because of a letter he received, purportedly
signed by
members of the army threatening to get him soon.
CAJ News
is in possession of a copy of the letter, with the address of army
KGV1
headquarters in Harare sent to "Robert Mugabe of Number 7 Chancellor
Avenue
in Harare", which is the address for the State House, Mugabe's
official
residence.
The letter is signed off at the bottom by "1000 soldiers fed
up with you"
and sources say it was
submitted to Mugabe last week after
revelations of a suspected coup plot
emerged to dominate the Zimbabwean
political scene.
"We are fed up and we will get you soon," the first
sentence reads. "We are
after you and you better pack and go because we
can't continue suffering
because of you Robert."
The short letter
only has one paragraph and is on a letterhead of the
Zimbabwe National
Army.
CAJ News got a copy of the letter through senior army sources, who
also
revealed that Mugabe has resorted to sleeping at his rural home in
Zvimba,
some 120 kilometres west of Harare.
This news agency has also
established that Mugabe has been spending less
time in Harare since his
return from a visit to Libya and Egypt on Sunday.
In addition to the
State House, Mugabe also has in Harare his recently
finished mansion in the
expensive suburb of Borrowdale and to which his
family has been confined of
late.
Army sources say that attempts at toppling Mugabe have also seen
some
members of the
army "visiting" his Borrowdale
mansion.
Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba dismissed the letter and
these reports
as rubbish.
"That is rubbish and I shouldn't even
explain further regarding this
nonsense about coup," he
said.
Although Charamba arrogantly tried to brush aside the coup plot,
six men are
in custody at Chikurubi Remand Prison and were denied bail on
Friday on
charges of terrorism based on allegations that they planned to
oust Mugabe.
It has also been established that more senior army officials
have been put
on house arrest as
the state spreads its net investigating
the coup plans.
Part of the coup saga have been executions of unconfirmed
numbers of members
of the army feared to have tried a go at either arresting
or assassinating
Mugabe.
Mugabe summoned his ministers of State
Security, Defence and Home Affairs
upon arrival on Sunday over the coup plot
and is said to have put them to
task over the matter-CAJ News.
The Herald (Harare) Published by the government
of Zimbabwe
23 June 2007
Posted to the web 23 June
2007
Harare
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority has announced
that it would today
partially shut down the Morton Jaffray Water Treatment
Plant to facilitate
maintenance work on the major supply pipe to Lochinvar
water reservoirs.
The shutdown would affect Norton and Harare's western
suburbs of Highfield,
Glen View, Glen Norah, Budiriro, Mufakose and
Kuwadzana.
"The partial shutdown, which will last from 0300hrs to
2000hrs on the day,
will be effected to enable maintenance work to be
carried out on the major
water supply line from Morton Jaffray to Lonchinvar
reservoirs," read a
statement from Zinwa.
Zinwa said pumping to the
affected areas would resume as soon as the repair
work was
complete.
"A near normal water supply situation is expected in all areas
by around
2000hrs on Sunday," Zinwa said.
The Zimbabwean
(22-06-07)
By Peter Kadiki
HARARE:
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
scheme on agricultural equipment has
emerged to be yet another self-serving
scandal by the beleaguered Zanu (PF)
regime following revelations that
beneficiaries will only start paying for
the equipment after a year and have
the option to even go beyond whilst also
paying in local
currency.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono confirmed to CAJ News that the scheme
launched a
fortnight ago amidst controversy by President Mugabe is a means
by the
regime to try and appease a restless nation ahead of vital elections
set for
next year as well as a desperate attempt at saving the agricultural
sector
from the doldrums.
Gono confirmed that "beneficiaries have an
opportunity to negotiate with us
on how they will pay for the equipment and
although we are saying the least
time should be after one year, one can
negotiate for even two or more years.
The thrust is to empower our
farmers and the agricultural productivity of
the country."
He added:
"We are also saying to the farmer who doesn't earn foreign
currency, they
could pay in the local currency."
The RBZ spent a massive US$25 million
to purchase the equipment in a
situation of serious foreign currency
shortages causing the lack of fuel,
vital drugs, water treatment chemicals
and power.
Government sources said the money was raised from the sell of
tobacco and
ivory recently.
Given the culture of corruption and
impunity that is part of the hallmark of
the Mugabe regime style of
management it is highly likely that the majority
of the beneficiaries of the
equipment could abscond paying.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
secretary general Tendai Biti described
this as "part of the misplacement of
priorities by the regime which is a
culture and has led the economy to these
unprecedented levels of decline.
The main motive is to campaign for
elections and appear to be addressing the
agricultural
disaster we are
having".
With an unbridled high rate of inflation currently stalking
Zimbabwe will
ensure that the mark-up price of the equipment now would be
almost
negligible by the time the beneficiaries start paying next year or
later.
The year-on-year rate of inflation is approaching 6000%. Mugabe's
regime
tried to entice opposition leaders into accepting the agricultural
equipment
in one of its worst boobs of late as it turned out that the MDC
officials
had neither applied nor were interested whilst some of them are
not even
engaged in farming.
Some political observers said Mugabe
tried to use the agricultural equipment
to bribe the opposition and the same
time create a semblance of normalcy in
the agricultural sector, still on its
knees since the destructive violent
farm invasions of 2000- CAJ
News.
The Zimbabwean
By Trust Matsilele
HARARE:Following voter registration
announcements made by the Registrar
General Tobaiwa Mudede's office last
week, the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (ZESN) has called for a longer
voter registration period describing
the time allocated as being too
short.
ZESN director Rindai Chipfunde-Vava yesterday said the
organisation was also
deeply concerned that the exercise had not been
adequately advertised.
"The Network believes that this time is inadequate
and proposes that it be
extended to at least four months. The Network is
also deeply concerned that
the exercise has not been adequately publicised
which might result in most
of prospective voters being unable to register,"
said Chipfunde-Vava in a
press statement.
Mobile registration of
voters started on Monday 18th June and will continue
up to the 17th of
August 2007.
"ZESN believes that advertisements in the print media are
not an appropriate
and sufficient medium of communication of this strategic
component of the
electoral process. This is especially so when considering
that the targeted
audience is usually the impoverished peasants who live in
remote areas where
they have little, if any, access to newspapers or are too
poor to afford
them," she added.
The Registrar General has set up a
number of registration centres
throughout the country. However, according to
ZESN, the amount of time spent
at some of the centers is so ridiculously
short as to render the whole
exercise a sham.
"For instance, the
Registrar General¢s team will be at Kawondera Primary
School and Dzikamidzi
Primary School in Zvimba District, for only a day,
which makes a mockery of
what should be a noble exercise," said Rindai.
She added that the
majority of the teams will spend an average of three days
at most of the
centres.
The SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic
Elections recognise
the importance of full participation of citizens in the
political process.
Chipfunde- Vava also said that the current situation
where a department of
the Ministry of Home Affairs conducts voter
registration, albeit under the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), wass
undesirable and a potential source
of electoral disputes.
Mudede
was not immediately available for comment yesterday.
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
23 June 2007
Posted to the web 23 June
2007
Harare
LIONS are wreaking havoc in Chikwarakwara, Beitbridge,
where they have
killed 10 cattle in the past week.
Villagers are now
living in constant fear of being attacked by the cats.
Councillor for
Ward 1 Mr Enock Ndou said residents in areas such as
Chikwarakwara,
Chasvingo and Chitulipasi on a daily basis faced a double
threat from lions
and elephants.
Children in those areas were now staying away from school
in fear of attack
from the lions.
"Our children are now finding it
hard and very dangerous to walk to school
because of the danger posed by the
lions.
"Most of the time, we live in fear of attack from wild animals
like
elephants and lions which are making our lives difficult," said a
villager,
Mr Thabang Ndou.
An hour into the Vigil there were
only 3 people there, including Vigil
co-ordinators Dumi and Rose. It was
testimony to Morgan Tsvangirai's pulling
power. The MDC leader (together
with Lovemore Madhuku of the National
Constitutional Assembly) was
addressing a meeting in Luton some 35 miles
north of London and Vigil
supporters understandably absented themselves.
They were keen to hear what
Mr Tsvangirai had to say about this crucial time
in Zimbabwe, with the
economy in freefall and talks underway aimed at
breaking the political
impasse.
Although we knew support would be thin on the ground we couldn't
scrap the
Vigil and break our record for consistency built up over four and
a half
years. We were joined by three other supporters as the afternoon wore
on and
were kept busy fielding questions from interested passers-by,
including a
number of South Africans, who expressed strong support. "Why
don't you hold
your demonstration outside the Zimbabwe Embasssy?" one asked,
not noticing
the building next to us. Surprisingly another person asked the
same
question only moments later! With less than half an hour of the Vigil
to go
we were joined by two carloads of supporters from the Luton meeting.
Among
them was Patson from Leicester and we are so pleased he and his
friends went
out of their way to join us even for such a short time. Patson
said that Mr
Tsvangirai had told the Luton gathering that people must come
to the Vigil
if they want to help liberate Zimbabwe. He said the meeting was
packed and
some couldn't get in.
We caught up with supporters Alex
and Angie Guinness this week. They were
responsible for designing and
ordering the first batch of Vigil t-shirts and
put a lot of effort into
updating and producing the new "Mugabe wanted for
murder" poster. They are
now living and working in Budapest with
five-year-old Callum (who attended
the Vigil on several occasions) and
one-year-old Elin. They subscribe to the
Zimbabwean to keep up-to-date with
what is going on at home. They are
longing to go back to Zimbabwe like so
many other Zimbabweans scattered
around the world.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 16 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY:
- Monday,
25th June 2007, 7.30 pm. Central London Zimbabwe Forum.
Upstairs at the
Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2
(cross the Strand
from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John
Adam Street, turn
right and you will see the pub).
- Tuesday, 26th June, 6 - 7.30 pm.
SERVICE OF SOLIDARITY WITH
TORTURE SURVIVORS OF ZIMBABWE on UN International
Day in Support of Victims
of Torture organised by Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO
Forum, Redress,
International Bar Association, International Rehabilitation
Council for
Victims of Torture, Zimbabwe Association and of course the
Zimbabwe Vigil.
Venue: St Paul's Church, Bedford Street, Covent Garden WC2E
9ED. Main
speakers: Chenjerai Hove, John Makumbe. All welcome to join the
service and
post-service procession to lay flowers on the steps of the
Zimbabwe Embassy.
The service will mirror similar services in Zimbabwe and
South Africa.
Between January and March this year the Zimbabwe Human Rights
NGO Forum
documented 254 cases of torture in Zimbabwe.
Vigil
co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London,
takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross
violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil
which started in
October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored,
free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Daily Mail, UK
By
SIMON WALTERS - Last updated at 21:03pm on 23rd June 2007
A decision to ban
one of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's henchmen from
visiting Britain
has been overturned after a Cabinet row.
Culture, Media and Sport
Secretary Tessa Jowell clashed with Foreign
Secretary Margaret Beckett after
the Foreign Office barred Zimbabwean
cricket chief Peter Chingoka from the
UK for this week's meeting of the
sport's ruling body.
The ban on Mr
Chingoka, at the centre of fraud claims that have forced the
African country
to withdraw from Test cricket, was overruled after Sports
Minister Dick
Caborn argued that visa restrictions on Mugabe's political
supporters should
not apply to sports officials. But the move has prompted
claims that the
Government has given in to political blackmail by Zimbabwe
amid a cricket
power struggle.
Labour MP Kate Hoey, a former Sports Minister, last night
condemned the
U-turn, saying: "Zimbabwe's cricket officials are at the heart
of the
dictatorship's web of corruption and political
oppression.
"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."
Mr Chingoka is to attend a vital meeting of the
International Cricket
Council at Lords where a new ICC president will be
chosen. The council is
split between David Morgan, current chairman of the
England And Wales
Cricket Board, and Sharad Pawar, his Indian
counterpart.
However, ICC sources say South Africa, whose government has
refused to
disown Mugabe, had vowed to back India's candidate if Britain
banned Mr
Chingoka.
South Africa and Zimbabwe cast a single vote in
the election for president.
They initially backed Mr Morgan but changed
sides recently, prompting
reports they had switched after India hinted it
might be ready to accept
Zimbabwe back into Test cricket.
Zimbabwe
has not fielded a Test side since 2005, partly as a result of a
players'
revolt. There were widespread claims of corruption, including
allegations
that Mr Chingoka had siphoned off £10million of funds to finance
his lavish
lifestyle, while the players went unpaid.
Mr Chingoka has been told he
can enter Britain for the ICC meeting but must
leave by Saturday.
A
Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We do not comment on individual visa
applications."
Mr Caborn was unavailable for comment.
Sky News
Updated: 20:53,
Saturday June 23, 2007
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
said he is still hopeful
of a peaceful resolution of the crisis in his
country.
He has been addressing supporters in Luton amid growing concern
about
Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
Unemployment is estimated at
80%, and the US ambassador in Harare has
predicted 1.5m% inflation by the
end of the year.
Mr Tsvangirai confirmed plans for South Africa's
President Mbeki to oversee
talks between his Movement For Democratic Change
and President Mugabe's
ZANU.
He told Sky News this was "a very
important opportunity to try to resolve
the national crisis we
face".
Warning that economic collapse would not necessarily entail a
collapse of
the regime, he said he thought the "only satisfactory" solution
was a
negotiated settlement.
"That is the only way in which a peaceful
transition can be obtained," he
said.
"Any other route will lead to a
violent demise and a violent rupture where
there is a political
vacuum."
Asked about Mr Mugabe's future, Mr Tsvangirai said that although
the
president was part of the problem - and responsible for "so many heinous
crimes" - he was also "part of the solution".
And this in turn had a
bearing on whether he should be considered for
immunity "in return for a
final solution and a final resolution of the
crisis".