The Times, UK June 27, 2006
Harare Notebook by Jan
Raath
"A TOTAL OF 282 bakeries have been arrested for
selling bread
above the controlled price," state radio reported on Friday.
Yes, said the
young woman with the flashing smile who runs the bakery where
I get mine,
they were arrested this morning.
"They took one
of the guys minding the ovens and kept him at the
police station for four
hours." A fine of 250,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about
30p, at today's black
market exchange rate) was demanded, enough for two
loaves, at the new
"illegal" price. Never mind that the price of flour has
gone up 60 per cent,
electricity by 280 per cent, in three months.
"Yo,
this country," she says, with a gesture of frustration.
"The police are
always trying to get into your head."
So I went to another
bakery where the Greek owner conceals
loaves in brown paper bags under the
counter, and glances shiftily around
the shop before he hands it over to
you, as if it's a parcel of mbanje
(marijuana).
Everything is illegal. Last night I dreamt I was stopped at a
roadblock and
the army confiscated a jerrycan of diesel from my vehicle and
poured it down
the sink. In the real world on Friday, I passed through a
police roadblock
on the city's outskirts where police were confiscating bags
of maize being
brought by poor peasants to sell in Harare for a small
profit. It may be
sold only to the State.
Anything is illegal. Later that night
at a Chinese restaurant I
ran into Jack who is a regular at the bar at Reps
Theatre, not far from me.
A few days ago, he said, David Chapfika, the
Deputy Minister of Finance, was
there while patrons, mostly middle-aged
whites, watched a World Cup game on
the television. Chapfika switched the
channel to the local station so he
could watch the government propaganda
news bulletin.
One of the drinkers switched it back to
football. "We don't
watch that garbage here," he said. Very few do. But 20
minutes later two
policemen entered the bar and took the man away. They
accused him of saying:
"We don't watch that Mugabe here," confusing the word
"garbage" with
"Mugabe". He was kept in the ordurous cells of Avondale
police station for
two freezing nights before being let go without
charge.
And some things are very illegal, apparently.
Tichaona Jokonya,
the Minister of Information, suggested recently that
journalists based here
who work for Western media were traitors. "You know
what the end of a
traitor is?" he asked. "Death," he
said.
Interestingly, 12 days later, on Saturday, Jokonya was
dead,
found in his bath in what until recently was the Sheraton
Hotel.
But nothing is illegal for the heavies of the ruling
party. The
example of John Nkomo, the speaker of the house of assembly and
chairman of
the Zanu (PF) party, is but one of many, many. He has been
trying for months
to have a black businessman evicted from a luxurious
safari camp that Mr
Nkomo had allocated to himself after it was grabbed from
its white owner.
The high court ruled the businessman was entitled to the
camp. When he drove
there last week to resume occupation, the place was
surrounded by armed
police who chased him
away.
a.. MY CLOCK is stopped at 8.05am, which is
when the power went
off four hours ago. The main talking point about the
World Cup is about how
the lights went off in the middle of the match you
were watching.
a.. YOU DEVELOP a shell to cope.
Everything is crazy and
unbelievable and so some of the time you can laugh.
But the shell cracks
under the weight of despair and poverty that is
everywhere. Like last week
when I parked outside the suburban home of a
friend. A young man up the road
spotted me, turned and sprinted to me.
"Please sir, have you got a job for
me?" he said breathlessly, wide-eyed.
Never seen him in my life before. A
straw, any straw.
Most of
us, the last few foreign correspondents left in the
country, and doctors,
lawyers, priests, anyone who has to face the
hopelessness of President
Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, are on antidepressants
or anxiolytics, or become
worryingly eccentric.
Last week I was at my Polish
dermatologist to renew my
prescription for medication for stress-induced
eczema.
"How iss yorr life in Zimbabwe this days?" she asked.
There was
a long pause when I was caught unexpectedly by the urge to burst
into tears.
Zim Online
Wed 28 June
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe's labour movement on Tuesday said it was
finalising
plans for nationwide protests to press for realistic wages,
stoking up
tensions in a country already on knife edge because of a
deepening economic
and political crisis.
The main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, an
ally of labour, has already
threatened to call mass protests this winter to
force President Robert
Mugabe to step aside for a transitional government to
take over and organise
the writing of a new constitution and fresh elections
under international
supervision.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the secretary general of the
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions, the umbrella body for the country's
workers, said workers
had opted to protest after negotiations involving the
government and
business for new wages linked to Zimbabwe's galloping
inflation failed to
achieve results.
"We are finalising plans
for the strikes. We are currently consulting
with the workers on the nature
and dates for our demonstrations because our
partners in the Tripartite
Negotiation Forum (TNF) are not taking the issue
(of new wages) seriously,"
Chibhebhe said.
Zimbabwe's economy is on a free
fall, with inflation pegged at 1 193.5
percent, the highest such rate in the
world outside a war zone. The Central
Statistical Office says an average
family of six now needs a minimum of $55
million per month for basic
commodities and services, even though the
average salary of most workers is
$10 million.
Chibhebhe said labour resolved at a congress last
month that all
workers must be paid salaries that are in line with
inflation, which
economic experts see surging higher on the back of a
rapidly depreciating
Zimbabwe dollar and ballooning prices.
The
ZCTU official said workers agreed that the issue of
inflation-linked
salaries should be subject for negotiation through the TNF
but the forum had
not met to discuss the workers' salary grievance, a
development he said was
seen by workers as a sign that both business and the
government did not
regard the matter as serious.
"Since then the TNF has not met and
we believe our partners are not
serious. So we are pressing ahead and our
members are raring to go on strike
because they can no longer afford to come
to work and to feed their
families," Chibhebhe said.
The TNF is
a joint negotiating body that comprises representatives
from business,
labour and the government.
Business stalled progress during
tripartite negotiations last month
when it refused to agree to pay workers
salaries that are above the poverty
datum line, arguing that a proposed
Incomes and Prices Stabilisation
Protocol must include a clause stating that
employers can only pay
inflation-linked wages if they were able to do
so.
The business negotiators said this was necessary because many
companies were themselves struggling to remain afloat and that making it
compulsory for all to match wages with rising inflation could force them to
fold.
But the ZCTU insists that such a clause making it
optional for firms
to pay wages according to the rate of inflation would be
a loophole that
would enable even those companies that were able to pay
higher wages to
avoid doing so.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of its
worst ever economic crisis
characterised by hyperinflation, shortages of
food, fuel, electricity,
essential medicines, hard cash and just about every
basic survival
commodity.
Western governments and the MDC blame
the crisis on repression and
wrong policies by Mugabe such as his chaotic
and often violent seizure of
land from white farmers for redistribution to
landless blacks, a programme
that destabilised the mainstay agricultural
sector and knocked down food
production by about 60 percent.
Zimbabwe, once a regional bread basket, has largely depended on food
handouts from international donors since Mugabe began his farm seizure
programme six years ago.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980
independence however denies
mismanaging the country and says its problems
are because of sabotage by
Western countries out to fix his government for
taking land from whites and
giving it to blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 28 June 2006
BULAWAYO - Hordes of vegetable vendors
scream themselves hoarse
imploring potential customers to buy their
vegetables and tomatoes along the
busy Lobengula Street in Zimbabwe's second
biggest city of Bulawayo.
But suddenly, an ear-splitting whistle
pierces the early night sending
the vendors scurrying in all directions with
the few goods they could
salvage as the police come in hot
pursuit.
At least 10 unlucky vendors fail to make it and are soon
bundled into
a police truck together with their vegetables, fruits, some
washing soap and
cooking oil that they sell on the streets to eke a
living.
"This is how we survive," says 32-year old Sihle Dube, as
she
re-emerges from the crowd to defiantly set up her table again after the
police had driven off.
"You must be literally on your toes
every minute and listen for the
signal. Most of those who have been arrested
are still new in the trade.
They have not yet mastered the art of survival,"
she told ZimOnline.
Dube is among thousands of vendors who had been
driven off the streets
of Bulawayo under a controversial government urban
clean-up exercise last
year.
But a year after President Robert
Mugabe ordered the controversial
clean-up in cities and towns, vendors here
in Bulawayo are back on the
streets with a vengeance vowing to continue
defying the government in a
desperate bid to keep body and soul
together.
Mugabe said the clean-up exercise was necessary to
restore the beauty
of cities and towns and to smash an illegal but thriving
black market where
vendors sell anything from fruits to contraceptive pills
to foreign
currency, hard to find in Zimbabwe.
The United
Nations said the clean-up left at least 700 000 people
homeless and directly
affected another 2.4 million people. The UN said the
exercise was a
violation of the rights of the poor.
To parry away criticism by the
UN, Western governments and local human
rights groups, the government
unveiled a new ambitious project to build
modern houses and vending stalls
for families whose homes and informal
business kiosks had been razed down by
police bulldozers.
But analysts predicted that the reconstruction
project would flop
given Harare's lack of resources and cash.
Twelve months down the line, those predictions are coming true with
government Small-scale Enterprises Minister Sithembiso Nyoni having for
example commissioned to date only 50 vending stalls in Bulawayo, a bustling
city of more than 1.5 million people.
International relief
agencies also report that many of the families
displaced by the clean-up
exercise still live in the open because the
government has failed to build
the houses it promised them.
Here in Bulawayo, a hotbed of
opposition support, vendors accused the
government of arrogance saying first
it decided to build too few stalls and
then placed them far away from the
public such that it was unviable to do
business from the new
stalls.
"It does not make sense for us to leave people here and go
down there.
Who does she (Nyoni) expect us to sell to when the people we are
targeting
are found right here?" said fruit seller, Thubelihle
Moyo.
She added: "That is the problem with this government. They
always want
to do things their own way without consulting those
involved."
In a way to prove official arrogance, Bulawayo Upcoming
Traders
Association spokesman Edward Manning, said his organisation had
secured a
court order barring the council and the police from raiding their
members
until a solution could be found but he said the order was being
routinely
ignored.
"We were granted a reprieve to continue
trading without disruptions by
both the police and council security guards
by the Bulawayo High Court last
year but the police have continued to raid
us despite the court order,"
Manning said.
Bulawayo City
Council spokesman, Pathisa Nyathi, however insisted the
local authority
would continue sending police after vendors because it could
not just sit by
while the country's second capital was being turned upside
down by the
informal traders.
"We raid them because they are doing their
business in a disorderly
manner. That cannot be allowed," Nyathi said
defiantly.
But it is a threat that will move very few among these
young men and
women vendors out to earn an honest living despite the odds
staked against
them by a seven-year economic crisis that has seen inflation
shooting to
more than 1 100 percent and shortages of food, fuel, electricity
and just
about every essential commodity.
As 25-year old
vegetable vendor Tinashe Shumba sums it: "Some of us
still have a conscience
and we will rather be raided than steal from our
fellow men who are already
suffering like the rest of us." - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 28 June 2006
HARARE - A Zimbabwe parliamentary
committee says economic hardships
brought about by the recent increase in
tuition fees at state universities
and colleges have driven some female
students into prostitution to make ends
meet.
In a report
presented to Parliament recently, the Portfolio Committee
on Education,
Sport and Culture, said a number of both female and male
students had also
quit their studies over the past few months because they
could no longer
afford to pay their fees.
The committee said 34 students had
dropped out of their studies at
Midlands State University as they could no
longer afford to pay their fees.
"Some female students have been
forced to resort to co-habiting and
prostitution to raise money. Education
is now a preserve for the rich," says
the report.
Earlier this
year, state universities and colleges in Zimbabwe raised
their tuition fees
by more than 100 percent sparking violent protests by
students who were
unhappy over the increase.
The universities said they needed to
raise their fees in line with
Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary environment
which has seen inflation shooting
to nearly 1 200 percent.
The
committee also said there was a serious shortage of teaching staff
at most
universities and colleges as most experienced lecturers had left the
country
to seek better opportunities outside the country.
Midlands State
University, Mkoba Teachers College, Seke Teachers
Collge as well as the
University of Zimbabwe were some of the key
institutions that were hardest
hit by the staff exodus triggering a
deterioration in the quality of
education being offered.
"Money allocated to institutions of higher
learning is miserably
inadequate to run these institutions effectively,"
says the report.
Zimbabwe's education system, which was once
considered one of the best
in Africa, has crumbled over the past few years
as part of the general
decline triggered by a severe six-year old economic
crisis most critics
blame on President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed
28 June 2006
JOHANNESBURG - The Zimbabwe High Commission in South
Africa has
dismissed as unfounded media reports that eight armed robbers who
were shot
dead during an attempted robbery in Johannesburg last Sunday were
Zimbabwean
nationals.
A senior official at the Zimbabwean
consulate in Johannesburg, Vusi
Ntonga, said it was premature for the media
to label the suspects
Zimbabweans before investigations into the matter had
been concluded.
"Whilst the ambassador would have been the right
person to answer most
of your questions, I would like to believe that the
local media, especially
one daily newspaper in question has an agenda
against Zimbabweans.
"I don't really understand the motive behind
such kind of hate
reporting. Investigations are still in progress but they
have already
concluded that the deceased were Zimbabweans," said
Ntonga.
The eight armed robbers were killed in a shoot-out which
also claimed
four South African police officers last Sunday.
Werner Muimeer, a chief superintendent with South Africa police said
investigations into the shooting incident were still in progress and details
on the matter will be released as soon as the investigations were
over.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo has
in the
past criticized South African media accusing the media of having an
agenda
meant to tarnish Zimbabwe's image.
Khaya-Moyo has also
criticised media reports linking Zimbabweans with
violent crimes committed
in South Africa arguing that such a portrayal
promoted xenophobia against
his country's nationals. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Blessing
Zulu
Washington
27 June 2006
Despite
signing high-profile industrial agreements with China, Harare
remains
strapped for cash and has re-opened discussions with South Africa as
to
securing a major loan of $500 million to $1 billion.
Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa led a delegation to South Africa late last
week in an effort
to restart talks that ground to a halt some months ago
because the
government of President Robert Mugabe refused to accept
political conditions
which Pretoria insisted be attached to such a loan.
Murerwa confirmed the
new approach to Pretoria in an interview with Harare's
Sunday Mirror
newspaper, but declined to provide further details, saying he
first had to
brief President Mugabe.
A senior South African Finance Ministry official,
speaking on condition of
anonymity, said he doubted such a deal could be
concluded at this point, as
Harare remained unwilling to accept conditions
including opening a dialogue
with the opposition.
The official said
Pretoria still insisted on such conditions, which were in
line with South
African President Thabo Mbeki's stated position that
Zimbabwe needs an
extensive economic recovery plan that will be sustainable
over the long
term.
Isolated politically and economically from the West, President
Mugabe has
shaped a so-called Look East policy of developing commercial
relations with
China. The nations recently announced a venture to develop
coal-fired
electric power generation plants in Zimbabwe and a parallel
project to
exploit chromium resources. But such longer-term ventures
apparently have
not spun off the immediate cash that Harare
needs.
Reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe sought the
perspective
of chief economist Prosper Chitambara of the Harare-based Labor
and Economic
Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe.
SABC
June 27, 2006,
18:15
The Justice for Agriculture Trust (Jag), Zimbabwe's farmer's
organisation,
says the Zimbabwean government does not have the money to
compensate foreign
landowners who will lose their land due to the
government's land reform
programme.
Last week, the Zimbabwean
government said that foreign farmers who lost
their land would be
compensated the full market value of their properties.
But it has now
emerged that no less than US$150 million would be required to
meet that
promise.
Dydimus Mutasa, the minister of lands, land reform and
resettlement, said in
cases where land has to be acquired, compensation has
to be paid in full in
the currency of the owner's choice for both land and
improvements.
Nearly 200 farmers will benefit. Jag says government will
need at least US$1
million to compensate each farmer. Given the country's
foreign currency
shortages, it doubts that will happen soon.
Zimbabwe
plans law to license fuel dealers
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has drawn up a law to
create a commission to license
fuel importers and set petroleum prices,
seeking to exert new controls as
the country grapples with serious fuel
shortages. Zimbabwe has faced
intermittent fuel shortages since 1999 due to
scarce foreign currency,
grounding both private vehicles and public
transport, and exacerbating the
economic crisis gripping the
country.
Although deliveries have improved lately, prices charged by
private
importers are nearly 20 times the official government price of 22
000
($0.22) Zimbabwe dollars per litre. Private garages sell fuel at up to
400
000 ($3.95) Zimbabwe dollars. The price usually tracks the exchange rate
of
the local unit on the country's thriving black market.
Proposed
bill
"The purpose of this bill is to establish a petroleum regulatory
authority
which will regulate and license petroleum product providers,"
according to a
government gazette. The proposed authority would technically
be independent,
but such bodies are usually tightly controlled by the
government.
The bill is expected to go to parliament, where it would be
easily passed by
legislators of Zanu(PF), the party of Robert Mugabe, the
Zimbabwean
president.
At present, the minister of energy and power
development prescribes fuel
prices but last year started a programme that
allows private importers to
buy their fuel using their own foreign
currency.
Economic analysts say while this has helped improve supplies,
it is still
inadequate, saying Zimbabwe requires about $45 million every
month to import
fuel for use and for strategic reserves. - Additional
reporting by Reuters
SABC
June 27, 2006,
18:15
South Africa will be willing to be part of a meeting between Kofi
Annan, the
United Nations secretary-general, and Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe
president,
according to Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign affairs minister.
This comes
after it was reported that Pretoria had arranged such a
meeting.
Pahad has also denied reports of a walkout by last remaining
Burundian rebel
group FNL. He was speakng on several international relations
issues that
South Africa is involved in.
Walkout by FNL
discussed
Pahad says "its obvious that given the propose visit to that
country, a
meeting will take place and, indeed, they have not been told
whether
President Mbeki will be invited". They expect that President Mbeki
will be
invited.
Another issue that re-surfaced at the briefing was
the reported walk-out by
the FNL from peace talks. This after alleged
threats by peace facilitators.
Reported complaints from the diplomatic corps
about violent crime in South
Africa, also elicited a
response.
Foreign affairs says, although, extra protection could be
considered, it
would be unprecedented for foreign diplomats to file a united
petition
against a host nation.
Mail and Guardian
Johannesburg, South Africa
27 June 2006
02:53
The Zimbabwean government has gazetted a Petroleum Bill
that
seeks to establish a Petroleum Regulatory Authority that will regulate
and
license persons in respect of retailing, producing and procuring
petroleum
products, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on
Tuesday.
The functions of the authority would also include
ensuring the
provision of sufficient petroleum products for domestic
use.
"The activities of the authority would be directed by a
board
consisting of five members to be appointed by the minister of energy
and
power development after consultations with the
president.
"Under the proposed law, the minister of energy
and power
development would be empowered to issue policy directions to the
board," the
paper noted.
The board would be required to
submit a report to the minister
on its activities annually. The procurement,
selling or production of
petroleum products would only be done after
obtaining a licence from the
authority, the newspaper
said.
"Zimbabwe has been facing intermittent fuel shortages
over the
past six years owing to limited foreign currency supply, the
effects of
which have been felt across key economic sectors such as mining,
tourism and
manufacturing.
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) last month unveiled a
$50-million revolving fuel import facility with
which the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) would import fuel for
both private and public
sectors," the Herald noted.
Zimbabwe needs $40-million for its monthly fuel requirements, it
stated.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance Dr Herbert
Murerwa had issued
a notice postponing the expiry date of bearer cheques to
December 31 2006,
the Herald said.
Bearer cheques were
introduced as legal tender by monetary
authorities in 2003 as a temporary
measure to "stem the cash crisis that had
gripped Zimbabwe
then".
Initially, bearer cheques were due to expire in July
and
December 2004 through a gradual phase-out plan, but were later extended
to
allow monetary authorities to work on the broader task of introducing a
new
currency, the Herald said. - I-Net Bridge
Fin24
27/06/2006 20:19
PM
Harare - Zimbabwe's fixed exchange rate is hurting local
industries
and hindering efforts to boost exports, which are needed to
revive an ailing
economy, a senior business official said on
Tuesday.
A chronic shortage of foreign currency over the last six years
has
been one of the most visible signs of a deepening recession widely
blamed on
President Robert Mugabe's policies and exacerbated by the
withdrawal of key
foreign aid.
Callisto Jokonya, vice president
of the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries, said exports were at a virtual
standstill with the official
exchange rate of the Zimbabwe dollar around
four times higher than on a
thriving black market.
Forced to
surrender
Since the central bank tightened exchange controls in
January to halt
the unit's freefall, the currency has been held steady at
101 195 against
the US dollar, the rate at which exporters are forced to
surrender their
earnings to the central bank.
But a crippling
foreign currency crunch is forcing exporters to source
foreign currency for
key imports on the illegal parallel market, industry
officials
say.
"The exchange rate is the problem. There is a distortion in
the
exchange rate and we need to resolve that," Jokonya told Reuters on the
sidelines of a business summit ahead of an annual general meeting of the
regional PTA Bank.
"Companies would love to manufacture, to
export and to generate
foreign currency but unless and until we deal with
the real problem, which
is the price of our foreign currency we will go
deeper and deeper into
crisis," he added.
Zimbabwean companies
are struggling to survive while saddled with the
world's highest inflation
rate at 1 193.5%, fuel shortages and frequent
power and water cuts linked to
the forex squeeze.
"We need the foreign currency market freed. We
need the rules of
demand and supply operating and that is what we are asking
for," Jokonya
said on Tuesday.
"Fooling ourselves"
"It is going to be a pain to do that, but if you have an inflation
rate
which is over 1 200% and expect that to overnight come down without
pain we
will be fooling ourselves.
"There is a need to make hard decisions
and that is what we are asking
the Reserve Bank to do. We will continue to
knock on the doors of authority
to make sure that we make the environment
conducive to get the country
going," Jokonya added.
Zimbabwe's
economy has shrunk by about 40% over the past 8 years,
while unemployment
has vaulted to more than 70% as companies either fold or
are forced to
downsize.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has stopped publishing
figures for
foreign currency inflows but analysts say the fact that even
state firms are
resorting to the black market for their foreign exchange
requirements shows
that its coffers are dry.
Mugabe, aged 82
and in power since independence from Britain in 1980,
denies responsibility
for the country's economic woes.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
27 June 2006
Despite statements by top
officials that the government is making
efforts to revive agriculture and
produce food for the nation, it has been
revealed that eviction notices were
sent last week to many of the remaining
productive white farmers giving them
90 days to vacate their properties.
Trevor Gifford, chairman of the
Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe (CFU)
told us at least 9 farmers had
actually received the notices and they were
signed by State Security and
Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa himself. He
admitted the CFU had been let down
by the government again and there was
confusion, but said the group will
continue dialogue with government because
they believe some officials truly
want change. John Worsley Worswick of
Justice for Agriculture said the new
notices were political because only a
court can order evictions and there is
no reason to trust the government
given the facts on the
ground.
Gifford said Mutasa had recently lost 2 separate high court
cases in
which farmers in Karoi appealed against their evictions. He said
the CFU was
concerned because the farmers who had actually received notices
so far had
memorandums of agreement with the government to grow wheat and
barley as
part of the winter crop project. Gifford says the CFU has done
everything
possible to cooperate with government and has still been let
down, but he
continued to defend the Mugabe regime saying he believes some
officials mean
well.
On the recent eviction notices John
Worsley Worswick explained that
there are only 2 methods that can be used to
order an eviction. He said the
government can use the Land Acquisition Act
or last year's Constitutional
Amendment # 17 which nationalised all
agricultural land. But he said only a
competent court can issue the actual
eviction order. Following this
reasoning Worswick said the new eviction
notices signed by Mutasa were
political and therefore not valid. He believes
the government is trying to
give a face of respectability to the chaotic
land reform programme by
handing out 90-day notices signed by the minister
when the reality on the
ground is that there is no law and order. Worswick
also criticised the CFU
for continuing their dialogue with government saying
there is no evidence
that government is
serious.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
June 27,
2006
By ANDnetwork .com
Harare residents, in Zimbabwe
are bitter with the city council over an
unprecedented 1 000 percent
increase in water tariffs announced last Friday
by the local
authority.
Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya said water charges had
drastically gone up
risen from $8 000 per cubic metre to $80 000 effective
May 1 this year.
Some city residents received water bills as high
as $10 million per
household with revelations that the amount reflected
charges backdated to
May inclusive of interest.
Most families in
high-density suburbs have expressed shock at the new
water
charges.
"Not only was I shocked by the water bill, but the city
council lacked
the courtesy to advise us in advance for planning purposes,"
said John
Mahuni of Mabvuku.
Taurai Mafuba of Mbare said it was
criminal for council to increase
water charges - a basic necessity - beyond
the reach of most residents
already struggling to make ends
meet.
"Most people in the industrial areas earn less than $20
million a
month and I wonder how they expect us to pay such huge bills?"
asked Mafuba.
A Dzivaresekwa resident said on condition of
anonymity
that the council bill was ridiculous.
"All in
all, we are expected to pay $72 million and there is nowhere
we can get such
kind of money considering that no-one in this family is
formally employed,"
he said.
He said while the total charged for water, refuse,
sewerage,
supplementary and housing and the balance they owed council was
not more
than $20 million, it was surprising council still expected them to
pay a
whopping $72 million in charges.
"Although only $10
million was outstanding, the balance brought
forward was $63 million and it
is difficult to imagine how they arrived at
that figure."
Lloyd Mandizha, also of Dzivarasekwa, said while his account was up to
date,
but council was insisting that he was in arrears of $4 million.
"I really don't know where all this is coming from.
"We know
that rates and water charges have been increased, but the
figures we are
getting are just too much," he said, adding he
was lodging a complaint
with council officials to rectify the problem.
Meanwhile, council
justified its latest water bill hikes citing new
tariffs implemented by the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa).
Chideya, who noted
that Zinwa's new charging regime necessitated the
new increases, said the
new tariffs would be paid in retrospect with effect
from May 1 this
year.Zinwa board chairman Willie Muringani, said the new
water charges
reflected the hyper-inflationary economy prevalent in the
country.
"The cost of water treatment chemicals has been on
the rise since the
beginning of the year. We were left with no option but to
pass on the
costs to the consumers," said Muringani.
He added that the declining value of local currency against other hard
currencies was making procurement of water treatment chemicals
expensive.
However, it is ironic that Zinwa reversed water tariffs
to farmers
early this month arguing that it was reducing raw water charges
to help
resuscitate winter wheat farming.
Muringani said
consumers of treated water would subsidize farmers.
"Reversing
water tariffs to farmers would not affect our balance
sheet.
"
We will have tariffs of treated water adjusted accordingly," he
said.
Harare's water supplies have deteriorated lately due to
frequent power
cuts at its water treatment works. Most suburbs in
high-lying areas
experience water shortages forcing residents to fetch the
precious liquid
from unprotected sources. A council official at one of the
district offices
said most residents did not get their water statements last
month and could
have not paid their bills for May.
"Some water
metres in these suburbs are too old and could be faulty
and need to be
replaced," the official said.
He, however, admitted that council
officials working on the new rates
could have erred in their calculations,
resulting in the high figures.
The city council increased its tariffs
after the government gave it
the green light to charge economic rates to
boost the capital's revenue base
dwindling due to unrealistic
tariffs.
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) said it
strongly
objected to the imposition of new water tariffs in the capital
adding city
residents were already overburdened by the effect of Operation
Murambatsvina.
CHRA spokesperson Precious Shumba said: "We
object to the involvement
of Zinwa in the supply and administration of water
in Harare.
"Zinwa is not accountable to residents so we
strongly advocate for the
return of water administration to the city which
is directly accountable to
residents."
The daily
mirror
By Violet Gonda
27
June 2006
The Zimbabwean government is at it again. This time
interfering with
our medium wave broadcasts and, from a news report
yesterday, of Voice of
America's Studio 7 station.
SWRA has no
official confirmation yet but reports on the ground
clearly indicate the
jamming of our medium wave signal. One report said: "I
checked for your
programming this morning Monday 27 June at 5am local and
exactly on the
frequency of 1197 kHz there is an extremely strong 'buzzing'
signal, which
is intentional jamming." Additional reports say the jamming
signal is very
strong, indicating that the jamming station is nearby or
within
Harare.
The Website Zimonline reported Monday that the Zimbabwe
government is
using technology acquired from China to partially jam the
signal from the
VOA Studio 7 radio station. VOA have not officially
confirmed this.
China is well known for jamming radio signals into
its own country and
also into a country it claims to own, Tibet. And the
Zimbabwe government is
no stranger to jamming. Last year they acquired
Chinese equipment and
expertise and used this to completely jam the SWRA
shortwave signal.
Over the last 6 years the Mugabe regime has
rapidly destroyed or taken
over control of virtually all news
outlets.
There is only one broadcaster and it is 100% state
controlled. That is
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings formerly known as the
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). As for the print media, the only
independent
daily newspaper the Daily News was bombed and forced to shut
down in 2003.
After that there were 4 independent weekly newspapers left,
but of these it's
alleged that 2 are now under the control of the
state.
In addition foreign media like the BBC are banned from
reporting from
and within the territory of Zimbabwe.
The result
of this sustained assault on press freedoms is that nearly
all Zimbabwe's
free media now operates outside the country's borders.
The Zimbabwean
newspaper and SW Radio Africa are two media outlets
that have decamped to
Britain. There are various internet based Zimbabwean
news sites in the UK
and South Africa.
Voice of America's Studio 7 station, based in
Washington, employs
Zimbabweans for it's broadcasts into the
country.
These latest jamming attempts are not all bad news. It
does show that
the government is feeling seriously pressured. Good news for
those trying to
create a democratic society in Zimbabwe.
We
encourage our listeners to keep trying to find us on the radio
dial. In
various parts of the country we can still be clearly heard and we
will
obviously be doing our best to counteract the
jamming.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
We continue the tripartite discussion
on Hot Seat with Political analyst
Professor Brian Raftopoulos, Mugabe's
former strategist and ex-minister
Professor Jonathan Moyo and leading
economist John Robertson. This week the
trio discuss the issue of
international engagement and the effectiveness of
targeted sanctions. Next
week be sure not to miss the insightful concluding
interview on Tuesday,
when we will discuss the issue of what happens after
Mugabe.
Hot
Seat: Part 3 Teleconference
- Brian Raftopoulos, Jonathan Moyo & John
Robertson
Broadcast on 27 June 2006
Violet: Welcome back
to our teleconference with three people who have at one
time or another been
advisors to some key political players. Analyst
Professor Brian Raftopoulos
who has been one of the advisors to the MDC,
Mugabe's former strategist and
ex- information minister Professor Jonathan
Moyo - a man more renowned for
being the architect of much of the oppressive
media regulation in the country
- and last but not least, leading economist
John Robertson. In this program
we discuss more about the issue of
international engagement and what the
international community can do about
the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe
always blames the economic crisis on sanctions imposed by
western
governments, ignoring the fact that they are targeted sanctions,
designed
not to impact on ordinary Zimbabweans. I first asked John Robertson
if he
thought economic sanctions, as described by Mugabe, were in
place?
Robertson: No I do not agree they are economic sanctions.
Any Zimbabwean can
import anything from anywhere in the world if they can pay
for it and any
Zimbabwean company can export anything they've got to anywhere
else in the
world. We've got no economic sanctions against us whatever. The
areas where
it might have affected ordinary Zimbabweans have come through in
the form of
aid that is now much more constraint and many of the NGOs and
welfare
organisations abroad are much more circumspect about bringing aid
to
Zimbabwe because they have experienced - and feel that it might
happen
again - a lot of political interference in the way they can distribute
what
they have brought. So there are difficulties in the aid category but not
in
the investment or international trade. And we do not actually have any
right
to blame sanctions for Zimbabwe's decline.
Violet: And
Professor Raftopoulos, now Mugabe constantly uses this rhetoric
to deny that
he is responsible for anything. Now how do you persuade a
dictator to look at
the facts and accept responsibility for the
mismanagement of the
country?
Raftopoulos: Well, dictators by definition have a
certain blockage when it
comes to the future of their country as a whole
because invariably they then
begin to think about the reproduction of
particularly their party and their
own future. But I think options opened to
this particular dictator have
narrowed down extremely narrowly and that even
those who are responsible for
the security question now, maybe even see him
as a future security problem.
Therefore, there are beginning to emerge forces
beyond him which are going
to push him into certain kind of positions. That,
one must also understand
this also might open up new spaces domestically. As
the regional,
international pressure increases there may be new opportunities
domestically
to again mobilise certain kind of actions. And this is why it is
important
for the opposition therefore, even though they are split to get
some kind of
strategic unity on the way forward in dealing with what might
be
opportunities that may emerge.
Violet: And there are others
who believe targeted sanctions must be
tightened and even extended to include
the regime's family members. Now what
are your views on sanctions Professor
Moyo?
Moyo: Well I am not sure or aware that there are people who
are saying that
because the view I am aware of which was recently expressed
by President
Mbeki and later his foreign minister Nkosazana Zuma was that
these targeted
sanctions are not achieving much. And frankly I don't think
there is a lot
of evidence there to indicate that these targeted sanctions
have worked. Of
course the government and the ruling party have used them for
purposes of
political propaganda but they are sanctions which have meant to
put pressure
on the government denying it access to credit lines,
international credit
lines, for example, through the IMF and the world bank.
But you have seen
them coming up with things like Look East policy and so
forth. Surely the
government may be telling us that its look East policy is
failing. But it
really can't claim that the sanctions are what is the
fundamental problem.
So, I think there are other forms of international
pressure that can be
applied to address this issue rather than the targeted
sanctions because
these have been with us for quite some time now. But I
wanted to agree with
Professor Raftopoulos that; Do you know today in
Zimbabwe, Mugabe clearly as
a sitting president who has been in power for too
long, since 1980 - has
become a security problem in terms of the continued
existence of the state.
And this is why there is a lot of activity within
ZANU PF to replace him.
This is why the succession issue is an important one
to examine even for the
opposition in terms of the opportunities that it
creates. Very soon the
issue will move from Mugabe being a security issue to
ZANU PF being a
security issue and the game will be over. And that is why I
believe that we
are really in the middle of the end game because there is
appreciation
within the ruling party circles that things cannot continue this
way and
that for them it's to find a replacement for
Mugabe.
Violet: Now on the issue of looking for a replacement for
Mugabe. Since you
have had the opportunity of seeing things from the inside.
Who do you think
are the major contenders for this post, for this
position?
Moyo: ZANU PF never really created a tradition or
process for choosing a
successor. As we all know in ZANU PF once you are
elected, so to speak, to
leadership you are not or not even elected; once you
are in leadership you
are not to lose your position through an election
unless you die or you are
found to have gone against the party rules and so
forth. So, we don't have
serious contenders that would have the qualities
expected by the nation
given the problems that we are having. But those who
are on offer because of
what ZANU PF is certainly include Vice President
Mujuru. When she was
elevated to the position of Vice President, Mugabe
publicly indicated that
she was his chosen successor. But we have since
learnt that this might not
be so. That in fact Mugabe was hoping to have
someone of less stature,
lesser capabilities than him in the hope that he
could get two additional
years. There is quite some serious talk within ZANU
PF that Mugabe would
like to remain in power until 2010 and use the two years
between 2008 and
2010 to find a successor who might not be anyone we know.
Otherwise yes,
there has been talk about Sydney Sekeramayi and even Simba
Makoni as a
possible dark horse and there is the endless talk about the
Emmerson
Mnangagwas' group. But it looks like none of these may in-fact be
the
successors to Mugabe.
Violet: And just to go back on the
issue of sanctions. You said that you
don't
believe the sanctions are
achieving anything or achieving much. And I just
wanted to find out - are you
not saying that because you are on the
sanctions list
yourself?
Moyo: Well the fact that I am on the sanctions' list
myself might be the
proof that they are not achieving much because clearly
putting me on the
sanctions list does not lead to anything more so now when I
am not in the
government. But I thought that they were initially intended to
target people
who were making policies in government and those who are close
to them like
their spouses or even children at one time, it was thought. And
finally
people who are in business and are benefiting from the policies of
the ZANU
PF government or the patronage of the Zanu pf government otherwise
everybody
else is excluded. Those kind of sanctions I don't think can make
a
difference. The ones I see making a difference and clearly bothering
the
government at the moment are those that come from the American Democracy
Act
directing that it's representatives - multi lateral organisations such
as
the IMF and World Bank should not vote in support of policies or even
loans
to Zimbabwe. Those are working. We have seen that the government really
-
from around September or so last year -wanted some statement of
endorsement
through the IMF and they even, rather foolishly, believed that by
paying off
the arrears they may get Zimbabwe's voting rights restored and new
lines of
credit extended to them. So we can see that there is quite some
concern and
wish that there could be some change in the relationship between
Zimbabwe
and the two major multi lateral financial institutions. So the
sanctions on
that score are working in so far as they are frustrating the
government. But
in general these we hear about from Australia - confused
list; from the EU -
having dead people and wrong names, I think that is more
of a political
statement rather than a real programme of action that achieves
a purpose on
the ground.
Violet: Mr Robertson do you
agree?
Robertson: I do agree with that. They have not made any
difference at all
and they have been used as political capital to persuade
many, many
Zimbabweans that the problems being caused on the country have
come from
outside. So I think that has not been helpful because all of
these
difficulties have definitely been generated within Zimbabwe and they
are our
own faults. In fact Zimbabwe has now become not only an embarrassment
to the
region but I think we are becoming a threat - on the point that was
made
earlier - that as we become a weakened economy we become more vulnerable
to
influences from abroad. And I think we could become very much
more
influenced soon to the detriment of the entire region as goods start
coming
into Zimbabwe that have to be shipped out to the rest of the region,
we
could cause the demolition of industries in South Africa, in Lesotho,
in
Botswana, in Swaziland all of the countries that are presently trying
to
build up their capacity to become industrialised to be ruined by
Zimbabwe's
inability to prevent the influx of massive quantities of consumer
goods from
abroad. Now this is a major danger that is not going to be
overcome until we
ourselves get some assistants to get back on our feet and I
think it is for
that reason we should be seen by the region to be a problem
that they
themselves need to be involved in sorting out and I think it's
very, very
urgent that they get their act together quickly, not just
us.
Violet: But would you agree with other sentiments or other
ideas from people
who say that the smart sanctions should tightened or made
more effective?
Robertson: I think I've yet to see the kind of
smart sanctions that I
believe would actually work. I think it has to be in
the form of much, much
more telling pressures. And I think the pressures
would only be really valid
and really taken seriously in Zimbabwe if they
come from the region. The
people who can speak about us from the United
States or from Europe are so
faraway that the government again, I believe
will make political capital out
of such things and do nothing to change but
if the pressure comes from the
region I believe the Zimbabwe government will
react and be very keen to see
changes come about very
quickly.
Violet: And Professor Raftopoulos many Zimbabweans
say.(interruption)
Moyo: sorry, sorry, can I, can I just wanted
one sentence to add from what
Mr Robertson has said.
Violet:
sure
Moyo: The sanctions that the Zimbabwean government is really
afraid of are
United Nations sanctions and they have for quite some time been
afraid that
the moment Zimbabwe becomes a UN Security Council issue and gets
on that
agenda then the possibilities of UN sanctions will be there. They
are
prepared to do everything in their power to prevent those. They talk
about
the current sanctions in some double way because they know that
they
really - you know occasionally they will frankly say these don't matter
-
but when they are dealing with the opposition they will say you are the
ones
who called for these sanctions and therefore you must go back and tell
your
masters to remove the sanctions. But they know that these are not the
issue.
The moment they face UN sanctions - which they have feared there is
a
possibility - then you will see a big change.
Violet: What
would it take for Zimbabwe to be slapped with UN sanctions.
Some say with all
that has happened in Zimbabwe why is it the UN has not yet
done so,
especially after operation Murambatsvina?
Moyo: Well they came
very close and that possibility is still there because
the government has not
addressed at all the suffering of the over 570 000
households who were
displaced internally by Operation Murambatsvina. Those
who were directly
affected by either losing their source of livelihood or
homes are still out
there. That's why the visit by Annan is such a
controversial issue that is
still hanging over the heads of the government.
Violet: And also
what about South Africa Professor Raftopoulos? Many
Zimbabweans say Mbeki has
betrayed the people of Zimbabwe and should be
doing everything in his power
to pressure Mugabe to change by whatever
means. Like embargoes on fuel and
power and loans from banks. Do you agree
with
this?
Raftopoulos: Look clearly the South African government will
not move alone
into that kind of strategy for all kinds of reasons which many
people have
discussed. I think that as far as the smart sanctions are
concerned
symbolically they have been important but I agree that the broader,
the
broader sanctions issue is much more, needs to be put much more on
the
agenda. I think both the opposition and the civic movement in Zimbabwe
have
to develop a clearer position on what to say and what strategy to use on
a
broader sanctions campaign because if the Mugabe regime continues in
the
strategy that it is and continues to push Zimbabwe into a deeper crisis
then
discussions around a broader sanctions against Zimbabwe - not just a UN
-
but broader economic sanctions certainly has to become a strategy that
has
to be considered. And I think the UN issue is still hanging. The
Tibaijuka
report issues are there. I think they are available for
mobilisation and I
think that pressure has got to be applied. But certainly
from South Africa
you are unlikely to see much in terms of direct sanctions
in terms of
economic sanctions.
Violet: Next Tuesday we will
bring you the final part of the teleconference
with the three people who have
at one time or another advised some of the
key players in Zimbabwean
politics. In our final segment Political analyst
Professor Brian Raftopoulos,
former Information Minister Professor Jonathan
Moyo and economist John
Robertson will discuss the issue of what happens
after Mugabe.
The Herald
(Harare)
June 27, 2006
Posted to the web June 27,
2006
Harare
EXTERNAL and local circumstances are responsible for
power cuts in the
country resulting in Zesa Holdings failing to meet the
demand for power, an
official has said.
Zimbabwe Electricity
Distribution Company managing director Mr Ben Rafemoyo
said unexpected
circumstances forced the utility to cut power supplies out
of line with
announced load shedding timetables.
Based on predictable shortfalls,
planned load shedding was meant to mitigate
the deficit between demand and
supply.
During winter demand was at its peak between 8 and 10 o'clock in
the morning
and 6 to 8 o'clock in the evening, peaking at about 2 000
megawatts against
a supply of about 1 600 megawatts.
As a result of
the deficit, mainly because of the inability to generate
enough power
supplies, the power utility could only load-shed.
"Unplanned power
interruptions are largely not predictable and are also
linked to ageing
network infrastructure and inadequate network maintenance,"
Mr Rafemoyo
said.
Among the unexpected power contributors was electrical
infrastructure
vandalism.
"Vandalism is a cause for concern as the
trend is on the increase.
"Due to the increase in the price of diesel,
vandalism has increased as
people vandalise transformers to sell the fuel on
the black market."
The price of fuel, diesel and petrol respectively went
up last week to
between $400 000 and $600 000 a litre.
Zesa has over
4 000 transformers in Harare only and it was not possible for
the power
utility to protect all of them, he said.
Copper cables, which sell at
attractive prices on the black market, were
also being stolen resulting in
the utility incurring huge losses to replace
the affected
equipment.
As a result of vandalism, fault location in affected areas
took longer and
when found, spares were in most cases not readily available,
he said.
Unexpected power cuts had seen consumers who include business
and industry
expressing their disgust at the way the power utility was
conducting its
business.
Power cuts were greatly affecting consumers
as a result of electrical
equipment losses and huge losses for businesses
and industry that require
constant electricity provision.
The
Southern African Power Pool is expected to experience a power deficit
next
year and Zimbabwe, like other nations in the region, is putting in
place
measures to alleviate the situation.
Zimbabwe imports about 35 percent of
electricity requirements needs from
Snel of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Eskom of South Africa, Hydro
Cahora Bassa and Zesco of Mozambique and
Zambia respectively. -- New Ziana.
New Zimbabwe
By Dr
Sehlare Makgetlaneng
Last updated: 06/27/2006 21:54:20
DEVELOPED countries
and their international leading supporters on the
Zimbabwean situation are
responsible for the MDC's "Mugabe must go"
strategy.
They regarded
the resolution of the land question as the means used by the
ruling party
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front and its
leader to win
elections and consolidate their power.
Leading experts on the Zimbabwean
socio-historical situation critically
contest this position. The opposition
party's criticism of the state's
resolution of the land question has been
characterised by its position that
it is not popular with the masses of the
African people of Zimbabwe.
The reality is that the state's land reform
policy is more popular with
older Zimbabweans than the MDC's concentration
on criticising the government
for mismanagement and
corruption.
During an economic crisis, the promise of new land may win
more votes than
criticism of mismanagement and corruption.
While
Zimbabweans born after the achievement of political independence are
not
much interested in land, the reality is that it is more difficult to
mobilise them behind the MDC.
Developed countries and their
supporters regarded the need for political
reforms as a solution to
socio-political and economic problems. President
Robert Mugabe was viewed as
the problem to this solution. This proposed
solution to Zimbabwe's problems
was best and briefly articulated in their
"Mugabe must go" demand. They
hoped that Morgan Tsvangirai would defeat
Mugabe in the 2002 presidential
elections. Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai in the
elections. They regarded
elections not as free and fair and the Zimbabwean
government as
illegitimate. They embarked upon various programmes of action
to isolate the
Zimbabwean government throughout the world.
They regarded Mugabe as
authoritarian, corrupt and a dictator who has been
stealing elections since
the MDC posed a decisive challenge to his rule in
the 2000 elections. Mugabe
is regarded as a threat to the social, political
and economic development
and progress not only of his country, but also of
the Southern African
region and of the whole African continent as well as
Africa's initiatives
such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
Leaders of developed
countries have been exerting pressure upon leaders of
Southern African
countries to join them in condemning Mugabe. They have been
demanding that
South Africa must play a leading role in acting against
Mugabe for what they
regard as his violations of human rights in Zimbabwe.
Marginalising the
people of Zimbabwe and superseding them as social agents
for social,
political and economic change in their country for removing
Mugabe from
power, they regarded this as the responsibility of President
Mbeki and other
African leaders, not the people of Zimbabwe. One of the key
issues central
to this view is the profound failure to view the Zimbabwean
situation beyond
Mugabe. These are key issues charactering the MDC's "Mugabe
must go"
strategy.
The MDC has been criticising leaders of African countries for
their alleged
support for Mugabe and the ruling party. The way it has been
criticising
leaders of African countries particularly of Southern Africa is
such that it
is of the view that it is their responsibility to solve
Zimbabwe's problems,
not only to support the people of Zimbabwe in solving
their country's
problems.
The responsibility to exert pressure upon
Mugabe necessary for him to step
down as the president of Zimbabwe lies with
the people of Zimbabwe, not with
the leaders of African countries. This is
contrary to the position of the
MDC that this responsibility lies with the
leaders of African countries. Its
supporters internally in Zimbabwe and
externally outside Zimbabwe maintain
this position. It is interesting to
note that the MDC does not maintain that
this responsibility lies also with
leaders of developed countries. This
reality is supportive of the position
that this incorrect position is a
means of leaders of developed countries to
use African countries
particularly South Africa to play a leading role to
achieve their objectives
in Zimbabwe. This position and attempt by developed
countries to use African
countries to achieve their objectives in Zimbabwe
have helped the leadership
of the ruling party in its position that the MDC
is a tool of imperialist
powers to achieve their interests in Zimbabwe. They
have supported the
ruling party in its position that the MDC is a tool of
imperialist powers,
particularly Britain in its intention to recolonise
Zimbabwe.
Pointing out that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa,
President Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi
"failed to
persuade Mugabe" when they "visited" him on 5 May 2004 in Harare
to "say
whether, or when, he intends to step down," Africa Confidential
maintains
the correct position that the responsibility to exert pressure
upon Mugabe
necessary for him to step down as the president of Zimbabwe lies
with the
people of Zimbabwe under their leaders, not with the leaders of
African
countries when it concluded that this failure "puts the
responsibility back
where it belongs, with Zimbabwe's own
leaders."
The MDC's incorrect position that the responsibility to exert
pressure upon
Mugabe necessary for him to step down as the president of
Zimbabwe lies with
the leaders of African countries, not with the people of
Zimbabwe, is
defended by its president, Tsvangirai. After the efforts of
President Mbeki
and President Obasanjo to promote dialogue between the
ruling party and the
MDC, Tsvangirai pointed out in August 2002 that their
efforts were attempts
to "legitimise Mugabe" and enabled Mugabe to
consolidate his power and
position. He maintained that their hope to "bring
about dialogue and
reconciliation between the parties" was "an attempt to
legitimise Mugabe,
without confronting the issue of Mugabe's legitimacy in
the March 2002
election" and that they "chose diplomacy rather than
democracy and gave
Mugabe space to consolidate his position."
Did the
MDC, through its theoretical and practical weaknesses, not help to
"legitimise Mugabe" and "give Mugabe space to consolidate his
position?"
Some supporters of the MDC maintain that the MDC enabled or
"gave Mugabe''
and the ruling party political "space to consolidate'' their
"position.''
They maintain that the fact that it is supported by "big
business and white
farmers" in Zimbabwe and developed countries and
institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has
undermined its support
among the masses in Zimbabwe and throughout Southern
Africa. Its support by
white farmers, who continue to oppress and exploit
farm labourers has helped
to undermine its rural support. It has refrained
from mobilizing mass action
against the government and concentrated on
appealing to the external forces
to exert pressure upon Mugabe and the
ruling party. This programme of action
enabled Mugabe to maintain that the
survival of his administration is a
struggle against external interference
in defence of white business and
farming interests and to present the MDC as
the organisational agent of
imperialism.
The position that the real
threat to the exercise of state political power
by the ruling party is the
desperate state of the economy and its effects on
the Zimbabweans, that the
"government's main enemy is the state of the
economy, or that economic
problems confront the ruling party more critically
than opposition parties
and international critics" is more about the
weakness of the MDC in
challenging the ruling party's exercise of state of
political power and less
and lesser about problems faced by the ruling party
in its defence for
political administration of the society. It is not the
issue the MDC can
rely upon in its struggle for state political power.
Despite difficult
conditions under which it is operating, it must vigorously
wage the struggle
to win the support of the majority of Zimbabweans.
The obvious reality
that the MDC must vigorously wage the struggle to win
the support of the
majority of Zimbabweans is contrary to the strategy of
Tsvangirai which he
articulated to Joseph Winter of British Broadcasting
Corporation. This
strategy to "unset the president," according to Winter, is
"to wait while Mr
Mugabe mismanaged the economy to such an extent that he
was forced out of
office." This "long-term, passive" strategy has not helped
the MDC in its
struggle for power. Tsvangirai articulated this confused
strategy in
September 2000 when he told an MDC rally that "If Mugabe does
not go
peacefully, he will be removed by force." He maintained that his
statement
was not a threat of armed rebellion but a warning of popular
discontent with
the Mugabe administration.
Tsvangirai's harsh criticism of President
Mbeki and President Obasanjo is
reflection of his incorrect position that
the responsibility to exert
pressure upon Mugabe necessary for him to step
down as the president of
Zimbabwe lies with the leaders of African
countries, not with the people of
Zimbabwe. In his speech to the MDC Members
of Parliament in Harare on 18
December 2002, he maintained that President
Mbeki had "embarked on an
international safari to campaign for Mugabe's
regime. Pretoria is free to
pursue its agenda. But it must realise that
Zimbabweans can never be fooled
anymore."
The relevant question is
whether or not Tsvangirai ever realised that
"Zimbabweans can never be
fooled" by his profound lack of shrewd political
qualities, his failure in
leading the MDC to provide viable theoretical and
practical positions,
policies and programmes of action which constitute the
alternative to the
ruling party and his fundamental weaknesses in
articulating Zimbabwe's
national socio-political and economic issues and
taking strategic and
tactical decisions in the interest of the MDC's
struggle for
power.
The MDC's "Mugabe must go" strategy is a reflection of its
theoretical and
practical weaknesses. It does injustice to its immediate
objective which has
been to remove the ruling party from power. This
objective is different from
the objective to remove Mugabe from power.
Mugabe can be removed from power
by the ruling party as a means to see to it
that it wins elections so as to
continue being in power. This tactical means
will not be in the interest of
the MDC to be in power. It is not only the
MDC which wants Mugabe out of
power; some members of the ruling party and
other Zimbabweans who are
members of neither the ruling party nor the MDC
also want him out of power.
Despite the fact that Mugabe is the president
of the ruling party and of the
country, he should not be confused with the
ruling party. A clear line of
demarcation should be drawn and emphasised by
the MDC between Mugabe and the
ruling party. Its reduction of Zimbabwe's
problems to Mugabe is the issue
which does not serve its struggle for power.
The ruling party can
overwhelmingly win free and fair elections under a new
leader more than has
been the case under the leadership of
Mugabe.
The MDC party's incorrect position that the responsibility to
exert pressure
upon Mugabe necessary for him to step down as the president
of Zimbabwe lies
with the leaders of African countries, not with the people
of Zimbabwe under
its leadership is its misunderstanding of the importance
of the primacy of
internal factors over external factors either in the
resolution or the
maintenance of internal problems of a given
country.
* Dr Sehlare Makgetlaneng is the Head of SADC and Southern
Africa programme
at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria, South
Africa
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 06/27/2006 21:54:17
HARARE
town clerk Nomutsa Chideya is resisting attempts by Sekesai
Makwavarara,
head of a commission running the city, to usurp his duties.
Makwavarara
unilaterally moved to centralise power last week after a shock
decision by
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo to extend her term by
six months,
despite resistance from residents.
Defying Makwavarara, Chideya addressed
the council's heads of department on
Monday.
Meanwhile, Chideya's
lawyers fired a letter to Makwavarara, warning that any
continued
interference with the town clerk's work would invite legal
action.
Harare's elected mayor, Elias Mudzuri -- voted on an opposition
MDC
ticket -- was ousted by Chombo who claimed he was corrupt and
incompetent.
Chombo took similar measures in Chitungwiza and Mutare where
opposition
mayors were replaced with his appointees.
Chideya's
lawyers have revealed that after Makwavarara took the unilateral
decision to
centralise all power last week -- by banning all commission
meetings,
including heads of department discussions -- she had also
attempted to force
the long-serving clerk out by giving her a
yet-to-be-revealed post at the
Urban Development Corporation.
Chideya's lawyers were swift off the
blocks, threatening Makwavarara with
"judicial intervention".
The
lawyers, keen to show the unilateral manner of the decision to remove
Chideya from his position, reportedly because he is diabetic, also asked
Makwavarara to furnish them with minutes of the commission meeting where the
decision to relieve Chideya was reached.
Service delivery in Harare
has collapsed under Makwavarara's watch. The
former MDC councillor who
defected back to Zanu PF has been in the headline
for her lavish
spending.
Chideya worked in the same capacity under the late Solomon
Tawengwa, Elijah
Chanakira and Elias Mudzuri.
27 Jun 2006 14:48:06
GMT
Source: UNHCR
HARARE, Zimbabwe, 27 June (UNHCR) - When Frank
Nzabonimpa Ndayahoze arrives
for work each day in Parirenyatwa Hospital, the
flight of medical staff from
the economic chaos of Zimbabwe is all too
apparent. That problem also makes
him a vivid example of the contribution
that refugees can make to the
nations that give them shelter.
"They
need doctors and nurses," the 34-year-old Congolese doctor said in a
hall of
the government-run hospital. "Zimbabwe trains more every year, but
after
they get experience they leave. Many in the medical field leave every
day -
there are hard working conditions and low salaries."
The exodus of
medical staff from countries like Zimbabwe could not come at a
worse time.
Ndayahoze spends most of his time treating victims of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic,
which has infected 20 percent of the population in
Zimbabwe between the ages
of 15 and 49. The average life expectancy of men
in Zimbabwe is 37 years,
for women a mere 34 years.
But no one could blame Zimbabwean doctors and
nurses for accepting lucrative
jobs in wealthy countries like Britain. Amid
Zimbabwe's runaway inflation
the monthly salaries of nurses have risen to 30
million Zimbabwean dollars,
equal to US$300 at the official exchange rate -
a mere $100 at the black
market parallel rate that determines most consumer
prices.
The economic crisis has provided a chance for refugees like
Ndayahoze to
show their value to the country that gave them sanctuary. His
skills,
acquired in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe,
are
needed. In the hospital, Ndayahoze has been joined by a nurse who is
also a
refugee from the DRC and another who fled Rwanda.
Ndayahoze is
aware of others among the country's 14,000-strong refugee
community with
professions that might win a work permit, but knows that for
most refugees
life in Zimbabwe is more difficult. Zimbabwe registered
reservations about
clauses in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention that required
host countries to
let refugees work. Instead it requires them to have work
permits similar to
those needed by any foreigner. Job opportunities are rare
outside of areas
such as medicine.
In addition to the official obstacles to employing
refugees, any chance of
work has been exacerbated by an economic decline
this decade that produced
unemployment rates estimated at up to 80 percent
of the labour force.
Ndayahoze would probably be working in DRC today if
not for the fighting
that erupted in the west of the country in the 1990s,
part of the broader
turmoil in the Great Lakes region. In 1997 the violence
engulfed his family.
"At first our family dispersed when the rebels
attacked our village and
everyone fled," he said. "I lost touch with the
rest of my family and
decided to leave the country. It was 1999 by the time
I next got in touch
with my family. They were back home but it was still
insecure so I didn't
want to go back."
Ndayahoze had been at the
University of Lubumbashi, preparing for entry into
medical school. Once he
had been recognised as a refugee in Zimbabwe, he
approached UNHCR for
assistance to continue his medical studies. In 1999 the
ambitious young man
was given a DAFI scholarship, a UNHCR programme funded
by Germany that
provides assistance to study at university.
In July 2003 he concluded his
formal studies at the University of Zimbabwe,
graduating with a bachelor's
degree in medicine and surgery, and was placed
at Harare's Parirenyatwa
Hospital for his residency.
The soft-spoken doctor lives in a single room
in a staff residence and works
in the crowded casualty ward. The seven
languages that he speaks, including
the French used in DRC and English
spoken in Zimbabwe, add to his value.
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe,
Ndayahoze himself may soon join the brain drain
from the country. In January
2005 he married a young woman he knew as a
student in DRC. She lives in
Canada and he hopes to join her.
His goal is to pass the Canadian exams
to gain recognition of his medical
credentials and follow it up by
specialising in paediatrics and public
health. Then it will be Canada that
has gained from giving a home to this
Congolese refugee.
By Jack
Redden
In Harare, Zimbabwe
June 27, 2006,
By
ANDnetwork .com
Zimbabwe's bill to permit spying on private email
and telephone
messages is flawed and lacks the basic safeguards against
unwarranted
intrusion into privacy, legal officer for the Zimbabwe chapter
of the Media
Institute of Southern Africa has said in a detailed
analysis.
Legal Officer Wilbert Mandinde compared the Interception
of
Communications Bill with other laws covering wiretaps.
In
Australia, for example, surveillance can only take place on an
individual
suspected for a crime carrying a minimum penalty of seven years'
jail.
"This ensures that legitimate and normal activities in a
democracy
such as journalism, civic protests, trade unionism and political
opposition,
are not subjected to unwarranted surveillance because the
individuals
involved have different interests and goals than of those in
power," said
Mandinde.
Pinpointing one of the widely suspected
aims of the Mugabe regime's
bill, he noted that such limitations on wiretaps
ensured that relatively
minor crimes ``are not used as pretexts to conduct
intrusive surveillance
for political or other reasons."
Mandinde also complained that the bill made no provision for an
independent
commission to oversee all interceptions activities.
Such
commissions operate in many countries, including Australia, New
Zealand and
Britain. Instead, under the Zimbabwe bill, it appeared that
state security
agents would man a monitoring centre.
Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) in Zimbabwe say they face
prohibitive costs in installing
the monitoring equipment for which they will
not be
compensated.
Mandinde said that when The Netherlands tried to do
this in 2001 - the
deadline for complying has now been extended - up to a
third of Dutch ISPs
said they would be bankrupt.
Another big
flaw in the Zimbabwe bill is the lack of a requirement to
produce annual
public reports on electronic surveillance as required in
other countries,
including the US, Britain, Sweden, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and
France.
Nor is there any requirement to tell those targeted for
eavesdropping
when the investigation is complete, or timetables for
destroying material.
Mandinde said the bill has "immeasurable
inadequacies" compared with
laws in countries which respect the right to
privacy and should be subjected
to rigorous scrutiny before it is put before
Parliament.
"The bill represents a step backwards and is
inconsistent with
international standards on human rights and other legal
requirements . (and)
will inevitably lead to abuses," he concluded. The
Zimbabwean
The Guardian
Africans correctly see Live8 and the
G8 Gleneagles summit as acts of
political theatre aimed at a western
audience.
Robert White
June 27, 2006 01:00 PM
This time last
year, I spent a fruitless Saturday night touring pubs in
Nairobi trying to
find a Kenyan who was watching Live8. There were plenty
watching Wimbledon,
but no one who had even heard of Bob Geldof.
When I explained what was
going on in Britain, they replied briskly that pop
music was for children -
and if you borrow money, you ought to pay it back.
Away from the sports
bars there were, of course, Africans who had heard of
both Live8 and the
Gleneagles summit. For the most part, they said it was a
bit of a struggle
trying to connect with events that saw them chiefly as
objects of
pity.
Live8 and the political summit in Scotland were acts of political
theatre
aimed at a western audience, a group hug from which Africa was
excluded.
Most people who knew anything about the continent knew that a
big bang was
never going to happen.
If a place so vast can have a
single characteristic, it is resilience.
Africa has seen off the slavers and
the colonisers; its people have
overthrown white-settler kingdoms in
Zimbabwe and South Africa, the cousins
of those that endure in the
Americas.
It is also slow to change. Drive an hour out of most big
cities, and the way
of life is largely unaltered since the advent of iron
tools. Women carry
firewood on their heads, boys herd cattle, and villagers'
lives turn on a
good rain.
Since the colonial era, the state has been
a foreign, interfering power in
these people's lives. With an increasingly
free African press reporting the
misdeeds of their leaders, there is plenty
of cynicism about their own
politicians and western leaders.
So what
has changed since the G8 met? There is a smattering of good news. A
recent
Oxfam report found that debt relief had enabled Zambia to scrap fees
for
basic healthcare and raise funds to recruit more than 4,500 teachers,
while
in Nigeria a poverty action fund will channel debt relief cash into
teacher
training.
But the charity warned that some western countries were
counting debt
cancellations as part of their aid to Africa, masking the fact
that in some
cases the real amount of aid had fallen.
Elsewhere, the
picture is reliably bleak. Last month, the UN's world food
programme cut
back its food supplies in Darfur because donor countries had
given less than
half the money needed. Despite a peace agreement, Janjaweed
atrocities
continue. In Kenya, MPs recently tried to force the government to
increase
their mileage allowance, blocking a national budget that included
aid to
drought victims.
The key to saving Africa - a fair trade deal - remains
out of reach, after
the World Trade Organisation's Hong Kong meeting last
December failed to
reach an agreement that would help developing countries.
And politicians
once considered to be in the vanguard of an "African
renaissance" -
Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni - have
proved as
reluctant to surrender, or even share, power as were the worst of
the old
"big men".
The conspiracy theory is that the west wants to
keep Africa poor. Actually,
it's more of an ongoing cock-up: a combination
of farm subsidies that help a
small number of western producers while doing
a disservice to consumers and
African farmers; aid bureaucrats who keep
shovelling money towards corrupt
regimes because doing that is better for
their careers than closing
programmes down; and western politicians making
empty promises with an eye
to their obituaries.
So what can the
ordinary citizen do to help? Well, being sceptical about our
politicians,
our pop stars and even some of our charities is a good starting
point.
But there's more. With some exceptions, Africa is not yet the
place to build
a call centre, or even a trainer factory. Even if it could
compete with
Chinese prices, most of the continent lacks a power supply free
of blackouts
and pothole-free roads. But sub-Saharan Africa could be
Europe's granary.
The trade in fruit, vegetables and flowers between
south and north can make
a real difference to African lives. Buy all the
Fairtrade coffee you can
drink.
FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL
26th June 2006
The Vigil was well
represented at a service at St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, to
mark the UN International Day in
Support of Victims of Torture organised by
the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO
Forum in association with the Zimbabwe
Association, Redress and other
organisations. Arnold Tsungu, Director of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights, outlined the worsening situation.
Three Zimbabwean torture survivors
brought home to everyone the horror of
what is happening in Zimbabwe. They
were joined by a Sudanese torture
survivor, in solidarity with other
countries suffering from similar horrors.
Vigil supporter Sam (saxophone)
brought the Zimbabwean musician Paul Lunga
(trumpet) and they made a great
contribution to the music, with Harriet
(piano and violin). After the
service we processed, bearing flowers and
singing hymns, to the Zimbabwe
Embassy. The flowers were laid on the steps
of the Embassy and the evening
concluded with a mass singing of Ishe
Komberera / Nkosi Sikelele - much
appreciated by passers-by.
Earlier in the day, Vigil supporters attended
a meeting at the House of
Lords commemorating the victims of organised
violence and torture in
Zimbabwe. It was well-attended by representatives of
many Zimbabwean groups
both from the UK and Zimbabwe. Several Vigil
supporters pressed the case
for everyone to join together to change
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
townhall.com
Jun 27, 2006
by Walter E.
Williams
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with other G-8
leaders, have
called for the doubling of foreign aid to African nations by
2010. The idea
that foreign aid is a route out of poverty and political
instability is not
only bankrupted but a cruel and evil hoax as
well.
Nearly every sub-Saharan African nation is poorer now than when
they
became independent during the '60s and '70s. Since that time, food
production has fallen by roughly 20 percent. Since 1975, per capita GDP has
fallen at a rate of half of one percent annually. Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo estimated, "Corrupt African leaders have stolen at least
$140 billion from their people in the [four] decades since independence."
The call for more aid by George Bush, Tony Blair and other G-8 leaders will
produce nothing but more of the same.
Zimbabwe provides an
excellent example of why foreign aid, as a way
out of poverty, is a fool's
errand. Salem University, Winston-Salem, N.C.,
professor Craig Richardson
explores this further in "Learning from Failure:
Property Rights, Land
Reforms, and the Hidden Architecture of Capitalism," a
paper written for the
American Enterprise Institute's Development Policy
Outlook Series (2006).
Not that long ago, Zimbabwe was one of the more
prosperous African
countries. Professor Richardson writes, "Few countries
have failed as
spectacularly, or as tragically, as Zimbabwe has over the
past half decade.
Zimbabwe has transformed from one of Africa's rare success
stories into one
of its worst economic and humanitarian disasters." It has
the world's
highest rate of inflation, currently over 1,000 percent. To put
this into
perspective, in 1995, one U.S. dollar exchanged for eight Zimbabwe
dollars;
today, one U.S. dollar exchanges for 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
Unemployment
hovers around 80 percent. Its financial institutions are
collapsing. The
specter of mass starvation hangs over a country that once
exported
food.
What's the cause? President Robert Mugabe blames domestic and
foreign
enemies, particularly England and the United States for trying to
bring
about his downfall. Of course, according to Mugabe, and some of the
world's
academic elite, there's that old standby excuse, the legacy of
colonialism
and multi-national firms exploiting the Third World. The drought
is used to
"explain" the precipitous drop in agricultural output. Then
there's AIDS.
Let's look at drought and AIDS. Zimbabwe's next-door
neighbor is
Botswana. Botswana has the world's second-highest rate of AIDS
infection,
and if there's drought in Zimbabwe, there's likely a drought in
Botswana,
whose major geographic feature is the Kalahari Desert, which
covers 70
percent of its land mass. However, Botswana has one of the world's
highest
per capita GDP growth rates. Moody's and Standard & Poor gives
Botswana an
"A" credit rating, the best credit risk on the continent, a risk
competitive
with countries in central Europe and East Asia.
Botswana compared to her other African neighbors prospers not because
of
foreign aid. There's rule of law, sanctity of contracts, and in 2004,
Transparency International ranked Botswana as Africa's least corrupt
country, ahead of many European and Asian countries. The World Forum rates
Botswana as one of Africa's two most economically competitive nations and
one of the best investment opportunities in the developing
world.
Botswana shares a heritage with Zimbabwe, for it, too, was a
British
colony. What it doesn't share with Zimbabwe explains its success:
the rule
of law, minimal corruption and, most of all, respect for private
property
rights. No amount of western foreign aid can bring about the
political and
socioeconomic climate necessary for economic growth. Instead,
foreign aid
allows vicious dictators to remain in power. It enables them to
buy the
allegiance of cronies and the military equipment to oppress their
own
people, not to mention being able to set up "retirement" accounts in
Swiss
banks. The best thing westerners can do for Africa is to keep their
money
and their economic development "experts."
Dr.
Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University in
Fairfax, VA as
John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
THE haste with which
the Jokonya family denied any foul play in the
death of Tichaona Jokonya
last Saturday was intriguing.
Yet it was not as unexpected as the death
of a cabinet minister in a
road accident, although in at least one such
mishap, searching questions
were asked.
The Jokonya family's
haste was understandable in this peculiar regard:
the Minister of
Information and Publicity died hours before announcing a
far-reaching
shake-up of the state media, particularly the beleaguered
public
broadcasting.
Jokonya, who would have been 68 next December, died
in his hotel room
at a five-star hotel in Harare. The hotel, previously
managed by the United
States-based Sheraton group, had recently been taken
over completely by a
government hotel chain.
To many proponents
of the private sector this was another example of
how blithely the
government is reneging on a commitment to make the private
sector a vital
partner of its economic turnaround programme.
Jokonya, it was
believed, was not about to make any startling changes
to the ownership of
the public media. He had already announced the scrapping
of the
fragmentation of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) into so many
little
unprofitable pieces of autonomous entities.
Each of the little
empires, created during the tenure of Jonathan Moyo
as minister, had its own
chief executive officer.
ZBH was such an unwieldy creature a
parliamentary portfolio committee
on Transport and Communications had
recommended it must be broken up.
Was the suspicion that, to put
paid to his plans to tamper with their
empires and lose them their
highly-paid jobs, with their obscene perks,
these people were ready to "do
him in?"
It was unclear if Jokonya intended to announce any major
shift in the
government's attitude towards the private media. In the reign
of Moyo's
Stalinist regime four newspapers were shut down under the
notoriously
repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
Two private television and radio networks had also been
shut down.
Initially, shortly after his appointment as the new
minister, Jokonya
made some very positive noises: he would re-examine the
provisions of
AIPPA, which had led to so much trauma and unemployment in the
media
fraternity.
A very well-travelled diplomat and an
intellectual to boot, Jokonya
was perceived by many editors as the kind of
minister they could do good
business with - a man who understood why a free
media was absolutely
essential if democracy was to be nurtured in
Zimbabwe.
As the months passed, however, Jokonya seemed to be
afflicted by a
familiar malady: a fear of the very well-known monster that
is Zanu PF. He
faced a choice which many others have faced: toe the line or
quit and risk
an ignominious end to your budding political
career.
Although he had met senior editors of the private media
sector to hear
them ventilate their concerns, his tune, as enunciated in
public statements,
began to strike a discordant note: the status quo would
be maintained.
The last straw, for any who had harboured any hopes
of real change in
government relations with the private media, was his
startling pronouncement
on the relationship between patriotism and
journalism.
After that, all hope that the Jokonya era would be more
enlightened
than the Stalinist darkness of the Moyo era were
eroded.
In the end, what seemed to sabotage any reforms Jokonya had in
store
for the private media was the presence in the ministry's upper
echelons of
the same mandarins who had aided and abetted Moyo in his brutal
campaign to
castrate the privately-owned media.
George
Charamba, reportedly Moyo's blue-eyed boy and an avid disciple
of the
previously fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, remained
permanent
secretary after his mentor had been unceremoniously kicked out of
Zanu
PF.
Charamba, like Moyo, seems to pose as a seasoned journalist,
speaking
and writing on the subject as if he had spent years in newsrooms
around the
world.
Only later did it occur to many that he was,
in fact, no better than
Tafataona Mahoso, the chairman of AIPPA's Media and
Information commission:
they all seem to believe journalism consists of
using very big words and
quoting people like Shakespeare and others to
impress their readers.
There was real sadness among journalists at
Jokonya's death. I could
believe the sincerity of the secretary-general of
the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists, Foster Dongozi, when he expressed his
condolences to the
Jokonya family.
We all suspected that, in
the end, Jokonya would slowly but surely
transform the media landscape as he
had initially intended to do. It would
be a version for his own "Chimurenga"
against the mandarins at Shake Shake
building. Moreover, some of us believed
he would find a natural ally in
Nathan Shamuyarira, whose aversion to the
last media regime was so
pronounced it was aired in public during the last
days of Moyo's empire.
Yet what continues to nag many students of
the Zimbabwean body politic
is the presence of a malignant growth
represented by a philosophy, which
holds that once you are in the system
only death or eviction will save you.
At the time Jokonya took
office, he was not entirely fit for office,
physically speaking. He was so
visibly infirm on television appearances you
could not help but feel sorry
for him. He moved sluggishly, even for someone
his age. He had a stoop to
his back which again announced loudly that he
was struggling, in vain, it
seemed, to present to the public a picture of
sparkling good
health.
Since independence, there have been other leaders in a similar
bind.
Joshua Nkomo was plagued by ill-health long before he finally
succumbed in 1999. He paid many visits to cities such as Cairo and
Johannesburg in search of a cure, all in vain.
Many questions
have been asked about this tendency to have these sick
men continue in
office when all the evidence suggests that they should be
retired and
allowed to take a well-deserved rest among their families.
If
Jokonya had not been subjected to the rigors of a tight work
schedule,
involving weighty decisions on such vexatious questions as the
future of an
impoverished, badly-administered, loss-making monster like the
state
electronic media, he probably would have died a dignified death, in
his own
bed, on his farm, with his family around him - not in a lonely hotel
room,
apparently all by himself.
Today, we have been subjected to the
disturbing spectacle of
Vice-President Joseph Msika appearing on television
to deny any suggestions
that he was about to kick the bucket.
Then, when he returns from a long period of treatment in South Africa,
we
are told by him that he is perfectly healthy again and that rumours of
his
imminent demise are "exaggerated", or words to that effect.
What
would Msika lose and what political damage would Zanu PF suffer
if he was to
be announced as retiring from office - the man is old enough to
retire, if
he was in the private sector - and going for good to his farm in
Mashonaland
Central?
There can be no doubt that his family would surround him
with their
love. In fact, he might even live longer, sleeping peacefully in
his own
bed, knowing that his family is nearby and will take care of him if
he
coughs or sneezes.
At that age, to expect him to journey to
the office, even in a
chauffer-driven, air-conditioned Mercedes-Benz saloon
, five days a week is
almost an unconscionable act of cruelty.
It suggests Zanu PF politicians, as soon as they join the party and
ascend
to the upper echelons of the party, must be prepared to die in
harness -
it's a marriage which will end only after death.
Simon Muzenda, another
Vice-President, worked until his last breath,
almost. Like Msika, he endured
the indignity of discussing his illness on
public television. Many felt sick
with worry as he stood up, gingerly, from
his chair, and walked, with
mincing steps - to indicate that he was really
as "fit as a fiddle", as
Msika said he was in one interview.
Our culture embodies a morbid
fascination with death, yet we must try
to discard this fascination. The
sight of an old man - and when you are two
years from three score and ten
years, you are definitely on the last
stretch, - trying to look sprightly,
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, cannot be
good television.
Not even
for sons and daughters, or grandchildren.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Ian Nhuka in
Bulawayo
THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
supports any
initiatives meant to restore democracy, the rule of law, a
legitimate
government and development in Zimbabwe, a senior party official
said
yesterday.
Speaking ahead of a meeting between some church
leaders and MDC's
founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, party spokesman,
Nelson Chamisa said the
MDC has always wanted to give dialogue a chance to
break the political
impasse with ZANU PF.
"Throughout its
existence, the party has always cherished
understanding between
stakeholders. As such, the party supports the church's
initiative to bring
about dialogue between us and ZANU PF. We support any
initiatives designed
to restore democracy, the rule of law and legitimacy,"
said
Chamisa.
His comments come as churches in the country are trying to
broker
dialogue between the MDC and ZANU PF over a number of sticky areas
including
the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe's rule, the rule of law,
good
governance and related issues.
Church leaders, led by
Bishop Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe, are likely
to hold a meeting with Tsvangirai soon to
hear the opposition leader's views
on how to bring about an understanding
between his party and ZANU
PF.
The church leaders have already met Mugabe, who has given his
support
for the initiative. Their meeting with Tsvangirai, which was
scheduled for
Wednesday last week, was cancelled after the death of his
father. No date
has been set yet.
As efforts to resolve the
political and economic crisis in the country
widened, the church at the
weekend held the Zimbabwe National Day of Prayer
in Harare which was
attended by Mugabe himself, various church leaders and
Christians from
various denominations.
No MDC official attended.
In his
address at the controversial Harare prayer meeting, Mugabe
urged churches to
help his government's efforts to revive the country's
failing economy but
warned clerics not to meddle in politics.
He also took the
opportunity to attack one of his most prominent
critics, Roman Catholic
Archbishop, Pius Ncube who opposed the prayer
meeting. Archbishop Ncube, who
has attacked the government for corruption,
suppression of human rights and
bad governance did not attend the
proceedings.
Said Chamisa:
"The church plays a critical role in national
development. We hope the
talks would bear fruit and that the clerics would
be sincere in the
move."
Tsvangirai himself has indicated his party will go out of
its way to
organise street protests to force Zanu PF to the negotiating
table where
problems facing the country will be ironed out with a
transitional
government, among other things, being put in place as the
country prepares
for a fresh election that is free and fair.
June 26,
2006
By ANDnetwork .com
Zimbabwean president Robert
Mugabe has been invited to speak at a
conference on land reparations that
will be held in Ghana next month.
According to the Ghanaian
Chronicle, President Mugabe's presentation
would educate the organisers on
how reparations would be of help to Africans
with regards to land issues
during the conference, which will run from July
22 to August 2.
Prominent African-American liberation campaigner, Louis Farrakhan,
has also
been invited to attend as well as reparation activists from Africa
and other
parts of the world.
Nana Kwamena Gyebi, the president of Sankofa
United Continent African
Roots Development International Association of
Ghana (SUCARDIF) and a
Ghanaian reparations campaigner, praised President
Mugabe for his principled
stance on the land question, which saw the country
launching the land
redistribution programme in 2000.
"(President) Mugabe is the only African leader who is fighting the
cause for
Africans and he has been portrayed by the West as a demon," he
said.
More than 200 000 formerly landless blacks in Zimbabwe
have been
allocated farms under the programme, which has been praised by
most African
and Third World countries.
Gyebi, who is also
co-convener of the meeting, said President Mugabe's
presence would help
disprove claims of opponents of the land reform
programme that there are
human rights abuses and lack of democracy in
Zimbabwe. He made the
announcement at Amamoma, a place where a 200-acre
piece of land has been
identified for the construction of a US$180-million
Return Tower, which
would symbolise the return of black Africans who were
enslaved in Europe and
the Americas.
Amamoma is a suburb of Cape Coast in the Central
Region of the West
African country.
Gyebi criticised the US and
Britain for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe
as punishment for embarking on
the land redistribution programme.
"(President) Mugabe has been
suffocated too much by US and Britain
through sanctions they placed on the
country," Gyebi said.
He said the conference would serve to set
the ground for a common
course for the demand of reparations for Africans,
as well as solicit funds
for the building of the Tower of
Return.
The African Union, Economic Community for West African
States and
Ghana's Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations have all
reportedly
consented to the construction of the tower.
The
Ghanaian Chronicle quoted a repatriated African-American, Seestah
Imakhus
Njinga Ababio, as saying Africans were demanding reparations for the
horrors
they experienced during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade period
between 1441
and 1888.
The construction of the tower, said Nana Yatal, the Chief
of Amamoma,
would create jobs for the youths in the area.
The
Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, said the construction
of the
tower would also boost tourism because the region serves as the
tourism hub
of Ghana.
The Herald news