The Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am BST
03/06/2007
'I believe in the power of political action
to make the world better
and the moral obligation to use it," declared the
Prime Minister in ringing
tones on his valedictory tour of Africa. This was
Thursday in Sierra Leone,
scene of one of the triumphs of Mr Blair's foreign
policy; the template for
his later, and rather more disastrous, strategy of
"avowed interventionism".
On Friday in South Africa, he displayed
his rarely-seen pragmatic
side. Talking about the tragedy that is Zimbabwe,
Mr Blair admitted that
interventionism had its limits and accepted that only
Africans could bring
to an end the appalling Mugabe regime.
With inflation at nearly 4,000 per cent, life expectancy reduced to
just 37
years, a quarter of the population having emigrated and many of
those left
behind living in hunger, Zimbabwe is undoubtedly a part of the
world that
should be made "better".
While no one would argue that Britain
could or should intervene
militarily in Zimbabwe, "political action" does
not have to begin and end
with troop deployments. There is much more that Mr
Blair's Government could
have done (banning the England cricket tour of the
country in 2004 would
have been a good start), particularly in putting
pressure on South Africa,
the only regional superpower, to take a stronger
line with its neighbour.
We have been told repeatedly that Pretoria
is "active behind the
scenes" in attempting to persuade Mugabe to change
course, but in public the
South African president, Thabo Mbeki, has done
little but fawn over the old
dictator at every opportunity. The consequence
has been that life has only
got worse in Zimbabwe.
The problem
with Mr Blair's concept of intervention is that it
depended either on
military invasion or pious preaching and very little
else. If he had had a
little more sense of national history, and a little
less concern for his own
place in history, Mr Blair would have understood
that Britain has long had
immense influence in Africa and elsewhere.
That influence could
have been used to pragmatic effect in "making the
world better". The tragedy
is that because of his reckless intervention in
Iraq, our ability so to do
is diminished.
Sunday Nation, East Africa
EDITORIALS
Publication Date: 6/3/2007 When does freedom cease to be a
desirable ideal
and become a dangerous indulgence? What are the highest
goals of man? Should
society sacrifice all in the cause of freedom? Freedom
from what, as defined
by who?
President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe casts himself as the continental
champion in Africa's (largely
non-existent) crusade against imperialism,
neo-imperialism and colonialism.
In the process, Zimbabwe is totally
destroyed, its economy has become a wild
place where inflation is running at
thousands of percentage figures. Was it
worth it? Was it a fair price for
whatever Mr Mugabe felt the nation needed
to achieve?
When Africans listen to Mr Mugabe, they hear the strong
words of
liberation, the sweet empty words of struggle against racial
domination. And
because many of them have either suffered white rule or find
the very notion
of racial domination abhorrent, they cheer Mr Mugabe and
give him a standing
ovation. Yet very few of them would travel the
disastrous route he has
chosen for his country.
Like many
Africans, South African President Thabo Mbeki and ANC, whose
people have
suffered racism for centuries, would find it very difficult to
take a hard
line stance against Mr Mugabe, who has cleverly fashioned
himself as the
symbol of anti-imperialism on the continent.
Yet the world expects
South Africa, and Africa at large, to find a
solution to the Zimbabwe
problem.
However heroic Africans find Mr Mugabe, his way has not
worked and
Zimbabwe has paid a terrible price. Mr Mugabe, however, appears
to believe
that the suffering of his people is entirely attributable to the
malicious
actions of the United States and Britain.
That is not
a useful approach in ensuring the resolution of Zimbabwe's
problems. Mr
Mugabe was given a job by his people and, on his watch, for
whatever
reasons, the country is all but destroyed.
The time has come for Mr
Mugabe to stop being so self-righteous and
spare a thought for the millions
whose lives his policies have blighted. He
should accept personal
responsibility for this tragedy; he should realise
that his country is in a
hole and there is no wisdom in continuing to dig.
Further, it should not be
lost on him that healing and recovery cannot begin
with him in power. He
should, therefore, leave and take his heroics with
him.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
officials in the
Mutambara faction are going ahead with a $200 million
defamation lawsuit
against opposition leader MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
party insiders told
The Standard last week.
They said the
action could deal a major blow to efforts to reunite the
two factions ahead
of the 2008 elections.
There had been growing optimism that the MDC
would reunite to tackle
Zanu PF in the harmonised parliamentary and
presidential polls next year.
The optimism was fuelled by reports
that the factions were on the
verge of endorsing Tsvangirai as their sole
presidential candidate.
Arthur Mutambara, it was suggested, could
be given an influential
position in the united MDC. Mutambara himself said
in an interview last week
that, although the unity project was "work in
progress", the two factions
would ultimately decide on one presidential
candidate.
Still, it is now reported from within the Mutambara
faction that top
officials were keen to take Tsvangirai to
court.
Through their lawyer, Nicholas Mathonsi of Coghlan and
Welsh,
vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, secretary general, Welshman Ncube,
treasurer, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, and former Gwanda North Member of
Parliament, Paul Themba Nyathi have applied for a trial date. They have
lined up four witnesses to testify against Tsvangirai.
Gift
Chimanikire, who was suing Tsvangirai with the others, withdrew
the
defamation charges after crossing the floor to the Tsvangirai
faction.
Asked if the court case would not harm the prospects of
the party's
reunification talks, Ncube asked: "What talks? I don't know
anything about
them. There has been a lie about talks, re-unification and
the 'sole'
candidate without the persons officially confirming and this is
being
repeated everywhere. It has all been about sources and unnamed source.
Otherwise, our lawyers are handling the (defamation) case."
Dulini Ncube said last week: "Talks have nothing to do with this case
and
the party. It's all up to the individuals to drop the case and not the
party.
"At the same time, the question is not about the money
but the fact
that he defamed our characters. He scored political mileage out
of his
comments and at my age and with my political history I can't drop the
charges just like that."
Tsvangirai's spokesperson, William
Bango could not comment on the
impact of the lawsuit on reported coalition
talks: "These are legal matters.
The best person to comment on that is
Tendai Biti who is handling the case."
Biti, the secretary general
of the faction, said yesterday Tsvangirai,
who could not be reached for
comment, was the best person to comment.
The pro-Senate members
"require" five days of trial and according to
their lawyer they would seek
to review the $200 million suit upwards in line
with inflationary trends
shortly after the pre-trial conference in Bulawayo
before High Court Judge
Nicholas Ndou.
Tsvangirai has hired Tendai Biti from Honey and
Blanckenberg to
represent him.
The plaintiffs are demanding
$200 million from Tsvangirai for remarks
he was alleged to have made to the
diplomats in December 2005 in the
aftermath of the split.
He is
alleged to have said the pro-Senate members had connived with
Zanu PF to
kill him.
They also allege Tsvangirai told the same gathering the
faction had
entered into a secret pact with Zanu-PF for a "cohabitation
project on a
post-MDC political dispensation".
The alleged
defamatory statements appeared on The Star newspaper under
the headline
"Tsvangirai says henchmen plotted his death".
According to the
court papers, the pro-Senate members will "state that
the only intent with
which these statements were made was to maliciously
damage the reputation
they had built as reputable politicians in trying to
score political
points".
Tsvangirai, in his defence outline, denies the charge. He
says the
report was false and "indeed an inaccurate report of his diplomatic
briefing". Tsvangirai will say The Star issued a retraction and an
apology.
Zim Standard
BY DAVISON
MARUZIVA
AS concerns mount over the possible collapse of
Africa's democratic
project under a complex wave of impacts introduced by
the HIV and AIDS
pandemic, Zimbabwe's main political parties fear they could
be providing a
hostage to fortune by insisting on testing.
They
are thus reluctant to introduce compulsory testing. Several MPs
tested for
HIV last year and all but three declared their results - they
were
negative.
It is thought had the results been positive, they might
not have been
so forthcoming with their declarations.
On
average Zimbabwe holds about four by-elections a year due the death
of a
sitting MP.
Recent research conducted in six countries - five of
them in the
region - attributes the reluctance to come out in the open to
fears of a
premature or disastrous end to political careers.
Nelson Chamisa and Gabriel Chaibva, spokespersons of the two MDC
factions,
last week said requiring prospective candidates to declare their
health
status had not been discussed thoroughly.
"That thinking," said
Chamisa, "has not had thorough debate."
Chaibva, although citing
issues of confidentiality, said political
FROM PAGE 1
parties needed to put in place a mechanism to tackle this growing
problem.
He cited the case of a Chitungwiza candidate who died a day after
his
nomination.
Blessing Chebundo (MDC), MP for Kwekwe, is chairperson
of the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health. He said of particular
importance were the preventative and mitigatory measures.
He
cited the issue of truckers, saying once they were identified as
one of the
prime elements in the spread of HIV and Aids, subsequent measures
to scale
up awareness and the provision of treatment, which prolongs life,
were put
in place for them.
"There was some thinking along those lines for
teachers and nurses,
some time ago," he said, "but that was dropped because
we need a holistic
approach.
"The issue is no different from
doctors, whose training we invest in
for seven years . . . or soldiers. But
there is also the issue of human
rights for the prospective candidates,
because, globally, we are not agreed
that HIV and Aids is a notifiable
disease."
Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF spokesperson, was
unavailable for
comment despite repeated calls.
HIV/Aids was
the first disease to be labelled a global security threat
by the United
Nations Security Council. It was the first to command
discussion by the
entire Security Council.
The National Association of
Non-governmental Organisations (Nango),
the umbrella co-ordinating agency
for non-governmental organisations, said
starting with next year's election
they would demand that people be open
with their health status.
Fambai Ngirande, the Advocacy and Communications manager at Nango,
said:
"Anyone who does not declare their status and is not pushing the
agenda
should not be voted into office. We are concerned at the rate at
which
people are increasingly being disempowered. There is no political will
to
serve people who are living with or are affected by HIV and Aids."
Candidates coming out in the open about their health status would
stand a
better chance of being voted in, he said, because they were likely
to push
for the improvement of the lives of people living with HIV and
Aids.
But Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni exploited the
condition of his
opponent by suggesting that voting for the opposition
candidate was "voting
for a dead candidate", delegates to a conference in
Cape Town, South Africa
last week heard. Museveni's argument was that there
was no place for people
living with HIV and Aids in leadership.
Professor Nana Poku from Bradford University, United Kingdom,
presented a
counter perspective, arguing that a candidate who declared their
HIV/Aids
status could re-energise how societies viewed people living with
HIV and
Aids.
He said they could draw more support because they would be
counted on
to pursue the scaling up of anti-retroviral drugs and care for
those
affected.
In the end, they would constitute an effective
counter to the stigma
and discrimination against people living with HIV and
Aids.
Researchers from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa
(Idasa)
found that in Malawi, for example, 42 MPs had died at the height of
the
pandemic between 1994 and 2006.
An official statement by
the then Speaker of Malawi's National
Assembly in 2000 disclosed that 28 MPs
had died of HIV/Aids-related
complications.
"There is a
declining trend," say the researchers, "which might be
explained by the
increased availability of anti-retroviral drugs in the late
1990s and since
MPs will be in the higher middle class to upper economic
bracket, with
access to medical schemes."
In demonstrating the rising numbers of
legislators dying before
completing their terms due to the possible
influence of the HIV and Aids
pandemic in Zambia, the researchers say
between 1964 and 1984 (the period
before the advent of Aids) 46 by-elections
were held, 14 of them a result of
death by illness and accidents
combined.
By comparison, from 1985 to February 2003,102
by-elections were held
and 59 were due to HIV and Aids-related
deaths.
Idasa's Governance and Aids programme manager, Kondwani
Chirambo, says
research in Zambia showed that the frequent deaths of MPs and
other
political representatives due to illness had become common only in the
last
10-15 years.
"As a result," Chirambo said, "the number of
by-elections generated by
the natural deaths of incumbent MPs and
councillors has also increased
during the same period.
"While
only 6.4% of the 46 by-elections between 1964 and 1984 were
caused by MPs
succumbing to natural deaths, the number rose dramatically
between 1985 and
2005: in that period about 60% of the 146 by-elections were
due to deaths of
incumbent MPs . . . "
There is much concern over the cost of
organising and conducting
elections, lack of representation and development
and unquantifiable
frustration for the voters.
In Zambia, a
by-election in a large constituency will cost up to
US$200 000, while in
Tanzania it is US$500 000.Lesotho forked out US$130 000
for each by-election
since 2002.
Chirambo said one of the negative impacts of HIV and
AIDS on countries
was lack of carefully crafted policy responses, because
countries would have
lost people with skills.
It was not
uncommon to find that countries either failed to submit key
documents or
presented partially completed reports, for example, for
negotiations with
international financial institutions.
Electoral management bodies
would be affected in their ability to
organise and conduct elections more
efficiently because of loss of skilled
personnel, while parliaments could
witness power shifts arising from HIV and
AIDS induced
by-elections.
Political parties would suffer from the impact of the
loss of members
either in leadership positions, people with organisational
capabilities,
while membership would be affected in their participation in
the electoral
process because of either their own health status or because
they have to
tend to relatives living with HIV or AIDS and do not have time
to register
as voters, verify the voters' roll and go out to
vote.
The political cost is that small opposition parties were
disadvantaged
because they did not have as much funding as ruling parties,
which have
access to government funds.
In Zimbabwe, the larger
opposition parties do have access to
government funds.
One
question arising from the weaknesses wrought by HIV and AIDS is
whether it
is not time for the "first past the post" system to be modified,
which would
mean either waiving the requirement for by-elections or adopting
a
proportional representation system.
But proportional representation
has its own drawbacks which stem from
concerns about poor accountability, as
MPs will not be directly elected by
voters.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
FIFTY-year-old Patricia Nhera, an employee of the City of
Harare in
Mbare, fell and dislocated her hip at work on
Wednesday.
Unable to move after her fall, Nhera was rushed to
Harare hospital's
casualty department where she had an emergency
X-ray.
But since her admission and until Friday morning, no doctor had
examined her.
With not even a pain killer to ease her anguish,
Nhera spent two
nights at Harare hospital. She was "discharged" from
hospital on Friday
morning and advised to seek treatment
elsewhere.
When The Standard visited Harare hospital on the same
morning Nhera
and her husband were waiting outside the casualty department.
They said they
were told to go to a private doctor.
On the
verge of tears, Nhera said: "We have no money to pay private
doctors. I am
just a city council cleaner and my husband is a pensioner.
What should we
do, mwanangu? Tapererwa isu (we have run out of ideas)."
Scores of
hospital staff could be seen basking in the sun outside the
hospital. Some
were loitering around the hospital grounds, very determined
to force
government and the Health Services Board to address their plight.
This reporter was able to see the full effects of the strike. Nurses
who
spoke on condition of anonymity said the situation was likely to get
worse
as other supporting staff (mortuary, kitchen, records and
administration) at
Harare hospital had joined the strike on Thursday
morning.
Relatives of the deceased faced an arduous task claiming the bodies of
their
loved ones because the mortuary staff were on strike too. There was
particular concern that because cadavers were not being collected in the
wards, many patients were exposed to infection.
At the main
hospital's casualty department a senior nurse was turning
patients away,
insisting the hospital was only taking referrals from the
city council
clinics. But the Harare city council nurses are also on strike,
which made
it highly unlikely that the hospital would have any referrals.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
DISGRUNTLED teachers, awarded a 600% salary hike last
week, are now
demanding that they be paid the new pay within seven days
because they
cannot afford to commute to work any more.
The
teachers said the salaries they were paid last month were
exhausted a week
after payday because of the current hyperinflationary
environment.
Inflation, currently pegged 3 713.9%, is the
highest in the world and
has pushed up the cost of transport, housing and
other basic commodities.
Militant Progressive Teachers' Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ), secretary
general Raymond Majongwe said his organisation
had already communicated the
teachers' demand to the
government.
"We appreciate the gesture by the government in
increasing teachers'
salaries but the teachers are saying they need the
money now because they
have nothing to eat at home.
"Teachers
can no longer afford to commute to work. If the government
fails to give
them the money this week, they will go to work for nine days
only," said
Majongwe.
Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) national president
Tendai
Chikowore declined to comment.
"Today, I don't have a
comment. My hands are tied. Teachers said they
don't want their salaries
discussed in the press. It's confidential," said
Chikowore, chairperson of
the Civil Service Staff Association Apex Council.
The council
represents all 180 000 government employees.
The Minister of
Education, Sports and Culture Aeneas Chigwedere could
not be reached for
comment as his mobile phone was not reachable.
Apart from the
salary increment, teachers' transport and housing
allowances were boosted by
245 percent and 110 percent respectively.
Last week's pay rise came
after teachers threatened to down tools
after they turned down a government
offer of 200 percent increment.
The recent increment, which will
come into effect this month, would
see the lowest paid teacher, straight
from college, earning over $3 million.
According to the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) the poverty datum
line (PDL) stands at $1,7
million.
But independent economists estimate that PDL has since
move to over
$3.5 million.
Before the pay rise, the least paid
teacher was receiving $528 000,
when housing and transport allowances of
$138 000 and $172 000 respectively
were included.
Labour has
proposed to the government to consider paying civil
servants twice a month
to cushion them against the hyperinflationary
environment.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE
MAPONGA
LAW Society of Zimbabwe president, Beatrice Mtetwa, has
lodged a
formal complaint with the police over her assault by State security
agents
early last month.
Together with another lawyer, Chris
Mhike, she has been battling to
report the assault to the police. So far,
she said, they have been referred
from one police station to
another.
Mtetwa, Mhike, Collin Kuhuni and Terence Fitzpatrick say
they were
assaulted by the police along Cumberland Road in Eastlea last
month.
Mtetwa said since then they encountered problems trying to
report the
case because the assailants were police officers.
In
a letter dated 18 May to the Deputy Police Commissioner (crime),
Innocent
Matibili, Mtetwa said they tried to make a report at Harare Central
police
station but were referred to Rhodesville police station.
"We
proceeded to Rhodesville where we once again struggled to lodge
our
complaints. The sergeant on duty developed cold feet when he heard who
the
assailants were. He referred us to Highlands, which he indicated was the
station with the relevant jurisdiction," said Mtetwa.
She said
they finally wrote out their statements and gave them to the
sergeant on
duty but they were denied medical examination forms.
"The sergeant
refused to give us the medical examination forms,
insisting that only
Highlands police could give us the forms," she said. "He
undertook to
transmit the complaints to Highlands police station."
On following
up the issue with Highlands police, Mtetwa said she was
advised that the
report had been taken to Harare Central under CR61/5/07.
But when
she followed that up at Harare Central she was told they had
not received
such a report.
Mtetwa said despite explaining to the police
officers the need to have
their injuries examined by a Government Medical
Officer (GMO) "no-one was
prepared to give us the correct
form".
She said: "In the meantime, the injuries are healing, with
the result
that the GMO who examines me, if I am ever examined, will not get
a good
picture of what injuries I suffered. This, I contend, is so groACss a
miscarriage of justice as to require your intervention," wrote Mtetwa to
Matibili.
As a former prosecutor, said Mtetwa, she was aware
that a report can
be made at any police station and thereafter transmitted
to the correct
station. A request for medical examination forms can equally
be given at any
police station, she said.
The four lawyers were
assaulted on 8 May when they wanted to present a
petition to the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
Patrick Chinamasa.
The petition was in protest at the detention of lawyers Alec
Muchadehama and
Andrew Makoni.
Matibili was not immediately available for comment
last week.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said
he was
unaware of the letter from Mtetwa, insisting that any complaint
presented to
the police would be dealt with accordingly.
"Those
medical examination forms are given to the people at the
particular police
station. A report would have been made. We are not aware
of that letter you
are referring to," Mandipaka said.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
ZIMBABWE'S ailing health delivery system has collapsed
to levels
comparable to "a war situation", says the International Committee
of the Red
Cross (ICRC).
As a result, the international
organisation has this year poured over
US$4.5 million in an effort to revive
the sector. Among its main problems
are shortages of drugs, equipment and
personnel.
ICRC communication delegate for Southern Africa
Sebastian Brack said
the funds followed concerns over the prevailing crisis
in Zimbabwe, with
health one of hardest-hit sectors.
He said
the crisis had reached "war situation" levels and could no
longer be ignored
if lives were to be saved.
"We have begun slowly increasing
humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe
as a result of the economic situation,"
Brack told a one-day workshop on
human rights at the National University of
Science and Technology (Nust) in
Bulawayo.
"We have started
setting up health institutions and organising
trainings for health personnel
in the remote areas as they are the worst
affected by the brain
drain."
ICRC has so far established health centres in Tsholothso,
Lupane,
Tshibi and Makone to alleviate the health crisis.
"This
is not our mandate as ours is mainly in armed conflicts. We are
trying to
convince Geneva that there is need for ICRC to increase its
presence in
Zimbabwe and help the suffering citizens deprived of a good
health," said
Brack.
The organisation's core mission is to protect and assist the
civilian
and military victims of armed conflicts and internal disturbances
worldwide
on a strictly neutral and impartial basis.
Its other
tasks include visits to prisoners of war and civilian
detainees, searching
for missing persons, re-unification of dispersed
families, and provision of
food, water and medical assistance to civilians
during armed conflicts.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE
MAPONGA
MORGAN Komichi, a top MDC activist held in police
custody for the past
six weeks for "recruiting and training bandits,
saboteurs and terrorists" is
reported to be seriously ill.
On
Friday, his lawyer applied successfully for an urgent High Court
order to
have prison authorities allow Komichi to receive specialist
treatment at a
private hospital for his hypertension.
Komichi will be on 24-hour
guard at the Avenues Clinic or other
suitable medical institution to receive
specialist medical treatment, if the
prison authorities comply with High
Court judge Justice Felistas Chatukuta's
Friday ruling.
Komichi, the deputy organising secretary of the MDC, is one of several
activists tortured savagely while in police custody.
"In the
past one month or so that he (Komichi) has been admitted to
the prison
clinic," said his lawyer, Vote Muza of Gutu and Chikowero, "his
health
deteriorated dangerously and he has not been responding to treatment.
His
continued detention at the Harare central prison therefore poses a great
hazard, not only to his health but to his life."
Muza said
Komichi also suffers from acute anemia, which caused him to
undergo a blood
transfusion early last month.
In his founding affidavit, Muza
said:
"Applicant is unable to walk and where he attempts to do so
he does
walk with extreme difficulty. This is a result of the torture
commonly known
as 'phalanga', where he was heavily beaten under his feet.
His rising blood
pressure has also caused him to suffer periodical (bouts
of) fainting."
The Commissioner of Prisons, Paradzai Zimondi
consented to the lawyers'
submissions and said it was his "humble
submission" that the interim relief
sought was genuine and he had no reason
to oppose it.
Komichi, 46, was abducted from his home in Hwange,
six weeks ago.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
PARLIAMENTARY committees are
fast losing their relevance as their
recommendations are ignored by the
Executive, Members of Parliament have
said.
The Executive, the
Legislature and the Judiciary together constitute
the
government.
The portfolio committees assist ministries and
government departments
by producing reports containing recommendations which
could help them
improve services.
Some of their reports have
exposed corruption and shocking living
conditions of prisoners and members
of the police force but the government
has not acted vigorously on the
recommendations.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) chief whip,
Innocent Gonese, said
the committees' efforts were being undermined by the
Executive.
Some ministers, he said, did not even bother to respond
to reports
tabled in Parliament about shortcomings in their ministries,
rendering the
efforts by the committees a non-event.
"This
failure or reluctance by the Executive to appreciate and
understand the role
of the committees makes our work a total joke," said.
For example,
a recent report by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
on Local
Government, chaired by Margaret Zinyemba, advised Cabinet to
reconsider its
decision to transfer water and sewerage reticulation services
from local
authorities to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa).
It
clearly stated that ZINWA had no capacity and mandate to take over
the
services.
Despite this strong recommendation, the government has
simply ignored
the recommendation.
Asked to comment on the
failure by the government to implement their
recommendations, Zinyemba could
only say: "We are only a committee. We are
not above Cabinet."
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary
Affairs has proposed that the chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission (ZEC) be appointed after consultations with the
Judiciary
Services Commission and the Law Society of Zimbabwe.
But President
Robert Mugabe still single-handedly appoints the
chairperson, making him or
her beholden to the president.
A Zanu PF legislator, who chairs a
portfolio committee, said the
committees were enfeebled by the fact that
Zanu PF legislators feared to
challenge ministers. Those who did were
branded as anti-government, he said.
"If you ask probing questions
of some of the ministers you are bound
to be taken to task by the party. So
we don't ask very sensitive questions.
We leave those to MDC legislators,"
said the MP.
Enock Porusingazi, a Zanu PF MP who chairs the
Portfolio Committee on
industry and international trade, conceded that some
committees' findings
had not been implemented.
But he said his
committee did not encounter problems in their work
with the
"authorities".
"We seem to be operating very well. All our
recommendations have been
taken seriously and action has been taken," he
said.
His committee was instrumental in charging Obert Mpofu, the
Minister
of Industry and International Trade, with contempt of
Parliament.
He had been accused of shielding senior party officials
fingered in
the looting of the government-owned Zimbabwe Iron and Steel
Company (Zisco)'s
coffers.
A parliamentary committee set to
look into the case found him guilty
and fined him $40 000.
Another Zanu PF MP, who chairs the committee on Defence and Home
Affairs,
Claudius Makova, attributed the non-implementation of
recommendations to
shortage of funds.
In 2004, his committee recomme-nded better
houses for the soldiers and
the police but there had been no
improvement.
"There are genuine reasons why these things are not
done," he said.
"The hyperinflationary environment makes it difficult to
implement some of
the suggestions we make."
Speaker of
Parliament John Nkomo and Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma
could not be
reached for comment.
The committees' woes have been worsened by the
cancellation of an
agreement between the State University of New York (SUNY)
and the
Parliament. SUNY provided technical and financial support to the
committees
but the agreement was terminated, without notice, after
allegations that US
State Department was working with unnamed organisations
to effect "a regime
change" in Zimbabwe.
The committees had
relied heavily on expertise from the university.
Gonese said it was
"very unfortunate as it (SUNY) was important in
building capacity of, not
just portfolio committees and clerks but
Parliament in
general".
SUNY has since 2000 been a technical partner to
Parliament in
strengthening it as an institution.
The
university provided experts in law, economy and other areas who
were
attached to Parliament to assist both the portfolio committees and
clerks in
the execution of their duties.
Zim Standard
SURVIVING the world's highest inflation rate is resulting in people ditching
their
professions and embarking on work, which they had never previously
considered.
Mavis, a qualified nursery teacher, has swapped her
life as an
educator for that of a sex worker and now cruises for clients in
the
upmarket hotels of Harare.
"I am a professionally trained
infant teacher, but last year I decided
to quit the profession as the money
that I was earning was not adequate to
sustain myself," she said. "The odd
tourist is always good for business
because they pay in foreign currency and
they are always very generous with
their money."
Although
foreign tourism has dropped off considerably in the last few
years because
of the country's political and economic woes, Mavis said there
was still a
class of people in Zimbabwe who were able to afford her services
and the
best place to proposition them remained the hotels.
"If I was still
working as a school teacher, I would be earning just
over Z$300 000 (US$7.50
at the parallel exchange rate of Z$40 000 to US$1) a
month, but now, I can
charge as much as Z$500 000 (US$12.5) per night
regardless of whether the
client wants my services for a short while or for
the whole
night."
Mavis said that the majority of her clients were married
men, who had
to get home to their wives. "When clients cannot be with me for
a long time,
I can double my earnings in a single night," she
said.
Her new work carries with it the risk of AIDS, as one in five
Zimbabweans aged between 15 and 49 are infected with HIV. "I would not do
anything as reckless as unprotected sex. I am an educated person and I know
the hazards. There are some clients who demand to have unsafe sex and even
offer to pay more but I insist on the use of condoms or cancel the
transaction," Mavis said.
More than 5 000 teachers failed to
report for duty when schools opened
for the new term two weeks
ago.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions estimates in its latest
economic
review that hyperinflation had reduced wages and salaries to
remuneration
received in 1965. An average public servant earns about Z$300
000 (US$7.50)
a month, while the cost of living for a family of six for the
most basic
requirements, such as rent, food and school fees, is estimated at
about Z$2
million (US$50) a month.
Independent economists
contend that the official annual inflation rate
of 3 713% is less than half
of the real rate of inflation.
In a recent weekly newspaper column,
economist, Eric Bloch said: "With
inflation having soared, based on the
Consumer Price Index (it's) in
practice exceeding 8 000%." The Consumer
Price Index is a measure of price
rises affecting a specific basket of
goods.
"The hyperinflation is so pronounced that an estimated 85%
or more of
the population is striving to survive with insignificant incomes,
far below
the Poverty Datum Line and more than half of Zimbabwe's people are
suffering
at levels below the Food Datum Line, being the minimum resources
needed to
avoid malnutrition," Bloch said.
Sarudzai works as a
domestic helper for three young female
journalists, doing their laundry at
the weekends and general house-cleaning
one day a week. The journalists were
initially perplexed by their maid, as
she seemed "too intelligent" for such
menial work, and became a good source
for news story ideas, particularly
regarding the police.
The conundrum of their maid's life was
exposed when the three
journalists were stopped at a police roadblock and
among their number was a
police officer who looked vaguely familiar: then it
dawned on them the
policewoman was their domestic helper.
After
some initial embarrassment and a mumbled apology from the
policewoman, the
coincidence was to change Sarudzai's life. She resigned
from the police
force five months ago, after her unmasking had led to
options for
better-paid work.
"When I came out in the open with the
journalists, they introduced me
to a lot of their friends who I now do part
time work for. I am very
grateful for the break which they gave me because
while I would have been
earning Z$400 000 (US$10) as a sergeant in the
police, I now make Z$3
million (US$75) a month from doing laundry and
cleaning for young
professionals in Harare," she said.
The
government has said 15 000 public servants have resigned in the
past 12
months and half of all government posts were vacant.
Robert
Chimedza was at one time a manager at a Harare hotel, but
because of the
dwindling number of foreign tourists visiting Zimbabwe, his
employers told
him and his colleagues that their salaries would be reduced
in line with the
slump in tourism.
Instead of accepting the lower wages, Chimedza
resigned, took his
six-month redundancy cheque and cashed in his pension. "I
pooled my pension
and requested the salaries in advance and raided the
foreign currency black
market and bought as much foreign exchange as I
could," he told IRIN and
then he left for neighbouring South
Africa.
"I had done my research and established that a lot of
companies and
government departments did not have foreign currency to buy
supplies in
South Africa. I made arrangements with pharmacies to import
basic medical
supplies," he said.
"After selling my products at
the prevailing black market rate, I raid
the illegal foreign currency
market, go and buy some goods in South Africa
and supply local companies
because the manufacturing sector has all but
collapsed and is now dependent
on people like ourselves to import basic
products," Chimedza
said.
He has no regrets about his decision to resign from his hotel
job and
said his entrepreneurial talents had rewarded him handsomely, as he
now owns
a house in one of the township suburbs and drives a car imported
from
Japan. - IRIN.
Zim Standard
THE World Health Organisation
(WHO) and the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) have
issued new guidance
on informed, voluntary HIV testing and
counselling.
The guidance is directed at the world's health
facilities, with a view
to significantly increase access to needed HIV
treatment, care support and
prevention services. The new guidance focuses on
provider-initiated HIV
testing and counselling
(recommended by
health care providers in health facilities.) According
to the WHO,
approximately 80% of people living with HIV in low and
middle-income
countries do not know that they are HIV-positive. Recent
surveys in
sub-Saharan Africa showed on average just 12% of men and 10% of
women have
been tested for HIV and received their test results.
Increased
access to HIV testing and counselling is essential to
promoting earlier
diagnosis of HIV infection, which in turn can maximize the
potential
benefits of life-extending treatment and care, and allow people
with HIV to
receive information and tools to prevent HIV transmission to
others.
"Scaling up access to HIV testing and counselling is both a public
health
and a human rights imperative," said WHO HIV/Aids director Dr Kevin
De
Cock.
"We hope that the new guidance will provide an impetus to
countries to
greatly increase availability of HIV testing services in health
care
settings. Without a major increase in HIV testing and counselling in
health
facilities, universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care
will
remain just a noble goal."
Until recently, the primary
model for providing HIV testing and
counselling has been client-initiated
HIV testing and counselling - also
known as voluntary counselling and
testing (VCT) - in which individuals must
actively seek an HIV test at a
health or community-based facility. But
uptake of client-initiated HIV
testing and counselling has been limited by
low coverage of services, fear
of stigma and discrimination, and the
perception by many people - even in
high prevalence areas - that they are
not at risk.
Current
evidence also suggests many opportunities to diagnose HIV in
clinical
settings are being missed, even in places with serious HIV
epidemics. While,
therefore, expanded access to client-initiated HIV testing
and counselling
is still necessary, other approaches are also required if
coverage of HIV
testing and counselling is to increase and, ultimately,
universal access to
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support is to be
achieved.
The new WHO/UNAids guidance was prepared in light of increasing
evidence
that provider-initiated testing and counselling can increase uptake
of HIV
testing, improve access to health services for people living with
HIV, and
may create new opportunities for HIV prevention. Provider-initiated
HIV
testing and counselling has already been implemented in a range of
clinical
settings in several low and middle-income countries, including
Botswana,
Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, as well as in pre-natal settings
in parts
of Canada, Thailand, United Kingdom and the
United States.
"If we are going to get ahead of this epidemic, rapidly scaled up HIV
treatment and prevention efforts are critical - and increased uptake of HIV
testing will be fundamental to making this a reality," said Dr Paul De Lay,
director of Monitoring and Evaluation, UNAIDS.
-WHO
News.
Zim Standard
By Jennifer
Dube
THE government should start considering implementing
indigenisation
from the growth of new businesses, and not through the forced
legal change
of ownership of old businesses, economists have
said.
In separate interviews, the economists advised that the
country would
reap maximum benefits if the government were to encourage
local
entrepreneurs to start their own businesses from the grassroots to
complement existing businesses.
This would be more beneficial
to the economy than to "encourage
laziness" by forcing existing investors to
cede their shares to indigenous
businesspeople.
"The government
should encourage local people to start their own
businesses from the factory
level, instead of waiting for somebody else to
do it for them," said an
economist who works in Harare.
"Sound empowerment should start from
the growth of new businesses. New
business owners should come into the
industry with their own businesses."
Economists warned the
government's indigenisation plan would hammer
the final nail into the
country's economic coffin.
They argued the fall of the agricultural
and mining sectors after the
implementation of a similar plan should provide
enough evidence that locals
lack the capacity to run the economy
single-handed.
"The plan will bring an end to new investment and
will also bring an
end to the updating of the existing technology," another
economist said.
"Existing investors will not continue investing in
businesses they risk to
lose.
"Once machinery and methods are
left un-updated, this will translate
into less and less desirable and
incompetent products. The manufacturing
sector will become less and less
efficient and we will start manufacturing
outdated goods." .
In
an interview, the Minister of State for indigenisation and
Empowerment,
Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, said the government was not taking
anything away
from existing investors.
"We will soon be asking them (existing
investors) to come up with
proposals on how best the process can be
implemented and we will work from
those plans.
"All we are
saying is that they cannot continue controlling majority
shares in local
companies. They have to seek and accept joint ventures with
black local
Zimbabweans whose minimum shareholding should be 51 percent,"
said the
minister.
He said the indigenisation policy, to be implemented
across all
sectors of the economy, was merely aimed at economically
empowering black
locals who are the original owners of the country's
wealth.
Mangwana dismissed all assertions that locals did not have
the
capacity to run the economy.
"My friend, Zimbabweans own
large businesses across the world, in most
parts of Africa and abroad. You
will also find that 90 percent of the
companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange are managed by blacks and as
government, we are confident they can
own some of the big companies and
continue to run them
efficiently.
"We urge them to create capacity and raise resources
to enable them to
run the companies and the government will chip in with the
National
Indigenisation and Empowerment Fund which will be put in place to
mobilise
resources and provide loans to people to sustain their business
operations."
The proposed bill has fuelled apprehension among the
country's few
remaining foreign companies. The bill is part of a package of
laws which
have been compared with the apartheid-style laws in racist South
Africa set
to be bulldozed into law in Parliament this year.
Mangwana hinted that the bill, which many economists suspect was a
political
gimmick aimed at shoring up government's dwindling popularity,
could become
law within the next two months.
Zim Standard
ZIMBABWE is among
the top 20
countries with the highest piracy rates in the world, according
to results
of the fourth Global Safety Piracy study.
According
to the report, there are five countries in West, East &
Central Africa
that constitute the top 20 countries with the highest piracy
rates
worldwide. Zimbabwe ranks 4th (91%), Cameroon ranks 10th (84%), Zambia
ranks
14th (82%), Ivory Coast ranks 16th (82%) and Nigeria ranks 18th
(82%).
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) recently released the
results of
the fourth Global Software Piracy Study by International Data
Corporation,
which show that a number of countries in West, East and Central
Africa
(WECA) have managed to decrease piracy rates in their
regions.
Botswana, Kenya and Zambia each saw piracy rates drop by
1% - thanks
to concerted efforts from both the public and private sectors to
promote the
message that piracy not only robs software vendors of revenues,
but that the
end users lose out too.
"While the African
region's overall piracy rate grew between 2005 and
2006," says Stephan le
Roux, chairman of the BSA, "a number of African
countries saw the rate of
piracy drop as a result of government and industry
actions. This also
included the rapid influx of branded computers that ship
with legitimate
software, taking market share from locally-assembled PCs
that can ship
without legitimate software."
While the average piracy rate in
Africa is still over 80%, and the
region has some of the highest piracy
rates worldwide, Le Roux said it is
encouraging to see that the issue of
piracy is being taken seriously by
governments, organisations and end-users
in Africa.
"It is important to note that while Botswana, Kenya and
Zambia have
managed to drop their piracy rates, these drops have not
resulted in
significant cost savings for those governments, which indicates
that there
needs to be a much more concerted effort in fighting piracy," Le
Roux said.
"Take China as an example," he said. "It has managed to
drop its
piracy rate by 10% in three years, resulting in a reduction of
piracy-related losses of over US$500m in total. I have no doubt that similar
savings can be achieved in Africa if governments begin to step-up their
anti-piracy activities as Botswana, Kenya and Zambia are currently
doing."
Abed Hlatshwayo, Microsoft's Anti-Piracy manager for East
& Southern
Africa said: "People are often under the impression that
software vendors
have enough money and that one or two illegal copies of
their software will
not hurt them in the greater scheme of
things.
"But when you consider the fact that millions of people
across the
continent are doing the same, this can add up to millions of
dollars of lost
revenue - US$201m in 2006 to be exact."
This,
Hlatshwayo says, has a knock-on effect on the government's
ability to
deliver certain services to its citizens, because for every
pirated copy of
software, the government loses tax revenue that could be put
straight back
into delivering services to the people of Africa. This also
has an effect on
direct foreign investment, which forms a very important
part of growing an
economy.
"So, while piracy is a crime and can lead people to be
prosecuted for
theft, the secondary effect of piracy affects the welfare of
the broader
community as well. Can we really blame the government for not
delivering
services if we are robbing it of the money to do so?" he
asks.
There is the opportunity for African countries to learn from
their
neighbours when it comes to fighting piracy. South Africa, for
example, has
the lowest piracy rate in Africa (35%) and is in the BSA's list
of the top
20 countries with the world's lowest piracy rates.
This is where many international companies have opted to set up
regional
offices for Africa because of the country's anti-piracy and
intellectual
property protection policies, giving South Africa huge
opportunity to
attract more investment from international organisations -
strengthening its
economy.
"It all starts with the citizens. Give some thought to
what you would
do if you saw somebody drop their purse in front of you and
continue
walking. Would you give it back to them, or check to see how much
cash is in
it before you empty it and throw it away?" Hlatshwayo
asks.
"Piracy is exactly the same. At the end of the day, it's
stealing and
it's a crime that is punishable by law. But piracy hurts more
than just the
software makers, it hurts the economy and the people who
depend on the
economy," Hlatshwayo said.
Zim Standard
By
Ben Blanchard
BEIJING - China hit back on Friday at accusations
its products are
unsafe, pointing out that a quarter of imported children's
milk bottles and
teats failed a recent random quality test in a southeastern
province.
It was the latest in a spate of reports in China's
carefully
controlled media lambasting foreign goods for supposed safety and
health
problems.
"Do you think foreign brands mean high
quality?" the official Xinhua
news agency asked, before detailing the
findings of the survey in coastal
Fujian province.
Xinhua
warned the results of the baby products probe "should attract
the highest
attention from children and their parents".
"These products are not
up to standard for safety and hygiene reasons,
and may harm children's
safety and health," it said.
The products came from Japan, Germany,
Britain, Singapore, Thailand,
Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Xinhua said,
adding "most of them were
brand-name goods".
The report comes
as international attention is focused on the
"made-in-China" label following
a series of scandals overseas, including pet
deaths in the United States
from tainted food, to toxic chemicals in Central
American toothpaste and
medicine.
Now Beijing is turning the attention to pointing out
exports to China
might also not always be safe.
This week
alone, China has turned away 30 tonnes of frozen seafood
from Australia that
it said was tainted with heavy metals, and gave five
container loads of
Evian mineral water a failing grade for having too many
micro-organisms.
In fact, a senior official said, China's food
safety export controls
are even stronger than US import
controls.
He said that of the 137 cases of substandard imported
Chinese food
found in April in the United States, 77 had been illegally
exported and so
avoided China's stringent export quality
checks.
"This is because of differences in the Chinese and US food
safety
management system," said Li Yuanping, director-general of the import
and
export food safety bureau of the General Administration of Quality
Supervision.
"In the United States, it does not matter whether
the producing
company has a hygiene registration for export, or if the goods
have been
inspected by the exporting country's officials, the United States
lets them
all in," he added.
In April, China also discovered
salmonella in some US meat imports, Li
said. He blamed the media for stoking
fears about the safety of the nation's
food and drugs, but acknowledged that
it was not realistic to expect a 100%
quality guarantee.
Yet
China's protestations might not put the world at ease.
"The whole
issue of China now being part of the global network food
chain, people are
going to have to really pay attention to what they're
being supplied from
China with," said Matthew Crabbe, managing director of
consumer research
group Access Asia.
"There's a real issue that people buying stuff
from China really need
to know where it's coming from, in minute detail,
really," Crabbe said. "It's
gone past the stage where it's just a China
problem. It's not any more." -
Reuters.
Zim Standard
Govt's strategy is to frustrate opposition,
derai
THE government cannot say it respects mediation talks by
President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa when it is busy unleashing attacks and
arrests
against leaders and supporters of the opposition and continuously
detaining
them. It is either demonstrating its insincerity to rapprochement
or it is
full of downright deception.
The intensified bashing
of opposition and civic leaders began on 3
March 2007 but after SADC leaders
mandated President Mbeki to mediate in the
talks between Zanu PF and the
main opposition, the MDC, the expectation was
that the government would ease
off and give the talks a chance.
However, the government continues
to wage a relentless campaign
against the opposition while professing
commitment to the mediation process.
Its interpretation of the mediation
appears to be that it is there to enable
the government and ruling party to
break down the resistance of the
opposition and swallow it up in a process
reminiscent of the campaign it
launched against PF Zapu before the 22
December 1987 Unity Accord.
It has also not been helpful that the
mediator has not registered his
concerns about Zimbabwe's rogue conduct and
how this will impact on the
progress and outcome of the mediation
process.
An end to hostilities and the crackdown against the
opposition must be
preconditions to any meaningful progress and the
successful conclusion of
the process being overseen by President
Mbeki.
But with 10 months to go before the 2008 parliamentary and
presidential elections the SADC leaders should have put a timeframe to the
mediation process taking into account possibilities of a delimitation
exercise, voter registration, verification, polling stations, voting and
whether or not Zimbabweans in the Diaspora should continue to be
disenfranchised.
This time President Mbeki has an opportunity
to act in the interests
of the people of this country. His past efforts to
stop the political crisis
deepening and this country from teetering towards
economic Armageddon have,
in the view of the majority of Zimbabweans, not
produced the desired
outcome. Now is the time for him to confound the
sceptics about his
capabilities as an honest broker.
Two and a
half months have gone since the summit of the SADC leaders
in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, and low level talks brokered by a ministerial
delegation from
South Africa have taken place between a government
delegation and senior
officials from the opposition.
But it is not just the arrests of
opposition members and their
supporters and raids on their offices that are
alarming. It is the frequency
of these that suggests the government is
deliberately trying to goad the
opposition into disowning the process and
thus allow the government to get
off the SADC hook.
The
opposition should be reminded of the government and ruling party's
history
of commitment to agreements it has signed. It should therefore not
allow
itself to join the power games Zanu PF is obsessed with. For once they
must
remain resolute and demonstrate to the nation and the world in which
camp
the obstacle to Zimbabwe's recovery is situated.
Not only is the
government showing scant regard for mediation
processes, its law-enforcement
agencies repeatedly ignore or disobey court
orders with impunity proving
that it has abandoned the rule of law.
An objective assessment of
developments since 3/11 will show that it
is not the opposition that is the
author of much of the problems Zimbabwe
suffers from. That is why it is time
to put Zanu PF and the government on
the spot.
MDC success at the polls depends on united front
ZIMBABWE needs to be
liberated from the dictators currently running (read ruining) the
country.
The dictators have been given sufficient time to improve
the lot of
Zimbabweans but they have failed. It is now time for the
departure of Zanu
PF dictators.
Is our opposition ready to take
on the evil-minded dictators? The
opposition has all the necessary support
in the form of membership.
Thousands of former Zanu PF members have
abandoned the old sinking ship. The
few remaining members are sitting on the
fence but ready to jump ship.
The MDC must seize this chance by
establishing a recruitment
department which will go into the remaining Zanu
PF's perceived
"strongholds" and persuade them to join the opposition ranks.
The Zanu PF
members will not require much persuasion because they are fed up
with the
ruling party and its leadership.
It is important for
the MDC to extend a hand of unity to churches,
business enterprises,
universities and the smaller parties so that the
opposition will be speaking
with one voice.
In order to achieve unity, the issue of fighting
for positions ought
to be shelved for the time being until victory has been
achieved.
Zanu PF will fight back but this time President Robert
Mugabe and his
band of merry men and women are fighting a losing battle
because they are
fighting against a whole nation which, for the first time,
is against them.
They can try rigging the outcome of the polls but
their downfall is
inevitable. It is just around the corner. However, their
downfall can only
come about if we have a united front and every eligible
voter is encouraged
to go out and cast their vote.
The united
opposition front should not rely on outside help because
some of those who
will come offering their assistance would rather see this
country remaining
under the leadership of Mugabe and his cronies. However,
this does not mean
that these so-called helpers should be shunned but the
united opposition
front should be on the look-out.
As Archbishop Pius Ncube said, the
opposition must prove itself
capable of taking over the country. We can no
longer afford the luxury of
experimenting.
As a lay person, I
sense some political maturity coming from Arthur
Mutambara but a few of his
central committee members show little signs of
growing up. This is not
surprising given their past association with Mugabe.
My view is that they
will keep on being obstacles as long as they are
receiving blood money and
gifts.
The MDC has proved that it is a formidable opposition party,
even by
Mugabe who has been forced to spend millions of bearer cheques in an
effort
to destroy the party. This is, of course, futile because no one can
destroy
what is ingrained in people's minds. Adolf Hitler killed millions of
his
opponents but did he win in the end? Hastings Kamuzu Banda was the twin
of
our President in everything but he finally lost the Malawi throne in the
end.
Why does our President fail to grab at the chance of
enjoying his few
remaining years? What more does he want to achieve? He
should come to terms
with reality and do what former presidents Kenneth
Kaunda, Frederick Chiluba
and Bakili Muluzi did.
The path taken
by opposition members must be clean and transparent,
otherwise they too will
be found in the catalogue of infamy.
Zimbabweans
unite
Masvingo
---------------------
Regime doing splendid job in self-damage
THERE is so much
hype in Zimbabwe about the 2010 World Cup that
will be hosted by South
Africa. The rogue regime is hoping to reap benefits
by possibly hosting some
of the teams and visitors.
We, in the Diaspora, were getting
ready to agitate against the
vicious regime benefiting in any way but we
don't have to do anything. The
regime is doing an excellent job in
discouraging any teams or fans from
Zimbabwe. The facts speak for
themselves. Just look at these facts:
The images of the
leader of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, that
were broadcast worldwide after
3/11 did a lot of damage to Zimbabwe as a
safe
destination.
The Zimbabwe Independent had two articles last
week headlined
"Taps run dry as . . . Blackouts intensify". Zimbabweans are
putting up with
massive shortages of water and power. Imagine a
five-year-old girl in
Budiriro has never seen running water from a tap.
These problems will be
even worse by 2010 if there is no political solution.
Football fans will not
want to be dragged into the dark
ages.
The official exchange rate of between US$1 to Z$250 or
Z$15 000
makes Zimbabwe an expensive destination. The local daily newspaper
costs
between US$1 and US$60 depending on which "official" rate you use. The
independent weeklies cost between US$2 and US$120. You can apply this across
the whole spectrum of goods and this will definitely discourage any visitors
to Zimbabwe.
Totemless
Croydon,
Surrey
UK
-------------------
Zanu PF crippling opposition ahead of 2008
THE
on-going crackdown and
arrests of the mainly Morgan Tsvangirai aligned MDC
activists has left many
wondering whether these are not the makings of an
over-productive mind
trying to evoke sympathy and outrage for what may
actually be seeds of
deception.
But one thing is clear:
Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe are determined
to win all the local, parliamentary
and presidential elections at any cost
and by any means
necessary.
For Zanu PF, the polls have to be held at the cost
of too much
bloodshed. We witnessed it when PF Zapu was still alive. We saw
and felt it
in 2000 and 2002. And that blood is still with us. It is
therefore not only
crucial but pertinent for a new Zimbabwe to establish a
Truth and
Reconciliation Commission to deal with these atrocities and acts
of violence
by Zanu PF as well as make it possible for Zimbabweans to
finally bring
closure to that violent past.
The current
arrests of MDC activists aligned to Tsvangirai make
Zimbabwe one with the
highest number of political arrests in the world. We
are now in the league
of Myanmar (formerly Burma). The violence of the Zanu
PF government, in
particular its brutality, raises profound problems ahead
of next year's
elections.
What is clear is that Mugabe is using violence to
achieve a
political purpose in order to cripple the opposition before the
2008 polls.
For Zanu PF, sailing in the murky political waters should be as
smooth as
possible.
Two movies I watched recently, The
Last King of Scotland and
Mobutu Sese Seko described the modus operandi of
African leaders that
includes rigged elections, manufactured terrorist
attacks, pay-offs, sex,
murder and extortion.
What is
happening in Zimbabwe today is the perfect script for a
political horror
movie. We know the operation will be taken to the rural
areas and thereafter
SADC observers will pronounce the elections "free and
fair".
Frank Matandirotya
South
Africa
-----------------------
Collapsing
economy, Mugabe's Achilles heel
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe
is finally losing ground. This is
all thanks to the economic vagaries of the
country. The man has been
unbending all his life to the detriment of the
country but now he has met
his match in the way he has mishandled the
economy.
Zimbabweans have been beaten into submission
by the
President and his Zanu PF thugs, the army and police. The people have
been
cowed into docility because of fear. The whole country has been crying
for
years for a saviour but no one came forward to deliver the people from
their
bondage.
However, this year a Moses has come
in the form of
"Captain Economy". With one swoop of his sword, the captain
has felled
Mugabe.
"Captain Economy" has forced
Zimbabweans, particularly
teachers, to become lions instead of the docile
mice they had become.
Teachers stood up and roared their anger at Mugabe and
his forces and
nothing could persuade the people to retreat. The President
and his
government were in turn cowed by the teachers'
power.
Teachers were awarded so-called hefty pay
increases. While
this award is appreciated, it is too little too late
because "Captain
Economy" is not going to be satisfied for long. The
inflation rate is
galloping and teachers are already demanding more. The
rest of the workforce
in the private sector will soon heed the clarion call
of "Captain Economy"
and join in industrial actions as a result of the
hardships being
experienced. Doctors and nurses had long succumbed to the
captain's call.
Nothing the President will do will ever
solve our economic
problems. His heavy-handed treatment of protesters, in
the past has been a
dismal failure because he only succeeded in galvanising
the nation against
him. The high cost of living is now affecting even the
privileged few.
Factions within Zanu PF have been forced into uniting
because the economy is
not taking any prisoners.
The unbelievable is happening - Zanu PF factions are
conniving with
opposition parties and other organisations in an effort to
remove the
President from power.
This move was suggested a long
time ago by many
commentators but was ignored because the economy was not as
bad as it is
today.
2008
voter
Masvingo
------------------------
The Zimbabwe we don't
want
ON Wednesday last week we arrived home to find
that the
Zimbabwe Electricity Some times Available (Zesa) had cut supplies
at 5PM. We
thought this was early since we normally have load-shedding from
6PM until
just before the main television news at
8PM.
However, this time Zesa chose to outdo itself. We
lit the
candles and waited for the electricity to come back so we could
prepare
supper for the children before they went to bed. But how misguided
we were,
for 8PM came, 9PM came and we decided to retire to bed. It was not
until
10:15 that power was restored.
We can put up
with scheduled power cuts - at least they
allow you some planning but this
is not good enough. Let's not be surprised
if we go for weeks without power.
This country is in a real crisis. Can
anyone recall us sinking this
far?
The government will tell us something but how are
industries and other companies expected to operate, produce and generate
revenue or exports under such conditions? The deal agreed with Namibian
power utility is far from implementation and this means the current
situation will take some time. Our worst fears of Zesa's incompetence are
about to be realised.
And there is an election next
year? How I wish the
opposition could exploit this record of uninterrupted
failures.
Blacked out
Mount Pleasant
Harare
-------------------
Thanks to the Kamunhus
I would like to
thank Mr Kamunhu for a
job well done for what you did to the community
around Chitekwe School and
Munjoma Village as a whole. I am aware everyone
benefited in terms of the
food, cash, books and building materials you
donated that helped uplift the
standards and well being of the
community.
To the nation, I would like to encourage
others to do the
same to their communities.
I also
want to make special mention of Amai Kamunhu. She
is a caring and supportive
mother. Keep up the good work that you continue
to do and may God bless
you.
Caleb Shingirai
Chikoto
Mash East.