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Zim to buy 500 Belarus tractors
05/06/2005 14:02 - (SA)
Harare -
Zimbabwe is to import 500 tractors from the Eastern European nation
of
Belarus to boost agricultural production in the southern African nation,
state television reported on Saturday.
Davison Mugabe, president of
the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU),
told the state broadcaster
that under the deal Zimbabwe would start
receiving tractors next
month.
"In this deal we are importing tractors from Belarus - the plant
is in
Minsk - it's a world-famous plant that produces robust tractors,"
Mugabe
said at a demonstration of the machines on Saturday in
Harare.
He did not say how much the deal was worth.
Five years
ago, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government launched a
controversial
land reform programme that saw former white-owned land seized
for
redistribution to new black farmers.
Critics say the programme has caused
a sharp decline in agricultural
production. New farmers have lacked
expertise and faced shortages of
capital, equipment and other
inputs.
Davison Mugabe told the broadcaster that he was in discussions
with the
government and financial institutions over ways to help individual
farmers
buy the new tractors. - Sapa-dpa
News24
Zim clamps down on foreigners
05/06/2005 14:05 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwean police have arrested 61 foreigners in a
crackdown on
illegal immigrants and criminals and an accompanying unpopular
urban
clean-up campaign, which has left thousands destitute and homeless,
police
said on Sunday.
"Police in Harare have arrested 61 illegal
immigrants in Harare and other
settlements on the outskirts as part of the
ongoing operation against
criminal activities," police superintendent Oliver
Mandipaka told AFP.
"The foreigners, comprising men and women, were
arrested last week and are
being held at Harare Central police station for
further screening."
"The police are working with immigration officials to
vet and deport those
who do not have valid permits and those involved in
other serious crimes
will be taken to court."
The suspected illegal
immigrants include Zambians, Burundians, Congolese,
Mozambicans, Malawians
and Nigerians.
Foreign nationals in Zimbabwe have been implicated in
various crimes,
including human trafficking and trading in foreign currency
on the black
market.
Bands of armed police have gone on the rampage
in the last two weeks in
major towns across Zimbabwe, demolishing and
torching backyard shacks and
makeshift shop stalls in a campaign they say is
to rid the cities of
criminals.
The clean-up has drawn widespread
condemnation with the main opposition
calling for action and international
intervention to end the "tyrannical
campaign".
Edited by Tisha
Steyn
IOL
Zimbabwe faces bread shortage
June 05 2005 at
01:41PM
Harare - Food-deficient Zimbabwe could soon face bread
shortages as
wheat imports have started running out due to foreign exchange
problems, a
state-owned newspaper said on Sunday.
"The country
could face bread shortages as flour supplies continue to
dwindle," the
state-owned Sunday Mail said.
"National Bakers' Association
chairman and Lobels Bakers chief
executive Mr Burombo Mudumo said the supply
situation was presently below
normal for big bakeries who were now using
their strategic reserves," the
newspaper said.
The parastatal
National Foods, which imports the bulk of Zimbabwe's
wheat supplies, said it
had been unable to successfully bid for foreign
exchange under a mandatory
government auction system due to a cash crunch
and could not pay foreign
suppliers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The major problem is in the supply of wheat flour as National Foods,
which
supplied a third to the bakeries, has reduced supply quantities by
over 70
percent citing foreign currency shortages," Mudumo said.
National
Foods spokesperson Linda Longwe-Musesengwa said the company
needed four
million dollars (about R30-million) to source 13 000 metric tons
under an
agreement with foreign suppliers.
"Wheat sourced under the
collateral management agreement can only be
utilised once foreign currency
has been sourced through the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's auction system,"
Longwe-Musesengwa said.
"But over the last couple of months the
company has had very little
success on the auction," she said.
Last week, UN World Food Programme chief James Morris met President
Robert
Mugabe in Harare who said he welcomed food assistance "with a
humanitarian
commitment".
Exactly a year ago, Mugabe told a British television
channel that he
did not want food "foisted" on Zimbabwe and claimed that the
country
produced enough to meet its needs.
An estimated four
million Zimbabweans out of a population of 11,6
million could face
starvation by early next year unless they get help,
Morris said after
meeting Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean government blames drought for the
food shortages but
critics say Mugabe's policies are to blame, especially
the seizures of
thousands of white-owned farms which were redistributed to
landless blacks,
most of whom had no farming experience.
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn in recent years
characterised by
foreign currency shortages, triple digit inflation and high
unemployment.
The country is also facing shortages of basic
commodities such as the
national staple cornmeal, cooking oil and
sugar.
Various government intiatives to raise foreign currency
including a
scheme to persuade millions of Zimbabweans living and working
overseas to
send money home, have yielded little success. - Sapa-AFP
The Observer
Keep fighting for human rights
Is Amnesty
International forsaking its time-honoured role as champion of the
oppressed?
Nick Cohen
Sunday June 5, 2005
The
Observer
'Sir,' wrote Mr HW Scott of Hemel Hempstead to the editor of the
Daily
Telegraph last week, 'Bob Geldof hopes to raise an army of a million
protesters against world poverty. Instead of sending them to Scotland to
lobby the G8, he would do better if he divided his troops into groups of,
say, 50,000, and sent them to protest repeatedly in front of the London
embassies of the countries everyone knows to be the worst offenders in
failing to reduce poverty in their own countries.'
An argument can be
true even if it is made in the Telegraph, and no one can
deny that the
regimes which preside over the African disaster will get off
lightly in the
protests against the G8 summit. If the Make Poverty History
manifesto were
implemented, the Common Agricultural Policy would be
scrapped; the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund would no longer be
able to force weak
countries to open their markets before they were ready
for free trade; debt
which can never be repaid would be cancelled and the
rich world would
provide more aid for health services and education.
It's an admirable
programme, but the reader can be forgiven for believing
that Africa has no
dictators and its affairs are directed by rich, white
men. Corruption
doesn't feature in the manifesto and human rights are
mentioned in passing
just once, and then only in a swipe at world trade
rules rather than actual
tyrants and torturers.
Workers for Make Poverty History became
exasperated when I raised the point
and with good reason. Europe and Africa
were barely mentioned in the
election campaign. The outside world which
dominates today's debates
surfaced in Michael Howard's shameful and sly
attacks on Tony Blair's
alleged leniency towards asylum seekers, and that
was it.
Election day was exactly one month ago but it feels like half a
lifetime
away. Make Poverty History has made Africa news and I wouldn't be
writing
this piece if it wasn't for its efforts. It has won the support of
the Prime
Minister and the Chancellor. It will persuade hundreds of
thousands of
people to march on the streets of Edinburgh, many of whom had
never given
the wretched of the earth a second's thought until Geldof
reached for his
megaphone again. After all this, niggardly critics demand
that its staff
must tackle oppression and corruption as well as trade, aid
and debt.
Well, no, they say, we don't. The concerts, the marches and the
television
dramas are being organised for the G8 summit. By definition,
they're about
what the rich can do for the poor. Contrary to what you read,
we don't
believe in helping countries which can't show that resources freed
by debt
relief will be well used. Steve Tibbett of Action Aid, a member of
Geldof's
coalition of charities, added that the very act of targeting aid at
the
poorest strengthens the hands of those who are most likely to fight for
basic political freedoms: teachers, doctors and the citizens' groups which
monitor how the money is spent.
I could understand the frustrated
note in his voice. Here are development
charities trying to confront
apocalyptic outbreaks of hunger and disease.
Isn't that enough? Why should
whining berks who've never lifted a finger for
anyone but themselves demand
they take on every other crime and injustice
when there are plenty of
articulate campaigners banging the drum for human
rights? And it's true that
human rights have been well supported and
defended in the past, but the
drumbeat has been muffled of late.
'If you look globally today and want
to talk about human rights, for the
vast majority of the world's population
they don't mean very much. To talk
about freedom of expression to a man who
can't read the newspaper, to talk
about the right to work to someone who has
no job; human rights means
nothing to them unless it brings some change on
these particular issues.'
This clunking and faintly sinister statement
did not come from a colonial
administrator explaining that liberty was all
well and good for freeborn
Englishmen but the half-savage natives needed
order. Nor was it a communist
apparatchik saying that there was no need for
bourgeois freedoms in the
proletarian paradise of the Soviet Union. Nor was
it Edward Heath or Henry
Kissinger announcing that the Chinese liked
autocracy or Abu Musab Zarqawi
and Osama bin Laden denouncing democracy as a
Greek heresy.
Rather, it fell from the lips of Irene Khan, the new
secretary general of
Amnesty International, an organisation which used to
believe that human
rights meant everything.
If you think about it,
Amnesty has an extraordinary status. I can't name
another institution whose
word is accepted without challenge. When anyone
else from the Prime Minister
to the Archbishop of Canterbury utters an
opinion, journalists scrutinise
them and round up opponents to put the
contrary view. Amnesty is accepted as
a purveyor of uncontestable truth. Its
reputation is based on attention to
detail in tens of thousands of
investigations into the treatment of
prisoners of conscience over the
decades and a rigorous concentration on the
task in hand.
Since it was founded in 1961 after an article in this
newspaper about the
arrest of two students by the old fascist dictatorship
in Portugal, Amnesty
has campaigned relentlessly and patiently for political
prisoners and
refugees and fought for fair trials and against torture.
Opposition to the
death penalty was added to the list in the 1970s, and from
then onwards its
remit has been unchanged.
To Khan, the human-rights
agenda is passe and maybe an example of cultural
imperialism. 'Amnesty has a
middle-class, Western, complacent, white image
in many parts of the world,'
she told the Financial Times magazine. The
stereotype would be rectified by
expanding the remit and campaigning against
poverty. 'More children die of
lack of food or water than [are] killed by
torture and the death penalty,'
explained a supporter.
This is true, but beside the point. Amnesty is
crowding in to a crowded
field. All the charities in the Make Poverty
History alliance campaign
manfully for access to clean water and decent
food; what they're not doing
is standing up for human rights. Amnesty says
it will continue to do so. I
hope it will; the organisation isn't in crisis
yet, but ever since Khan took
over, I've had an uneasy feeling that it is
losing universal principles and
treating the abuse of rights by the United
States as worse than similar or
more grotesque abuses by others. That
feeling transformed into a certainty
last week when Amnesty described
Guantanamo Bay as the 'gulag of our times'.
By all means, Amnesty and
everyone else should loudly deplore America's
failure to treat prisoners of
war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
But when they've finished,
they should check the figures. If they exclude
the millions who died of
starvation, disease and exhaustion, they will find
that 776,098 prisoners
were murdered in summary executions in the gulag
between 1930 and 1953. At
Guantanamo Bay, no one has died of starvation,
disease or exhaustion and no
prisoners have been executed. Not one. If
Amnesty's American obsession
prevents it from seeing the worst crimes of the
20th century for what they
are, how will it sound the alarm about the worst
of the 21st?
A
barely reported exchange last week showed why the arguments against Khan
matter. Journalists in Johannesburg tackled James Morris, head of the United
Nations World Food Programme, who had promised hundreds of thousands of
tonnes of emergency supplies to Zimbabwe. Try as they might, they couldn't
get him to condemn Mugabe. According to Morris, Zimbabwe was on the edge of
famine because of drought and Aids, not because of the dictatorship's
destruction of agriculture and suppression of dissent. The mistake the UN
made with Saddam's Iraq was to be repeated. Food would go to the regime
rather than the needy and the regime would be able to use it to reward
friends and punish enemies.
In April, Zimbabwe was re-elected to the
UN Human Rights Commission for the
third year running by satirically minded
African states, so Morris may have
to play the diplomat. To anyone who
doesn't, it is obvious that he and Khan
are wrong. Zimbabwe is on the edge
of starvation because it doesn't have
freedom of expression, among other
human rights. The great lesson of the
20th century was that tyrannical
regimes - the British Empire, Mao's China,
Stalin's Russia, Mengistu's
Ethiopia - presided over enormous famines.
Democracies didn't.
In
other words, the choice between human and economic rights isn't
either/or.
It's both or neither.
Global Politician
Zimbabwe: One Step Too Stupid
Bev Clark -
6/5/2005
This morning I looked at my right front tire and just like it, I
felt rather
deflated. Not wanting to chance the trip to work I decided to
get down to
our friendly under the tree tire and air entrepreneurs. They've
been around
for years and in times of need they've always come through for
me.
Unfortunately this morning the patch of free land that they occupy near
Rhodesville Shopping Centre was empty. These guys have been chased away,
just like so many others, in one of Mugabe's latest acts of bizarre
misgovernance. So I crossed the road to try my luck at the formal,
supposedly respectable, garage only to be told that they had no air. So the
really useful informal entrepreneur who earns a few bucks pumping up car
tires by hand gets chased away by Mugabe's police, while the formal garage
fails to provide basic services.
Then last Friday, just near my
offices, riot police in all their posturing
and swaggering arrogance swooped
down on hapless vegetable sellers
confiscating their vegetables and sending
them away. They sell a variety of
vegetables from a concrete structure that
has a sign in front of it
declaring that it is a certified "peoples market"
by order of the Harare
City Council. Let's not forget that we are sinking
under 70% unemployment,
which means that the largest productive sector in
Zimbabwe is actually the
informal trading one. This sector deserves the
utmost respect and
appreciation. In a country devastated by wildly
incompetent elite
politicians, informal traders have shown admirable
resilience and ingenuity.
If it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable to
linger longer on these fat
cat politicians shitting themselves because they
might not be harnessing
every single cent of foreign currency in the
country.
The Mugabe regime can't possibly get more stupid, can
it?
Well, yes it can.
Anna, my domestic worker, tells me that the
regime is thinking about
evicting thousands of Zimbabweans living in high
density areas, known as
townships, unless they are actually living in a
legal structure. Apparently
the "boys kias" (wooden shacks) will be razed.
The police have said that
those occupying them should return to the rural
areas because there is no
space for them in the city. Never mind that back
in the day Mugabe made all
sorts of promises like Housing For All By The
Year 2000.
And there's more. Zimbabweans who are lucky enough to be in
formal
employment are finding it harder and harder to get to work each day
because
either there is no fuel, or because the police have impounded
commuter
buses. People wake up as early as 4am in a bid to walk to work, or
they
queue endlessly waiting for a taxi. Meanwhile the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) has said that they will embark on a "Buy Zimbabwe" campaign
in order
to resuscitate local industry. But hey - hasn't the Government just
imported
a fleet of Chinese "zhing zhong" buses. And isn't the Government,
at this
very moment, seizing vendors' vegetables, basket ware and
flowers?
For as long as I can remember, Africa Unity Square in the center
of Harare,
has been home to several flower and curio sellers. They are an
integral part
of our landscape, but no more! The few tourists that visit the
five star
Meikles Hotel which faces Africa Unity Square will just have to
buy their
Zimbabwean momentos elsewhere. In case you've forgotten, this is
Africa Mr
Mugabe. It isn't Oslo and it isn't Beijing. Vendors are a part of
our
culture.
I could go on and on about the various shortages, as so
many others have
done lately, but I won't. Instead I think it's interesting
to reflect on the
biggest shortage of all: leadership. This shortage exists
in civil society,
in the plethora of NGOs in Zimbabwe and in the political
opposition - the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). No one is coming
forward to provide
leadership, direction and vision. And most importantly
action. Instead,
everyone just shrugs his or her shoulders or one tiny step
better, issues
eloquent press statements condemning the regime's
brutality.
And a fat lot of good that's going to do.
New Zimbabwe
DANIEL FORTUNE MOLOKELE: FACING REALITY
Is the MDC a sinking titanic?
Last updated: 06/06/2005
01:59:25
THESE are indeed trying and testing times for Zimbabwe's
official
opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. (MDC). Never
have the
dark clouds of doubts and uncertainty covered the future prospects
of the
party as it is now. Never have the deep waves of gloom and doom
engulfed its
ranks and files as they have at this moment and
time.
As I write all indications are to such effect that the MDC
seems to be
suffering from a serious bout of a crisis of confidence and
purpose.
Indeed if truth must be told, the MDC is going through
probably its
roughest patch since it was formed in 1999. The party appears
so stranded as
if overwhelmed by the challenges besetting it. One would be
forgiven for
assuming that the MDC is now suffering from some form of
paralysis of
analysis, hence the apparent levels of inertia when it comes to
its position
vis-ŕ-vis the way forward for Zimbabwe.
The people
of Zimbabwe are saying they have suffered long enough. They
are saying they
cannot endure anymore the pain and suffering that Zanu-PF
has unleashed upon
them over the past few years. Many are saying that the
time has come to cast
the die and take a last stand against the Robert
Mugabe led regime. Some are
even demanding that the regime be confronted
head on, in a no-holds barred
collision process!
But who can blame the voices of despair
emanating from the many broken
hearts of Zimbabwe? Indeed who can dare
rebuke the voices of anger and cries
for an end of relentless torture,
hunger and pain that have been the daily
bread of many millions of
Zimbabweans in recent years?
It is now common knowledge that
Zimbabwe is presently undergoing its
worst socio-economic crisis in its
entire modern history. The levels of
poverty have heightened to unparalleled
levels of late. Some recent
estimates insist that more than 65% of
Zimbabweans now live below the
international poverty datum line. Other
estimates now peg the unemployment
rates at 80%. Then there are the HIV-AIDS
infection estimates that have
confirmed that the nation has one of the
highest infection rates in the
entire planet.
It is no wonder
that by reason of the foregoing, many Zimbabweans now
prefer to live
anywhere but in their home country. Studies have shown that
the nation is no
longer merely suffering from a 'brain drain' syndrome. Many
are leaving the
country irregardless of their professional skills and
qualifications. The
recent introduction and acceptance of the 'Diaspora'
concept bears
undeniable testimony to that reality.
As I write, it is estimated
that there are now at least four million
Zimbabweans living abroad. This is
an astounding figure when once considers
that the fact that the official
estimates of the national population are
pegged at less than twelve million.
That in simple arithmetic terms means
that one in every four Zimbabweans now
live in exile.
But perhaps even more critical is the mere fact that
had it not been
for the introduction of more stringent visa systems, the
overflow of
Zimbabweans could have been much higher! It does not need a
rocket scientist
to appreciate the fact that given an option of choice, a
lot more
Zimbabweans would prefer to leave the crisis riddled country with
immediate
effect.
Further to that, the regime has now
compounded the dire situation by
unleashing more terror and misery among its
own poor urban majorities. The
recent launch of the police and military
crackdowns have depleted whatever
little hopes and expectations still
remained among the nation's majorities
for a better tomorrow.
The inaptly named twins of evil (Operation Restore Hope and
Marambatsvina)
should have been better off with such names as El Nino,
Tsunami, Cyclone et
cetera. This is so when one considers the highly
destructive nature of their
impact on the lives of many ordinary
Zimbabweans.
The fact that
Mugabe is busy having fun while basking in the sun has
now been further
confirmed by the revelations that he has ordered the
Parliament to reopen
sooner than expected so as to ensure that it enacts the
new Senate law
expeditiously.
The net effect of that is that we might see the
remaining MDC MPs
sheepishly reporting for duty in Parliament. They will of
course bark loud
against the new Senate law but Mugabe will remain
undaunted. He surely knows
that their bark that in fact sounds like a puppy
whimper is worse than their
bite. Indeed, the MDC MPs can best be described
as toothless bulldogs.
The reality we all have to face is that it
will be business as usual
for Mugabe's parliament. The senate law will soon
be enacted and a new
travellers coach will be added on the gravy train to
accommodate more of
Mugabe's cronies. Life will go on as if there is no
opposition in parliament
or elsewhere in Zimbabwe for that
matter!
All that the MDC leadership continue do is to issue more
press
statements and host more press conferences. All they have to say is
that the
people of Zimbabwe will rise on their own against such a brutal
regime! All
they have to do is to file more urgent court applications to an
already
discredited justice system!
Surely it appears as if the
MDC has run out of ideas. Mugabe would be
forgiven for now for toasting to
the party's political demise. Raymond
Majongwe could be absolved for calling
the MDC leaders a bunch of cowards
and opportunists! Someone else could be
pardoned for thinking of the MDC as
a sinking titanic. This is because to
all practical purposes and intents, it
seems the MDC has now become a
rudderless ship and surely, it might sink at
any time from now!
CONTACT DANIEL BY E-MAIL: danielmolokele@yahoo.co.uk
Daniel Molokele is a lawyer and a former student leader. He is
currently
based in Johannesburg, South Africa. His column appears here every
Monday
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 5 June
SA to push for agreement to
protect assets in Zimbabwe
South Africa is set to push once more for
the signing of an investment
protection agreement with Zimbabwe as President
Robert Mugabe starts
implementing threats to abolish private ownership of
land. Zimbabwe this
week announced the early opening of parliament to
railroad through
constitutional changes that, among others, would simplify
the
nationalisation of land. Mandisi Mpahlwa, the trade and industry
minister,
said that a provisional date was set for the signing of the
Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between
South Africa
and Zimbabwe, which would give surety to private land and
business owners in
Zimbabwe. South Africa has maintained over three years
that the only hold-up
with signing had been the inability to find a mutually
suitable date with
Zimbabwe. This week Mpahlwa said he would prefer not to
comment yet on
whether the signing of the agreement was more urgent in the
wake of the
latest threats. The provisional date of June 15 for the signing
of the
agreement was however not confirmed yet, Jerry Ndou, South Africa's
ambassador in Harare, said through the foreign affairs department. The
agreement deals with investment promotion and reciprocal protection of
investment between the two countries. It would, among other things, protect
the land rights of South African farmers who own land in Zimbabwe. Some of
the estimated 200 South African-owned farms in Zimbabwe have already been
seized in the land grab since 2000. Zimbabwe has BIPPA agreements with about
17 countries, but has breached a number of those with European countries by
expropriating the land and business ventures of its nationals. The
government has come in for severe criticism by opposition parties for not
finalising the BIPPA. In February, the Democratic Alliance accused the
government of lacking "the necessary political will to protect the interests
of its nationals".
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Mereki shut down
Farirai
Machivenyika
issue date :2005-Jun-06
ONE of Harare's popular braai
places, KwaMereki, in Warren Park D, became
the latest casualty of the
current clean-up operation when police shut it
down yesterday.
The place
was a favourite outing for people from all walks of life,
including
high-ranking government officials, company executives, as well as
members of
the diplomatic corps. KwaMereki was a hive of activity during
weekends
where all the latest models of expensive cars, from M-Class
Mercedes Benz to
7-Series BMWs, could be seen.
During the week, people drove from the city
centre to have lunch at the
place while it represented a weekend retreat far
from the hustle and bustle
of the CBD over weekends.
It was a source of
livelihood to more than 300 people, who roasted meat for
patrons, prepared
traditional dishes or washed cars.
At one time musician Andy Brown performed
at the "joint" for free.
Several revellers and soccer fans that had come for
lunch and drinks before
the Zimbabwe-Gabon match at the National Sports
Stadium were shocked to find
the place deserted.
"The police just came in
the morning when we were preparing for the day and
told us to pack our
things and leave. This was my only source of income, I
was paying fees, rent
and other necessities from money I got from roasting
meat and selling sadza.
I don't know where to start from now," said Kiri
Mamoyo, who had a stall at
the premises.
A 42-year-old widow, who identified herself as Mai Mtetwa, said
she was
supporting her five children from the popular place.
"My husband
passed away recently and all my children are unemployed. I am
the sole
breadwinner and I don't know what they want us to do. Do they want
us to get
into prostitution when there is HIV and Aids?" she asked.
A supervisor at
Gochi Gochi butchery, Ralph Tarusenga, said the closure
would affect
business as they relied on revellers for most of their sales.
"We relied on
revellers for business. I was actually expecting a busy day
because of the
soccer match today and had made huge orders. It's going to be
difficult for
us as business people," he said.
Not everyone was saddened by the closure of
one of the city's finest braai
spots. John Madhuku felt the closure was long
overdue, saying: "It's fine
with me. A lot of prostitution was going on
here. People were urinating
everywhere in full view of our mothers and
sisters. A lot of used condoms
were also being found in the nearby
bush."
Another resident, Cosmas Shiridzinomwa, concurred with Madhuku and
added
that most of the patrons were coming from affluent places and
promoting
immorality in the area.
"These rich people were coming here to
promote prostitution, yet they don't
want the same in their areas. So I
support the move to close it down," he
said.
On a number of occasions,
there were fights and shooting incidents as men
brought their "small houses"
for an afternoon of pleasure - only to meet
their spouses there.
The
place was once closed in the late 1990s after there was concern that
there
were no proper facilities to roast meat and prepare food, but was
re-opened
after
proper stalls and roofing were constructed.
Harare City Council
spokesperson, Leslie Gwindi, defended the closure and
reiterated that all
illegal structures would be destroyed.
"As we said at the beginning, all the
illegal structures, like what we have
done in other areas, would be
destroyed and there is no way that is it will
be re-opened," Gwindi
said.
Meanwhile, police also began destroying all illegal outbuildings in the
suburb as operations Murambatsvina and Restore Order continue.
Several
illegal settlements, including Tongogara Park at White Cliff Farm,
Joshua
Mqabuko Nkomo and Chimoio Housing schemes, have been destroyed.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Rehabilitate the informal sector :
Nyoni
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jun-06
SMALL
and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni has
admitted that the ongoing clean-up exercise has paralysed the once robust
informal sector, constituting over 60 percent of overall economic activity
and employing more than 70 percent of the total labour force. "Small and
medium scale enterprises have been greatly affected [by the clean-up
campaign], mainly the informal sector. Most of them were properly registered
and properly operational. But, the mandate of my ministry is not to plan
where informal traders should do their business. The mandate of my ministry
is to rehabilitate the informal sector," Nyoni said last week.
The
lamentation contradicts remarks made last week by Leslie Gwindi, the
City of
Harare's spokesperson, when he claimed on national television that
informal
traders have no role to play in the economy.
Yet, about 70 percent of the
economy had been informalised by the inexorable
meltdown that hit the
economy from 1997 to date.
In 2003 alone - the presumed trough of this rapid
slump - the unemployment
and inflation rates shot close to 80 and 1 000
percent, respectively.
Socio-economist, Wozani Moyo, claimed that though the
informal sector is
relatively absent in official gross domestic product
(GDP) figures, the
sector, however, plays a crucial shock-absorber role in
the economy in times
of recession.
Moyo further contended that the
country was able to weather this economic
and social maelstrom because the
informal sector intervened, absorbed the
economic shocks and eased the
pressures that were mounting on a shrinking
formal sector.
Said Moyo:
"Retrenches and the unemployed traditionally fall back on petty
commodity
production and broking to withstand the debilitating effects of
economic
doldrums. Besides, in every economy there are always strong formal
and
informal sector interlinkages. For example, informal companies are
normally
subcontracted to provide cleaning and catering services. If you
carried out
a survey you would be shocked to discover that informal
commodity brokers
provide the stationery, hygienic, distribution and other
service
requirements of most of the big established and highly revered
corporations."
He added: "Sadly, all those linkages have been destroyed.
But, the problem
is: what are all those thousands of miserable people going
to do now that
their sole and clean means of earning an income to survive
has been
destroyed? Is the shrinking formal economy capable of absorbing
such
pressures?"
Above all, more than half of the 410 local exhibitors
who took part in the
2005 Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) were
SMEs, 75 percent of which
are licensed informal players.
But Operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order, which kicked off in Harare two
weeks ago and
spread with cyclonic force to other cities, has completely
exterminated a
sector on which the economy has been balancing to absorb the
shock of
shrinkage.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Basic commodity shortages spill into second
half-year
Givemore Nyanhi
issue date :2005-Jun-06
RETAIL
outlets stretched into their third successive month of persistently
intermittent basic commodity shortages as the economy moved into the second
half of 2005.
Maize meal, sugar, cooking oil and bread remained
scarce in most leading
retail outlets visited last Friday, a scenario that
began in April, almost
immediately after the country's general
elections.
Since then, the availability of products such as sugar and cooking
oil has
been
erratic, often drying up for days and then
only
re-emerging at some shops on rare occasions.
On those rare occasions, usually
witnessed at OK Zimbabwe at the corner of
First Street and Nelson Mandela
Avenue, when sugar is available, the long
queues suddenly spring up as
customers jostle for sugar.
It was the same last week at one Food Chain Group
(FCG) supermarket along
Nelson Mandela Street, when a rare shipment of sugar
was sold to the queuing
customers.
There was a queue of about 50 people
that remained constant in the early
morning as the supermarket was rationing
the packets of sugar to just one 2
kilogramme packet of white sugar selling
at $8 500 each.
"There is not much sugar left and the sugar will soon run
out," one shelf
FCG worker said.
But there was still no mealie meal and
milk in the FCG shop.
At TM, also along Nelson Mandela Street, the
mid morning queue for bread
continued as city customers waited patiently
inside the shop to purchase
fresh baked bread.
The controlled price of
bread was recently reviewed to $4500 from $3500.
But like other shops, sugar,
mealie meal, dairy milk and cooking oil were
not available at TM
Supermarkets.
There were also indications that beer supply was shrinking in
most
supermarkets, with only a single brand of bottled beer available and
the
rest being canned beer.
At OK Zimbabwe there was no bottled beer at
all with only opaque beer,
otherwise known as Scuds, in supply.
At FCG,
there were indications that the supply of opaque beer was more
visible than
that of bottled beer.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Zinwa needs $250bn for Harare water
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jun-06
THE Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (Zinwa) needs $250 billion as working
capital and for
rehabilitating Harare City Council's bulk water supply
system, the Minister
Water Resources and Infrastructural Development,
Munacho Mutezo, has
said.
The money - to be availed by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe - would be used
to
repair burst pipes and installing a chlorinator at Warren Control
Station,
repackaging delivery valves at Morton Jaffray and Prince
Edward.
"One of the major factors that has contributed to persistent water
problems
for the Harare City council was under-capitalisation. This problem
made it
difficult for the council to repair burst pipes and to rehabilitate
old
infrastructure," Mutezo said during a media tour of Morton Jaffray this
week.
He added that since the government directed the take over of water
supply,
there has been a great improvement in service delivery including
chemical
stocks and repairing of damaged burst
pipes.
- Mirror
Reporter
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Nationalising land a complex issue
The
Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jun-06
a two-thirds
Parliamentary majority, the only thing white commercial farmers
can do is
contest the amount of compensation awarded by the government.
Parliament is
expected to debate the constitutional changes when it resumes
sitting at the
end of this month.
When the government first went public with its intentions
of nationalising
land last year, the then minister of land reform John Nkomo
said the move
was necessitated by the need to avoid land abuse and ensure
maximum
utilisation.
Our sister paper, the Sunday Mirror quoted him
saying: "A lease imposes land
obligations which have to be observed by the
farmers. There are
responsibilities that must be adhered to in land use and
conservation. We
have to avoid unwarranted cutting down of trees and the
selling of land to
third parties, among other problems."
At that time,
the South African-based Landless People's Movement leader,
Mangaliso
Kubheka, said nationalisation of land ran contrary to the ideals
of land
reform that entailed empowering ordinary citizens.
He said: "The people
should get the title deeds. Nationalisation, in my
personal view, further
oppresses the people but if it turns out to be
successful, then I think other
countries will follow suit."
The legislation directing land tenure reform in
Zimbabwe over the past
fifteen years has seen the government pitting itself
in direct opposition to
interest groups like white farmers and their
supporters from the Western
international community.
In 1990, Section 16
(property rights) of the Constitution was amended and
the Land Acquisition
Act (1992) paved the way for a new legal approach to
tenure reform that
freed the government from the
willing-buyer-willing-seller set up.
The
Act was largely a compromise between the Lancaster House rules and a
progressive approach to the issue.
The Act also made it possible for
compensation disputes to be settled in the
Administrative Court.
Even
then, only 60 000 out of a targeted 162 000 families had been resettled
by
1995 and the remaining 4 000 or so farmers still owned around 10.9
million
hectares of farmland.
The slow pace of redistribution forced people to engage
head-on tactics in a
bid to grab the attention of stakeholders, with the
most well known of these
being the occupation of Igava Farm by Svosve
villagers in 1998.
Constitutional Amendment Number 16 of 2000 placed the onus
of compensation
on the British, a requirement infamously shot-down by the
Labour government.
At present, the government has the authority to acquire
anything above 11
million hectares of land which will leave some 200 000
hectares in private
hands.
Attempts at nationalisation have on the whole
failed to demonstrate
viability. The 1967 Arusha Declaration, seeking to
institute
nationalisation in Tanzania, ended in failure after a combination
of
military disputes with Idi Amin's Uganda, drought, the effects of the
oil-related global economic recessions of the 1970s and 1980s.
Tanzania
resorted to importing an average of 250 000 metric tonnes of grain
from 1974
to the early 1980s. From 1975, Mozambique fiddled with similar
land policies
but these ended in ignominy in the late 1980s after the
adoption of liberal
economic prescriptions in the form of Structural
Adjustment Programmes.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Hotel guilty of charging foreigners in local
currency
Court reporter
issue date :2005-Jun-06
HARARE'S
Executive Hotel last Friday became the first tourism and leisure
firm to be
charged for contravening exchange control regulations after
failing to
collect US$6 979 (S43 270 000) from foreign visitors.
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono is his monetary policy
statement last month,
said police would soon pounce on tourism entities
either holding on to hard
currency or receiving payment in local currency
from foreign
visitors.
Executive Hotel represented by Daniela Lucia Teweide pleaded guilty
to
violating the Exchange Control Act and was remanded to today for sentence
by
magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa.
The State case was that the hotel from
January to April this year received
foreign visitors from various countries
and collected payment in local
currency, in direct violation of the Exchange
Control Act, which stipulates
that foreigners pay for services in hard
currency.
Meanwhile, a man in Marondera also appeared in court for
externalisation of
foreign currency equivalent to $98 million.
Francois
Jacobus Borman (38), a manager at Wheatland Farm, pleaded guilty to
the
charge and was remanded on free bail to June 7 this year.
The accused secured
a contract to transport food with Goal Zimbabwe - a Non
Governmental
Organisation (NGO) - to various places in the Rusape area.
He used Borman
Electric Transport to ferry the food.
On February 5 last year, the State
alleged the accused after transporting
the food was paid US$5
964.
Accused instructed Goal Zimbabwe to deposit the money into his offshore
account with Standard Chartered Bank in Jersey Ireland.
On February 17
last year Borman was paid US$6 757 02 and the money was
deposited in same
account.
Ten days latter the accused was also paid US$ 6 861 and the money
was
deposited in the same account.
In doing so Borman prejudiced the
State of $98 403 217 million. [sic]
Reuters
Africa aid agency funds dry up despite
promises
Sun June 5, 2005 2:29 PM GMT+02:00
By Peter
Apps
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Despite a new drive in the west to
focus
attention on Africa, aid agencies say funds are dwindling as money is
diverted elsewhere or channelled directly through governments.
The Group of Eight rich nations are expected to call for more help for
Africa at a summit next month.
But on the ground, aid workers
say they are having to cut programmes,
either because money has been
diverted to victims of the Asian tsunami or
because official help is being
increasingly channelled through governments
as debt relief or direct
aid.
"We've certainly seen some cuts in funding in the last year,"
said
Dave Snyder, spokesman for U.S.-based agency Catholic Relief Services.
"We've had to cut back some programmes."
Schemes cut included
school feeding programmes in Malawi and
Madagascar aimed at persuading
parents to send children to school rather
than keeping them at home to work
or sending young girls off to get married,
he said.
While aid
agencies welcome debt relief and direct aid, they say local
civil society
organisations and international NGOs must also get a share to
make sure the
money reaches the people who need it.
"The biggest fear is
corruption," said David Sanderson, southern and
west Africa co-ordinator for
Care International UK.
"If you only give money to government, you
end up not holding
government to account. There needs to be a mixture. But
there's also a fear
people are getting bored with Africa."
Aid
workers say while attracting funds for high-profile disasters such
as the
tsunami or Sudan's Darfur region is still relatively easy, attracting
funds
for longer-term problems such as the AIDS pandemic or chronic food
shortages
is much harder.
CUTTING RATIONS
Overall figures on aid
flows are hard to assess, since money comes
from so many different
sources.
But on Wednesday, United Nations World Food Programme
chief James
Morris told reporters the WFP had only 20 percent of the funding
needed for
Southern Africa this year.
"We will have to cut
either the amount of rations we need or cut the
amount of people we help,"
WFP regional director Mike Sackett told Reuters.
"We said at the time of the
tsunami we were very fearful of the effect on
funding, and I'm personally
very sure it has had an impact."
Other UN agencies were also
affected, Sackett said, with the UN Food
and Agriculture Organisation --
which runs a series of programmes aimed at
pulling southern African farmers
out of a spiral of agricultural decline --
likely to close its regional
office in Johannesburg within weeks if new
funds were not
found.
With some seven million people across the region facing
serious
shortages after rains failed in February and March across much of
Zambia,
Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the funding shortfall could hardly
have
come at a worse time.
Well I suppose nothing should surprise us after all but I have to say this
past 2 weeks has been something else.
I stood in D's office and
watched the clouds of smoke over Mbare
as the destruction went on and had to
pinch myself to remind myself that
this was the peoples government and not
some foreign invasion which certainly was
what it looked like. Then the new
Chinese jets flew over and and made the
illusion that we were under attack by
some foreign force complete.
Then driving back the once thriving People's
market on the Enterprise Road
with all its soapstone carvings and welded
artifacts was being loaded by a front
end loader onto a truck the carvings
smashed. This was a legal market
established by the City Fathers many many
years ago. Why? this is the question on
everybody's lips. And who ordered it
all? And why so vicious? Pat Walsh's letter about
Hatcliffe is a document
that everybody should read.
Our local tomato and Avo supplier is now
operating behind closed doors. A cannot get his apples to his biggest market,
the vendors in Mbare, because there are no vendors in Mbare.
On my way
back from Kent on Monday the Tongogara settlement was smoking.
This was a
Zanu PF militant takeover of a farm which was squatted on in 2001.
The
little store called the 4th Chimurenga Store was no more and so the
regime
is destroying its own.
I have to say that I did not
understand the land grab as it made no sense but this is just
madness and
who knows why this is going on.