• ZIMBABWE'S FOOD CRISIS NEAR FAMINE, U.N. SAYS
• Farmers Pay to Stay On Land
• Denmark Closes Embassy in Zimbabwe
• STATEMENT on Media and Information Commission
• SOUTHERN AFRICA: 13 million in need of food aid
• Zim Loses US $582m As Tourism Receipts Plunge
• Tourist Arrivals At Matopo National Park Cut By Half
• We Have the Power, However Small, to Take the First Steps to Freedom
• Vets free for lack of evidence
• Peer system won't be tested on Zimbabwe... yet
• U.N. judiciary investigator slams Zimbabwe again
• Zimbabwe Law Society officials given bail on subversion charges
• No apology, says Daily News Paper stands by its court story on Jonathan Moyo
• Top ZBC presenters, DJs among 435 axed
• Court acquits war vets implicated in Nabanyama murder
• Nepad, African Union hold new hope for Africa says Germany
• Police crush UZ students’ demo
• Inflexible will needed of leaders to better people’s lives
• ZimRights slams onslaught against lawyers, journalists
• French fund projects

By Collin Chiwanza THE Daily News stands by the story published on Tuesday in which St Mary’s Member of Parliament, Job Sikhala, alleged that Information Minister Jonathan Moyo threatened to “fix” him after Sikhala asked the minister to confirm a rumour that he allegedly had a homosexual affair with Alum Mpofu, the disgraced former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Geoff Nyarota, the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News, said yesterday that court reports in newspapers were based on evidence led in a hearing and were, therefore, covered by qualified privilege. Nyarota’s comments were supported by leading lawyers who said yesterday that Moyo would make legal history if he successfully sued The Daily News for reporting evidence given by a defendant in an open court of law. Responding to Moyo’s statement in The Herald yesterday, Nyarota said: “This was the case in the report which appeared in The Daily News on Tuesday, in which Sikhala made the sensational allegation of lewd behaviour on the part of the Minister of Information.” Nyarota said the responsibility of The Daily News in this case was to report details of Sikhala’s evidence, not to sit in judgment of his credibility as a witness. Sikhala was not a source of The Daily News in this case, as suggested by Moyo’s lawyer, Terrence Hussein, of the Hussein Ranchod and Company law firm. Sikhala was merely an accused leading evidence in his defence in a court of law. It was up to Moyo to challenge Sikhala’s evidence in the court and The Daily News would report full details of his evidence. “In case Hussein has forgotten, when his client alleged in the same court that Sikhala was a beggar who constantly pestered the minister for bus fare and pocket money, The Daily News published the minister’s utterances without checking with Sikhala. The MP’s lawyer did not complain or threaten us,” said Nyarota. In covering court cases, newspapers are not required to seek the comment of either the accused or the complainant outside the court on evidence led in court. “Hussein is correct in stating that The Daily News never contacted Professor Moyo to seek his response to the allegation made against him by Sikhala,” Nyarota said. “The Daily News would be deemed to be in contempt of court if it approached Moyo outside court to seek his comment on court proceedings. Hussein knows this.” Hussein alleged that The Daily News was “aware that Sikhala was using the forum of the court room to defame our client”. Nyarota said: “We deny being privy to such knowledge. In any case, it is not the business of The Daily News to prevent people from defending themselves through whatever means.” Media coverage of court proceedings, is covered by privilege. “If we have in any way disabused or exceeded the limits of that privilege, it is the court which should protest and not Moyo’s lawyer. “We, therefore, have no basis on which to retract the story, or to apologise,” Nyarota said. Nyarota’s comments yesterday received the backing of leading lawyers who dismissed Moyo’s threats and demand for an apology as futile. Tawanda Hondora, the president of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said: “In terms of the law, anything said in an open court of law is a matter of public record. This means that any member of the public may have access to that information. The Daily News, therefore, has an obligation as a newspaper, to report on any matter of public interest, particularly that which has been made in an open court.” Hondora said the minister was entitled to sue The Daily News, “but that does not entitle him to threaten The Daily News with criminal censure. “That is a violation of Section 20 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which guarantees freedom of expression and media freedom. The response by Moyo should be seen and understood in the context of his definite attempts to silence journalists and the independent media, which has resulted in a number of journalists being arrested over the past several months.” Senior Harare lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa of Kantor and Immerman said there was no sound legal basis upon which Moyo could sue The Daily News, because the paper merely reported what transpired in a public court. Mtetwa said: “He can give it a try but he won’t win. What can he sue The Daily News for? Why can’t he sue the newspaper for reporting what he said against Sikhala when he was giving evidence in court a few days ago? His evidence was given equal prominence by both The Daily News and The Herald.” Mtetwa said it was up to the court to establish whether the evidence given by Sikhala was true or not. “But for The Daily News that is immaterial. The paper merely reported what came up in court, Whether it was true or false, that is the duty of the court to establish, not journalists.” Obert Gutu, of Gutu and Chikowero Associates: “As far as I am concerned, your paper simply reported what transpired in court. There was no comment whatsoever from you. You to such knowledge. In any case, it is not the business of The Daily News to prevent people from defending themselves through whatever means.”

By Columbus Mavhunga VETERAN journalists, radio disc jockeys and TV presenters, including Tapfuma Machakaire, Eric Knight, Ezra Sibanda, Brenda Moyo, Inglam Nyathi, Aaron Chiwundura Moyo and Sam Sibanda, are among 435 out of about 900 Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) workers to be laid off. They will leave the State broadcaster at the end of the month as part of its multi-million dollar restructuring exercise. Other personalities expected to vanish from the air and the screen include Gift Msipa, Elias Mange-Ndebele and Wilson Dakwa, who had become household names. Others are Peter Banga, John Karimazondo, Haile Velaphi Mlangeni, Pina Mwenda, Musa Pilime, Patu Manala, Maguire Godzongere, Tichaona Sibanda, Charles Kawadza and Sithokozile Mpala. They are among ZBC employees notified by Jennifer Tanyanyiwa, the former acting chief executive officer, that they would be retrenched. “We have allocated staff to the new organisation and department structures on the basis of best fit,” said Tanyanyiwa in letters, dated 31 May, to the individual workers. The letter does not state how much money the dismissed workers would receive as retrenchment packages. Although the letter says they would leave their jobs by 30 June, some employees said they were informed as they were handed their letters yesterday not to report for work today. The letter reads in part: “This means there is a need to undertake a retrenchment exercise for the people who cannot be accommodated in the new organisational structure. We regret to advise you that you have been selected for retrenchment.” There has been chaos at Pockets Hill, the ZBC head office, for almost two years with the State broadcaster aimlessly firing and hiring workers, resulting in a bloated workforce. In comparison, the Zambian national broadcaster, which has a capacity similar to the ZBC, has around 380 staffers. The most experienced personalities at ZBC have left the organisation, citing frustration, arising from the restructuring exercise, or for greener pastures. Nyathi, one of the most experienced broadcasters who was retrenched, joined the corporation in 1975. He has 131 leave days to be cashed in lieu of leave, while 44 other retrenched workers have at least 150 days each. Such workers will be replaced by inexperienced employees such as reporter Daisy Zambuko and presenter Kumbirai Nhongo, who have been in employment for only a few months. Some of the workers to face the axe have been employed for less than a year, with most of them having been enticed from their lucrative jobs after the launch of the misguided Vision 30. They include O’brien Rwafa, a former sports reporter at the government-mouthpiece The Herald. He was appointed an executive producer in December last year. It could not be established how the ZBC would raise funds for the exercise, given the parlous state of its finances. It is understood that the ZBC has not been remitting medical aid and pension fund contributions for its employees for quite some time now. It only resumed last month after some of its employees had complained to the corporation that they had received letters from their medical aid societies saying they owed money. Contacted for comment last night, Dr Gideon Gono, the ZBC chairman, said: "Telling the world how we will raise the funds would be jumping the gun. But I can tell you that when the time to pay the termination packages comes, we shall not be found wanting. As a board, we wouldn't have embarked on the exercise when we were not prepared. We will be able to meet our part of the bargain." The corporation is still to pay retrenchment packages to its former executives axed to make way for the much-vaunted Vision 30.

From Chris Gande in Bulawayo SIX war veterans implicated in the murder of an MDC polling agent, Patrick Nabanyama, who disappeared in 2000, were yesterday acquitted. Justice Lawrence Kamocha, sitting at the Bulawayo High Court, said there was no evidence for a prima facie case against Ephraim Moyo, Simon Rwodzi, Aleck Moyo, Howard Ncube, Stan Ncube and Julius Sibanda. The six had pleaded not guilty to the charge. In his judgment, Kamocha said the State had failed to prove that Nabanyama had been killed by the six because there was no evidence to that effect. Three of the war veterans, Stan Ncube, Howard Ncube and Ephraim Moyo, admitted questioning Nabanyama at their Entumbane offices. One of the six, Ephraim Moyo, was positively identified by Nabanyama’s widow as part of the group which kidnapped her husband from their home. The war veterans could not be charged for kidnapping Nabanyama because they are covered by the Presidential Amnesty of 2000 in which President Mugabe pardoned some lesser political crimes. The war veterans admitted “questioning” Nabanyama saying that he had been suspected of burning down their Nketa office. Nabanyama’s widow is currently under 24-hour guard by the police following threats on her life by a group of Zanu PF youths who warned her against implicating the war veterans in their trial. David Gwenzi, the officer-in-charge of Nkulumane Police Station, also received threats after he had testified that Nabanyama made a report to the police station following threats on his life. Vicky Mhlanga, one of the 16 people who gave evidence at the trial, said one of the war veterans had accused Nabanyama of taking away Zanu PF supporters to the MDC. The war veterans, together with their late leader, Cain Nkala, had initially been charged with kidnapping. The Attorney General’s Office later changed the charge to that of murder. Nkala, who was himself kidnapped from his home, his body later being discovered buried in a shallow grave, is believed to have been ready to spill the beans as to what exactly happened to Nabanyama before he was killed. It is that belief which fuelled widely held suspicions that Nkala’s death was a Zanu PF inside job.

Staff Reporter The German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, said in Berlin recently two current political developments were of fundamental importance for Africa’s future: the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) which was masterminded and advanced by a new generation of visionary and reform-oriented African leaders. “This shows a new thinking, a new dynamism that will help Africa take its place in the international community,” he said. “An Africa in which the rule of law, democracy and human rights are strengthened and built upon.” Fischer said Nepad was a political tool for launching the urgently required political and economic reforms. Africa, he observed, was the one continent that had least benefited from globalisation. “It is impressive just how clearly the Nepad initiative concentrates on Africa’s problems today, and on the necessary approaches to solve them. “The founding document of Nepad spells out clearly that peace and justice are two sides of the same coin. Together they form the basic pre-requisite for sustainable development in Africa.” He commended Nepad for its commitment to fighting corruption and poor governance, on enhancing democracy, the rule of law and human rights, on peaceful conflict resolution, transparent financial markets and more effective promotion of the private sector.

By Lloyd Mudiwa THE riot police yesterday brutally crushed a demonstration by University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students over the late disbursement of pay-outs. One student claimed the police pounded his knee with batons even after he had pleaded with them not to hit him there as the knee had been operated on in 1994. The police pounced on the students as they marched peacefully from the Students’ Services Centre to the administration block to demand a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Hill, who they accused of tricking them. The students said Hill cheated them last Saturday into withdrawing a High Court application against the UZ, the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology, and the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) before they were given their payouts. But by yesterday not a single student had been paid. Elizabeth Karonga, the UZ’s director of information and publicity, could not be reached for comment. The police, spilling out of three trucks, battered the fleeing students with batons. Reporters saw about six policemen in a truck, registration number ZRP 771D, dropping off three students they had earlier arrested. They ganged up on one student and beat him with their batons. Masimba Maponde, a first-year Bachelor of Arts student, pleaded with the police not to hit the knee on which he was operated in 1994, but they would not listen and proceeded to pound the knee. A sobbing Maponde said: “They hit me even harder when I told them my knee was injured.” A dispute over payouts in April last year resulted in the death of Batanai Hadzizi, another first-year student. A magistrate ruled in an inquest that he died as a result of injuries sustained in a beating by the riot police on the campus. Nkululeko Nyoni, the secretary-general of the Students’ Executive Council, yesterday accused the police of unnecessarily provoking students. Angry students on Monday rioted over the late disbursement of payouts, stoning windows and motor vehicles, including the Vice-Chancellor’s. Calm returned to the university on Tuesday. Nyoni said Hill urged students to withdraw the court case before the CBZ and the ministry could discuss the issue of payouts with them. The students last month requested the High Court to urgently handle their application for an order barring the ministry from deducting money from their loans, through the CBZ, to recover loan debts. The students, also wanted to bar the UZ from deducting $427 from each of their payouts to pay for damage to campus property during last year’s demonstrations. But Justice Anne Marie Gowora said the matter was not urgent and would be dealt with as any other ordinary matter.

By Marko Phiri AFRICA’S statistical representation in a number of spheres reads like the Apocalypse. Each year non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations and its various agencies compile reports documenting the state of affairs in health, economics, politics and human rights. Human development reports are put together to give us an idea where we are at and where we are going. These statistics are presumably then used by governments to guide them in policy formulation and chart a new course towards the betterment of the people’s lives. Yet seemingly because these statistics have been flashed with so much frequency over the years, they have failed to strike a chord as governments continue to pursue programmes that are totally divorced from what those numbers would demand. The latest uproar in Zimbabwe’s education is a prime example. As many people dream about when they will be able to get out of here to a land where fathers will regain their sense of self-worth as breadwinners, the best that the country’s policy makers can come up with is changing the nomenclature of schools, and prescribing a kind of one-size-fits-all kind of schoolchildren’s uniform. How it seeks to advance the country’s education is yet to be convincingly explained by the latter-day Einstein who came up with the master plan. But, such becomes the norm when ruling parties fail to address pressing issues that ideally seek to improve the lives of the people. Probably one of the most disturbing findings to ever come out in the 1990s, was that sub-Saharan Africa had the highest rates of overall infant mortality on earth, the shortest life expectancy, the lowest per capita income and the fastest rate of population increase. It appeared to be something from a science fiction flick – as soon as one person died, another was instantly born to replace him! Aids is at the point of overtaking malaria as the major cause of death in Africa, with 90 percent of the victims across the world, the World Bank helpfully tells us. Perhaps this link between poverty and disease ought to convince the Harare mayor who has been dithering about whether or not to take up the obscene opulence “given” to him by the ruling party. It would set a moral awareness that one cannot live amid gaudy trappings when his kith and kin lead such wretched existence. We cannot talk about the already ruling elites of this continent because they have failed to embrace the realities of the lives led by their constituencies. So, for a new man who assumes a seemingly enviable post like that of Mayor Elias Mudzuri and everybody else who occupies the so-called mayoral mansions must, therefore, show they empathise with the “masses in the mud” by accepting only the modest that would give credence to their claims that they are one with the people who voted them into office. They should be prepared to present themselves as a new breed of political leaders who, almost in a fashion, would seek to defy the age-old philosophy of African politics that to be elected into public office is to bid farewell to the ghettos where one grew up. And not only that, but assume also a kind of life that would have every child aspiring to. “When I grow up I want to be a politician,” the young schoolchildren would soon be saying! And still, the delivery of services not withstanding. Unless there is a rebirth in the perverted idealism of what election into public office is about, then even the new leaders who come after the founding fathers will preoccupy themselves with making Africa’s statistical representation one that evokes tears, and curses as to “Why us?” The streets of Harare that teem with young boys and girls, grandmothers who find the open sky as their only “haven” as soon as the sun disappears are themselves proof enough to convince one to reject all the perks that “befit the status of a mayor or minister”. Amid all the poverty that has become ubiquitous, it is not uncommon that these issues are pushed to the periphery of government priorities because it is felt that these have been part of African existence since time immemorial, therefore nothing can be done in the 21st Century to clean up the streets of these children. The failure of governments to deal with these social challenges even morbidly leads residents to tolerate that this indeed is the reality of their existence, so waking up one day to find the streets without the children would be something equivalent to a culture shock. These issues are pushed from the agenda of ruling parties, and left to the NGOs who previously were accepted as governments’ indispensable partners in developmental programmes but have recently become some kind of persona non grata, here and elsewhere in Africa. But interestingly, parties are elected into the seat of power on the basis of manifestos that proclaim the fighting of poverty as their core focus! But as Africa attempts to rise from this odious history of politics through efforts like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, it will be a long time before these ideals are realised as long as there exist people who imagine Kamuzu Banda, Mobutu Sese Seko and other kleptocrats did not do enough justice by plundering their countries’ wealth. Hope may lie in the rotation of power through the election of new brains free from the fatigue that has been building up from decades in power, and with the leaders subsequently being removed from the harsh realities of the people’s lives on the ground. Unless the new office bearers, at least that is if they are “given” the chance by the ruling parties, be they at council or national level are ready to make election into political office a vocation so to speak, for this implies God has a hand in it therefore endowing one with all those Godly virtues, then we will be met by the same statistics we saw during the time of Mobutu and other “great men of Africa”. And which anyway still obtain today. The African leaders in UNESCO’s Audience Africa in Paris, 1995, under the theme, Social Development: African Priorities, issued a declaration part of which read: “As long as the idea of peace is mistreated in Africa, efforts to promote development will never live up to expectation. Armed conflicts, civil wars, border disputes, tribalism and ethnic rivalries, political disputes and the exploitation of religion for partisan ends make it only realistic to regard political instability of war as an epiphenomenon but as a serious and ongoing trend. We can reverse this trend, which has gone on for 50 years, but we shall need inflexible will.” It is that same inflexible will still needed today for a committed betterment of the lives of the lot here, not useless talk about identical school uniform.

From Brian Mangwende in Mutare The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights) has condemned the unprecedented, persistent onslaught on the freedom of journalists, lawyers and human rights activitists by the government. The condemnation comes amid a barrage of attacks by security agents on journalists working for the independent media and human rights defenders, including lawyers and human rights watchdog groups, such as Amani Trust, Zimrights, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Legal Resources Foundation. Arnold Tsunga, Zimrights’ national chairperson said: “The wanton, unjustified and indiscriminate arrest of journalists from the private media violates the basic right of freedom of expression and the right to hold opinions and to receive and/or communicate information without interference, which rights are enshrined in Section 20 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.” Since the Public Order and Security and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bills became laws, 16 journalists, all from the privately-owned media, including the newspapers’ editors have been arrested for allegedly contravening sections of the new laws. The international community has said Zimbabwe is one of the worst countries for journalists to practise in after Parliament passed into law the widely criticised bills. The net widened on Monday when Sternford Moyo, the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe and Wilbert Mapombere, the society’s secretary were arrested on allegations that they had in their possession subversive documents relating to a planned mass action to oust Mugabe from power or force him into a rerun of the March presidential election he won amid controversy. Last week, the police in Mutare searched the offices of Innocent Gonese, a lawyer, MDC’s parliamentary chief whip and MP for Mutare North. Tsunga said the search at Gonese’s law offices was an infringement on the confidentiality between the lawyer and his clients. He said: “It’s illegal to search law firms unless the police have sound evidence that the lawyer is harbouring at his offices proceeds, for example, from a heist. Once this unjustified clampdown on law firms is allowed to continue, the justice system will be seriously affected. That type of action is not allowed in any civilised society.” In an unprecedented exodus of judges from both the Supreme and High courts, five judges have since left the bench because of harassment by the government, he said. “Zimrights also notes with concern the recent thrust by the government to clamp down on lawyers and the judiciary,” Tsunga said. “Many judges have resigned or have been forced to quit the bench, including Chief Justice Gubbay and Justices McNally, Ebrahim, Chatikobo, Devittee and Gillespie. Unwarranted demonstrations have been organised against magistrates.”

Staff Reporter The French Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Didier Ferrand, recently visited Masvingo province where he inspected two irrigation projects funded by his government for a total of $1 470 000. He first visited Chitanga communal area in Mwenezi, where a dam is being repaired by the local community with funding totalling about $490 000 from the French government. He later toured Nyimai Dam in Chivi District, which was repaired through a French injection of about $980 000. “This project is particularly important because Masvingo province, like most of Zimbabwe, is suffering from a severe drought. The Nyimai Dam project is a perfect example of an integrated approach, encompassing economic, social and environmental dimension of community management methods,” Ferrand said. Nyimai Dam serves more than 4 000 people who are now growing maize and vegetables by irrigation.