Independent, UK
By Sean Farrell
Tuesday, 11 March
2008
British companies are seeking details of Zimbabwean legislation
that would
enforce local ownership of their operations after Robert Mugabe,
the
country's president, surprised observers by signing a Bill requiring them
to
hand over control.
Many people had thought the Bill requiring
foreign businesses to offer 51
per cent stakes to black Zimbabweans had
lapsed. Mr Mugabe had left it
unsigned after it was passed by Parliament in
September, but he signed it on
7 March.
UK companies operating in
Zimbabwe include Barclays and Standard Chartered.
Both banks have been in the
country for about 100 years.
Barclays said: "The implementation details
of this law are still unclear.
Once further information is available we will
assess it in more detail and
decide on what steps we should take." Barclays
has 1,200 employees and
187,000 customers in the country.
Standard
Chartered also said it was seeking clarification. Standard
Chartered has
about 860 staff and 78,000 customers in Zimbabwe. The bank
wrote down the
value of its Zimbabwe business in 2005. Other UK-listed
companies in Zimbabwe
include the miners Rio Tinto and AngloAmerican, which
both said they had
small operations there.
The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act
may not cover mines but of
greater concern would be the Mining and Minerals
Amendment Bill, which has
not yet been passed by Parliament. It is understood
that the legislation
would involve handing over a 25 per cent share to the
Government as part of
putting 51 per cent in Zimbabwean hands. Companies
might also have to pay
punitive royalties.
Rio Tinto employs more than
200 people in Zimbabwe where it has a small
diamond mine called Murowa.
AngloAmerican has a platinum "project" which has
not yet been developed into
a mine and employs about 400 people in the
country.
A Rio Tinto
spokesman said: "Rio Tinto is supportive of a move towards
indigenisation
provided it is done at the right pace and doesn't discourage
much-needed
overseas investment in the Zimbabwean mining industry." The
Murowa mine is 22
per cent-owned by a Zimbabwe-controlled partner called
RioZim, he
added.
Some observers believe Mr Mugabe may have signed the Bill as a
gesture
because he is fighting a tough election battle with his former
finance
minister, Simba Makoni. Zimbabwe goes to the polls later this month
amid
widespread hunger, mass unemployment and 100,000 per cent inflation.
lemali.fr
Harare, Zimbabwe - A top Iranian official said here at the weekend
that the
Middle Eastern country would invest in a tractor plant in Zimbabwe,
and
explore more areas for investment.
Foreign Minister Manuchehr
Mottaki said Iran had made an initial
investment of US$4 million into the
tractor plant, the first such facility
in Zimbabwe.
The plant,
a joint venture between Iranian investors and a state-owned
Zimbabwean
company, will assemble tractors from parts from Iran.
Mottaki, who
held talks with senior government officials including
President Robert
Mugabe, said technical teams from Iran would visit Zimbabwe
shortly to
kick-start the tractor plant.
Zimbabwe, which is carrying out
controversial agrarian reforms, is
keen to mechanise peasant farmers newly
resettled by the government on farms
forcibly seized from white land
owners.
The reforms have created huge demand for tractors and other
agricultural implements in the country.
Mottaki said Iran was
also exploring investment in a disused oil
refinery in Zimbabwe, which was
built with Iranian help in the 1970s.
Iranian experts have already
carried out feasibility studies on the
refinery, which Iran intends to
supply with crude oil for processing.
Harare -
10/03/2008
Panapress
Hawke's Bay Today, New Zealand
EDITORIAL:
11.03.2008
LOUIS PIERARD
THE 53-nation
Commonwealth is a ``force' for good. But, like the
United Nations, it is only
as good as constituent parts.
Commonwealth Secretary General Don
McKinnon has run up the white flag
over Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. He tried
but failed.
Yesterday he conceded Zimbabwe was irredeemable,
reaching the same
conclusion as those in the exodus from the former British
colony in the past
eight years.
Mr McKinnon, who steps down from
his post (perhaps inauspiciously) on
April 1, said Zimbabwe had isolated
itself from the international community
to the extent that it could now be
compared to Myanmar or North Korea.
All diplomatic
avenues had been exhausted, he said: ``We did all we
could ... but so did the
UN, so did the UK and US'.
Mr McKinnon's affable smile has masked the
fact that he had a task
comparable to that of Sisyphus. Armed with neither
carrot nor stick he has
had to fall back on good intentions and reason to try
to restore sanity to
Zimbabwe.
But none of that matters to
Mugabe. His riposte to the Commonwealth's
decision to extend Zimbabwe's
suspension was to abandon that body
altogether, calling it an ``evil
organisation' and a front for UK efforts to
``enslave' his
country.
He also described Mr McKinnon as ``a progeny of criminal
descent'
whose ancestors had been deported by the British ``because they were
robbers
and murderers'.
Mugabe's barminess cannot leaven the
tragedy of Zimbabwe nor disguise
the helplessness of the Commonwealth to
prevent it.
Inflation in Zimbabwe is estimated at a staggering 7600
per cent and
unemployment at 80 per cent. Power and fuel shortages are
constant and price
controls have emptied shelves and depleted stocks,
bringing shops and
factories to a standstill. Dissent is met with ruthless
repression.
Mugabe has comprehensively wrecked his own country with
the complicity
of some African leaders and the acquiescence of others, such
as South
Africa. As Mr McKinnon has noted, the despot is still a
revolutionary hero
to many in Africa because he stood up against the racist
minority government
of Ian Smith. But what sustains him is that his
Commonwealth colleagues fear
a backlash from militant groups in their own
states who would use
anti-Mugabe action to accuse them of capitulating to
``imperialist'
Europeans.
In that way Mugabe's malaise becomes a
collective madness. If Africa's
leaders gain and hold power as the antidote
to the bane of empire, then it
is in their interests to perpetuate the
neurosis of victimhood. In that way
kleptocrats are able to devour their own
nations' futures, unhindered.
Despite representing 1.8 billion
people, the Commonwealth was never a
major player on the world stage,
offering little more than a collegial
environment for a chat. Today it
emerges from the Zimbabwe failure very much
diminished. Ironically, yesterday
was Commonwealth Day, observed on the
second Monday of every
March.
That it should have passed unremarked indicates its lack of
relevance
in our daily lives. Even the British Government, with its recently
announced
plans for immigration barriers to its former allies, is prepared to
treat
the legacy of empire as an annoying anachronism.
Business Day
11 March 2008
Hopewell
Radebe
Diplomatic
Editor
ZIMBABWE yesterday released a list of international organisations
and
countries accredited to observe elections there this month.
The
move is aimed at rebutting media reports that no international observer
structures would be welcome during the March 29 poll.
"Zimbabwe
has invited countries and organisation from all parts of the world
. Our
list excludes those countries with preconceived ideas who believe that
the
only free and fair election is where the opposition wins," Zimbabwean
ambassador to SA Simon Moyo said.
The countries that have been
excluded include the US, the UK, Australia and
other European countries with
the exception of Russia.
Moyo charged that some of these countries had
already "written their
reports", and that his government had no desire "to
give such cooked
reports the credence and credibility they lack and do not
deserve".
"Foreign invitees were selected on the basis of reciprocity
as well as their
objectivity and impartiality in their relationship with
Zimbabwe."
He said all member countries in the Southern African
Development Community
were invited.
South American and some Asian
countries were coming to observe the elections
in line with the country's
electoral act and the SADC principles and
guidelines that governed
democratic elections.
He lambasted the South African media for
peddling what he called "a virulent
and vicious smear campaign by the west"
against his country that was
"certainly not out of ignorance of the facts,
but out of sheer malice".
Among other African organisations and
institutions, Zimbabwe has accredited
organisations such as the Pan African
Parliament , the African Union
Commission and the continent's five regional
economic structures.
The international institutions invited included the
Non-Aligned Movement,
the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific group of states, the
Caribbean Community,
the Association of South East Asian Nations, the Arab
Maghreb Union, the
Community of Portuguese Speaking (Lusophone) countries
and the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
The Congress
of South African Trade Unions said it welcomed the news that
some
international bodies would be invited.
Spokesman Patrick Craven said: "We
remain sceptical about the conditions
that have not been properly and
sufficiently rendered conducive for all
parties to campaign freely."
Zimbabwe had not failed to render elections
free and fair even in the
presence of international observers who monitored
earlier
elections.
"But we hope that democracy and the will of the people will
prevail this
time," he said.
New Zimbabwe
By Fikile Mapala
Last updated: 03/10/2008 23:44:00
A
LEADING Zimbabwean political commentator has predicted "unprecedented
chaos"
in elections scheduled for March 29, as European Union foreign
ministers on
Monday pushed President Robert Mugabe to ensure the electoral
process is
"free and fair".
Political scientist and independent MP for Tsholotsho
Professor Jonathan
Moyo said Zimbabwe was going into an election it could
not afford after a
constitutional amendment passed last year brought forward
council, senate,
parliamentary and presidential elections to be held on the
same day.
Moyo, a respected academic and former information minister,
said the Zanu PF
government had no capacity to run such a mammoth
election.
He said the chaos that characterised the sitting of the
nomination courts
around the country on February 15 was a clear indicator
that the government
was ill-prepared for the synchronised polls.
He
said the nomination process was marred by inadequate manpower, a
shambolic
voters' roll, power-cuts, and the unavailability of a delimitation
report to
guide candidates on constituency boundaries.
Moyo said: "You will witness
unprecedented chaos from 7AM to 7PM on March 29
not because of any political
mischief by Zanu PF, but purely on technical
grounds. The state is going to
be stretched to the limit."
Speaking to journalists at a press club in
Harare last Wednesday, Moyo said
the Zanu PF government did not have the
budget as well as the technical
capacity to successfully run the harmonised
elections - a sure recipe for
disaster.
He said: "This election is
going to be very, very expensive. I agree with
those who say democracy is
very expensive and if you look at the government
budget, you will realise
that we are going to have an election we cannot
afford."
Moyo said it
was also going to be difficult to recruit enough and reliable
manpower to
run the polls given that a lot of teachers who have worked as
polling
officers in past elections have left the country while the remaining
ones
are on strike.
Moyo said: "We do not have enough human resources to run
this election.
There are no teachers for example. The teachers who used to
be recruited as
polling officers are just not there. They have left the
country."
The former university lecturer said he got surprised to hear
that there was
a teachers' strike going on at schools.
He said: "I
wonder who is on strike because the teachers are not there. They
have left.
And I can tell you disaster is very easy to predict in such a
scenario as
ours."
Teachers went on strike last month demanding a review of their monthly
pay
after soldiers got a salary windfall which excluded all other government
workers.
Moyo blasted Mugabe -- his former boss -- for calling
"needless,
synchronised elections", saying only the presidential poll was
due since
only the state president's term of office had expired.
He
explained: "We did not need to have elections for local government
councils
and the House of Assembly. It's only the president's tenure that
had expired
and the country's constitution only required that elections be
held to elect
a president not all of us."
Mugabe's strategists, Moyo said, had come up
with the idea of the joint
elections as a way of allowing the ageing leader
to be assisted by aspiring
councillors and legislators in his controversial
re-election bid.
He observed: "Mugabe's strategy here was very simple. If
you want every Zanu
PF politician to support the candidature of the
president then you must
create a risk for them as well.
"To create
the risk, you dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections
even before
the MPs' terms have expired."
The European Union on Monday urged
President Mugabe to ensure a free and
fair poll, although EU ministers said
they were increasingly worried the
Southern African nation's dire political
and economic state will endanger a
vote that would meet international
standards.
"The voice of the people of Zimbabwe needs to be heard in free
elections, in
which they cast their votes done without ... fear," British
Foreign
Secretary David Miliband said.
"We want to see elections that
are properly free and fair. That's very
difficult when you have got 3 to 4
million refugees outside the country."
Moyo said he feared many voters
could fail to cast their ballots because of
the redrawing of constituency
boundaries and new voting procedures.
He added: "Very few people know
that these elections will be ward-based.
That knowledge is hardly known by
the electorate. For example my
constituency Tsholotsho was divided into two
and new wards were created.
People out there don't know where they will vote
from."
Moyo has predicted a second round of voting in the presidential
race, saying
it would be impossible for either President Mugabe, opposition
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai or former finance minister Simba Makoni, running as
an
independent, to get a majority 51 percent share of the votes on March 29
as
required by the constitution.
He said: "There is going to be a
run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai or
between Mugabe and Makoni. But
there won't be the same scenario between
Makoni and Tsvangirai."
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 10 March 2008 14:52
ZESN COMMENDS ZEC ON RELEASE OF
POLLING STATIONS AND URGES CORRECTIONS AND
AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF
POLLING STATIONS
Harare 10 March 2008 - The Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (ZESN) commends
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on the
recent publication of the
list of polling stations, which appeared in the
Saturday 08 March edition of
The Herald.
This information is
critical for registered voters to know where they will
vote on Election
Day."The ZEC's publication of the list of polling stations
is an important
and positive step. However, the list contains significant
errors and
relatively few polling stations in Bulawayo and Harare provinces.
ZESN
encourages the ZEC to rectify these issues so that everyone who wishes
to
vote has a reasonable opportunity to do so on. It would be unfortunate if
the problem of too few polling stations in these provinces in 2002 is
repeated", comments ZESN Board Chairperson Mr Noel Kututwa.ZESN notes that
the polling station information for Matabeleland North appears to be
scrambled - with polling stations located in the wrong constituency. For
example, Victoria Pre-School polling station is listed in Ward 1 of Binga
Rural District Council (RDC). Actually the polling station is in Victoria
Falls Municipality. This is just one of many such errors for the province.
ZESN encourages the ZEC to urgently print a corrected list of polling
stations to ensure that all registered voters know their polling stations on
Election Day.Further, ZESN notes that there is a significant discrepancy in
the number of registered voters per polling station for different provinces.
There should be some variation, but the number of registered voters per
polling station in Bulawayo and Harare is more than twice that of the other
provinces (see table below). The situation is similar in Gweru and Mutare
municipalities where the average number of register voters per polling
station is 1,234.8 and 1,277.3 respectively. As a result, the average voter
in Harare province will need to be processed in 22 seconds and some cases in
as little as 9 seconds (Chitungwiza Ward 2 - 9,281 registered voters and 2
polling stations). The average number of voters should be consistent by both
constituency and ward. ZESN encourages the ZEC to increase the number of
polling stations in Bulawayo and Harare provinces as well as other urban
centres so that all Zimbabweans have a reasonable opportunity to vote on 29
March.
Province Registered Voters Polling Stations Average Number of
Registered
Voters per Polling Station Assembly Constituencies Average Number
of
Registered Voters per Assembly Constituency
Bulawayo 313,459 207
1,514.3 12 26,121.6
Harare 766,478 379 2,022.4 29 26,430.3
Manicaland
709,664 1,150 617.1 26 27,294.8
Mashonaland Central 448,477 774 579.4 18
24,915.4
Mashonaland East 624,630 1,038 601.8 23 27,157.8
Mashonaland West
582,989 1,100 530.0 22 26,499.5
Masvingo 699,199 1,202 581.7 26
26,892.3
Matebeleland North 345,264 545 633.5 13 26,558.8
Matabeleland
South 342,280 528 648.3 13 26,329.2
Midlands 739,510 1,289 573.7 28
26,411.1
Total 5,571,950 8,212 210
ZESN urges all registered voters to go
out and vote on 29 March. Zimbabwean
people should remember that their vote
is their right and they should ensure
that that democracy prevails by
playing their part in the harmonised
elections. Ends//
PROMOTING
DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE
FOR COMMENTS AND FURTHER DETAILS
CONTACT
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
+263 (04) 250735/6 or 703956/
023277140 zesn@africaonline.co.zwThis e-mail
address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to
view it / info@zesn.org.zw
The
Herald (Harare) Published by the government of Zimbabwe
8 March
2008
Posted to the web 10 March 2008
Harare
NATIONAL Foods
managing director Joseph Jeremy Brooke was arrested on
Thursday afternoon on
allegations his company inflated prices of flour it
supplied to Lobels Bread
while owners of a city supermarket face prosecution
for charging fruit
crushes above legal prices.
Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena said Brooke was
in police custody as investigations
continue and was expected to appear in
court soon on charges of contravening
the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission Act.
He said
allegations against National Foods arose on February 18 after it
sold 22,5
tonnes of flour to Lobels Bread at $900 million per tonne. The
gazetted
price of flour at that time was $600 million per tonne.
Asst Comm
Bvudzijena said Lobels Bread was then asked to make the payment in
two
instalments: one of $13,5 billion into the National Foods account (which
covered the legal price) and another of $6,75 billion to a Harare company
called Welfareslide. According to police, National Foods inflated the price
by $6,75 billion.
On February 2, it is further alleged, National
Foods sold another 44 tonnes
of flour to Lobels Bread at $2,5 billion per
tonne instead of the gazetted
$600 million.
National Foods was paid
$110 billion, prejudicing Lobels Bread of $83,6
billion, it is
alleged.
In the other case, inspectors of the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission
allegedly found Food King Supermarket along Julius
Nyerere Way was selling
two litres of Mazoe Orange Crush for $33 million
while other syrups were
being sold for $30 million.
The approved
price for Mazoe Orange Crush is $22,5 million and $19 million
for other
syrups.
When NIPC chairman Mr Godwills Masimirembwa, acting chief
executive officer
Mr Esau Ndlovu and the commission's inspectors visited the
supermarket
yesterday afternoon, the prices of Mazoe Orange Crush and other
syrups had
allegedly been increased again with Mazowe Orange set at $85
million and
other syrups at $70 million, said Mr
Masimirembwa.
Invoices from the producer (Schweppes) indicated that the
supermarket bought
1 064 cases of Mazoe Orange Crush on February 25, 2008
and were given the
prices at which the commodities were supposed to be
sold.
Sokwanele
The mix of
politics and business becomes more and more of a feature in each
businessman's mind.
There are now renewed threats by the pricing
Commission and this time they
are stating that there will be "No fines"
meaning that offenders will
automatically go to Jail.
This is no
doubt an election ploy to force down prices artificially and
attempt to
deceive voters by placing the blame for economic failure on the
battered
business community.
The USD is now trading as high as 46 million (46
billion at the old values)
and some traders have stopped dealing as they
hang onto forex to try and
achieve the biggest advantage possible on the
escalating rate. This puts
further pressure on the supply as demand remains
healthy despite weak
production levels.
The lowest paid Grade One
worker is now moving into the executive tax
bracket of 47,5% and this is a
nightmare for employers who simply end up
paying the tax man and not their
productive workers> who they wish to reward
and protect from hyper
inflation.
This entry was written by Sokwanele on Monday, March
10th, 2008
Mail and Guardian
Percy
Zvomuya: ANALYSIS
10 March 2008 12:00
The state-owned Zimbabwean newspaper the Herald last week
reported that
Citigroup and SABMiller were among the international companies
funding Simba
Makoni's bold bid for the presidency, and argued that this
confirmed reports
that "his election bid was part of the Western
regime-change
agenda".
Both companies have denied the reports, but the
Herald's claim
may nonetheless be damaging to Makoni's campaign, especially
in the rural
areas of Zimbabwe and on the African continent. In a way it
recalls the
image that has again come back to haunt the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) -- that of white farmers making out cheques to the
newly formed party
as foreign cameras flashed.
It was a
tactless image; one that the MDC privately regrets and
which the world-wise
Zanu-PF seized as incontrovertible evidence that the
MDC was a
neo-conservative project of the United States and British
governments.
Former information minister Jonathan Moyo's
propaganda machinery
argued that the MDC's entire raison d'ętre was to
frustrate Zanu-PF's
revolutionary programme of transferring land from whites
to landless blacks.
In an oblique sense, Zanu-PF was right -- white farmers'
support for the MDC
was full of self-interest; they wanted to preserve their
privileged status
as rich landowners.
But what was
conveniently forgotten in the developing world,
where Robert Mugabe became
an instant hero, was the fact that the MDC was a
genuine grassroots-based
party with popular appeal. The crisis in Zimbabwe
had its genesis in poor
governance, not in land imbalances. Although land
issues remained prominent,
most Zimbabweans felt that the Mugabe regime was
misgoverning the
country.
Another fact that was conveniently overlooked was
that Zanu-PF
and its top functionaries were not loath to receive money from
the "hated
imperialists". In the past, Zanu-PF and senior party members
received
support from the multinational Lonrho - the sanctions-busting
company that
propped up the Ian Smith regime -- and from other white
benefactors who
mistreated farm workers.
Whether
SABMiller and Citigroup support Makoni is the subject of
another discussion.
It has been reported that what actually happened is that
an employee of
SABMiller attended the function in a personal capacity. But
the state
information machinery won't let such details stand in its way. It
argued
that "the event confirms that the British are working tirelessly to
affect
regime change in Zimbabwe by funding opposition parties and
groups".
What the incident has done is to allow Mugabe to
again stoke
passionate anger over the question of land -- an issue that has
not been at
the fore for quite some time. "The country is ours and, as long
as we are in
leadership, we shall never allow the British to come here
again; we have
taken the land permanently," Mugabe recently declared with
his customary
bravado.
Perhaps we should examine Makoni's
prospects. There is no way he
can defeat Mugabe, the odds are very much
against him. His importance is
more symbolic and salutary. He is the symbol
of the realisation that the
Zanu-PF edifice may yet crumble. Reports carried
in the state media confirm
this.
The Herald reported this
week that vice-president Joseph Msika
admitted that "he sometimes differs
with President Mugabe, [but] their
differences were on minor issues and not
on principles". That's a telling
admission. And Makoni is the public face of
these differences. But he should
be wary, lest his campaign be sullied the
way the MDC's credentials have
been compromised.
I had a brief and uncomfortable conversation today with a
friend.
There is much confusion and its difficult to sort out the truth from
the
propaganda.
In the end, we will all go into the booth on 29 March and
make our choices.
Our vote is indeed our secret.
The last 8 years
have been extrodinary as well as difficult and stressful;
we have made the
first major challenges to the status quo and many have lost
a great deal and
all of our lives have been changed beyond recognition. I
acknowledge and
respect the role that Morgan Tsvangirai has played in that
process; and he
will always hold a special place in my my heart and in our
history. He, and
many others who we may have already forgotten.
Nevertheless, the last 2
years have not been good ones in Tsvangirai's
faction and I have increasing
concerns about his leadership ability,
especially looking at the inevitable
changes ahead. Whether we like it or
not, we have to live in the same space
as those who have perpetrated acts of
aggression against us or who have
remained silent. We are all complict one
way or another - let us not forget
that many of those in the oppostion were
at one time members of Zanu PF;
that while farmers were under siege, urban
voices were silent. There are
many shades between black and white, between
the good and the bad.
I
think we have become very polarised and are stuck in an MDC - Zanu PF
dynamic and that this is no longer productive but only continues to deepen
the divisions between us. How much longer can we hold these fixed positions
while everything around us crumbles and dies?
Loyalty is a great
quality, but we have to ask to what exactly are we being
loyal. The argument
that we should continue voting for Tsvangirai because of
his past
contribution is the same argument used by Mugabe as to why we
should vote
for him. Didn't he liberate the country from colonial shackles
and therefore
we should continue loyalty well beyond his abiltiy or
willingness to deliver
"the goods"?
Sometimes, we have to step back from emotional loyalty and
look to the
greater good. In this circumstance, I always think of the
politics of
post-WW2 Britain. Winston Churchill had led them through the
dark and
difficult war years to success, yet the first election afterwards
he was
voted right out. While Churchill's role was applauded and
appreciated, the
voting public also realised that he was not a peace-time
leader and out he
went. Despite that, 50 years later he still remains one of
the most popular
British leaders of all time.
Not voting for someone
is not necessarily being disloyal to that individual.
People's contributions
to a cause, does not bestow the entitlement of office
or reward. We do what
we do because it is the right thing, not because we
expect high office. If
Tsvangirai doesn't make it to the Presidency, I will
stilll respect and
honour him. I just want to see my country begin the road
to recovery, both
nationally and individually.
regards
Verity
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 06:00
National University of Science
and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe, held an
extra-ordinary general meeting on
Monday, 03 March 2008 to delebarate about
the current political developments
in the country, satanic fees currently
being charged by the university
administration and bread and butter issues
affecting the students.
The
students note with a heavy heart the emerging of Dr Simba Makoni as the
third force in the March harmonised presidential elections. As the
intelligensia of the nation, students took their time to analyse all the
prons and cons concerning this issue. Movement for Democratic Change( MDC),
a labour party, was formed in September 1999 and have less than a decade in
Zimbabwean politics. Their core value is social democracy and are against
the dictatorial rule of the current ZANU-PF regime. Dr Makoni should have
co-joined hands with other pro-democratic forces like them, to build a
strong opposition. With such a background, students declared Dr Makoni's
presidential candidature as null and void. Students declared to strongly
rally behind Movement for Democratic Change in these coming
electiopns.
Pertaining to the satanic fees, students declared that no student
will pay
until their concerns are heard. A five member delegation was
summoned to
ingarge the ministry of higher and tertiary education to discuss
the fees
issue and the current education funding policy. Food remain a
problem at
college, the problem is rooted in the current economic hardships
being
experienced in the country. The problem need to be addressed at
national
level. Student leaders we instructed to convey the message to all
relevant
stackholders so as to come up with long lasting solution.
The
moto during the meeting was, "We do not have permanent friends but
permanent
interests".
Inserted by
Langton Muchembere
Students Representative
Council, President
DR SIMBA MAKONI – Former SADC Executive
Secretary, Finance Minister and firebrand Zimbabwean politician and leading
African academic is running for President in the forth coming elections on March
29
On Saturday, the 08/03/2008 at Birmingham and Midlands Institute saw the
birth of Simba Makoni, Mavambo , Kusile , Dawn – UK Steering Committee. Below
is the team that will be mobilising Resources and support in the UK.
SIMBA
MAKONI UK STEERING COMMITTEE
Chairman
Mr Jennings Rukani – Mobile:
07737272179 –
rukanijennings@hotmail.com
Sub-Committees
Information and
Publicity
Chair: Mr Durani Rapozo – Mobile: 07877212593 –
rapozo_durani@hotmail.com
Members: Dr John Tsimba – Mobile:
07506708860 – jztsimba@yahoo.co.uk
Mr Everisto Kamera
– Mobile: 07825161558 – KameraEveristo@aol.com
Ms
Gladys Mahoko – Mobile: 07887485927 –
gmmahoko@yahoo.co.uk
Mr Noble Sibanda – Mobile:
07796340237 – conferencesms@yahoo.co.uk
Finance and
Business
Chair: Mr Silence Chihuri – Mobile: 07706376705 –
silencechihuri@googlemail.com
Vice: Mr Albert Weidemann – Mobile: 07917156093
– albertweidemann@fsnet.co.uk
Secretariat
Secretary: Mrs
Sarudzayi Barnes – Mobile: 07962355187 –
sarudzayibarnes@btinternet.com
Vice: Mr Jefferson Mhanda –
Mobile: 07872901633 – jfmhanda@yahoo.com
Member: Mr Moses Nyagodzi
– Mobile: 07778547971 - mahuswa2000@yahoo.co.uk
Organising
Chair:
Mr Givemore Chindawi – Mobile: 07948086037 –
givemorechindawi2000@yahoo.co.uk
Member: (Women) Ms Virginia Ncube
– 079887699156 – virginiancube@yahoo.com
Vice
Ms Tina Ngwenya – 07949034697 – sngwenya238@btinternet.com
(Youth) Mr
David Bizabani – 07917867801 – dbizabani@yahoo.co.uk
Vice Mr Njabulo Ngwenya – 07947221885 -
rastaz9@yahoo.com
Please note that anyone who wants to participate and join
us in mobilising
resources can contact our Chairperson, Organising Secretary
and our Finance
and Business Committee team.
Thank you,
By
Simba Makoni –UK Steering Committee Publicity
Department(simba_mavambokusiledawn@yahoo.com)
News24
10/03/2008 15:08 -
(SA)
Machipanda - Zimbabwean orphans Evans, 13, and Edmond Mahlangu,
8, have
crossed a mountain range on foot to get to Mozambique, where they
are slowly
recovering on life-saving Aids drugs in short supply back
home.
"We walked for a day in the mountains. We had to keep quiet because
of the
guards," recounted the boys' 17-year-old sister, Emmaculate, who made
the
10km journey with her HIV-positive siblings at the beginning of
February.
"It was tough above all for my brothers. They had to walk alone
because I
was carrying bags."
The children had taken refuge with an
aunt not far from the Machipanda
border post in the central Mozambican
province of Manica.
Orphaned in 2006, the children lived with their
grandmother in Mutare on the
Zimbabwean side of the border until she
banished them in January.
"My grandmother chased us away. She was afraid
of the boys because they are
sick. She was scared to touch them, even to
cook for them," Emmaculate said.
'We accommodate all
patients'
Without any identity documents, the children fled to Mozambique
as little
hope remained in their home country with a critical lack of food
and drugs
and official inflation exceeding 100 000%.
This state of
affairs was widely blamed on longtime President Robert Mugabe
whose
controversial land reform policies, seizing white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless blacks, all but killed commercial agriculture and
scared off foreign investors.
Evans and Edmond were put on
anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment as soon as they
arrived in Mozambique. "I
feel better now. It's not so bad as before," the
elder boy said timidly, his
body covered in a severe rash.
The boys had been given ARVs once before,
back home in Zimbabwe, but
government-sponsored drugs were hard to come by
and private sector prices
were prohibitive.
"We accommodate all
patients without discriminiating."
Mozambican officials say Zimbabweans
flock across the border to access ARVs.
"Hundreds of Zimbabweans come
here to get Aids treatment that Mozambique
provides for free," said a local
coordinator of the national council against
Aids, a government
body.
The Zimbabwean beneficiaries' numbers are not well
documented.
"We accommodate all patients without discriminating," said
provincial head
doctor Marilia Pugas.
More than 100 000 HIV-positive
people now receive free ARV treatment in
Mozambique, up from 7 000 in
2005.
"It is extraordinary. But the costs are enormous," said Maurico
Cysne,
Mozambican representative of the United Nations Programme on AIDS
(UNAIDS).
"Treatment costs $50 a year." One of the poorest countries in
the world,
Mozambique, like most of southern Africa was buckling under the
impact of
Aids.
'There are prostitutes all over'
It had an
average HIV prevalence rate of 16% of the population, rising to
23% in some
areas of Manica, a transit point for heavy trucks making their
way from
Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi to the Mozambican port of Beira.
"There are
prostitutes all along the route," said an official "Many are
Zimbabweans
more concerned about survival than protecting themselves against
Aids."
According to UNAIDS latest statistics, Zimbabwe's HIV
prevalence was on the
decrease with 15.6% of adults between 15 and 49
affected.
With the scrapping of visa requirements between the two
countries last
November, the number of Zimbabweans crossing into Mozambique
had risen
sharply.
Paradoxically, clandestine migration also shot up
as Zimbabwean authorities
were unable to reverse a massive backlog in
issuing passports required to
enter Mozambique.
"In January, 22 636
Zimbabweans, mostly women, crossed the border legally at
three posts in
Manica, most through Machipanda - up from 8 971 in January
2007," said
provincial migration service director Felipe Cumbe.
"They are allowed to
stay for 30 days but 85% make their purchases and
return. We don't know what
happens to the other 15%."
"Many others, including children and very
young girls, cross illegally,"
added Alberto Limeme, customs chief of
Machipanda.
Vanguard (Lagos)
10
March 2008
Posted to the web 10 March 2008
Gabriel
Enogholase
Lagos
Edo State Government at the weekend said that it has
held talks with White
Zimbabwean farmers on the possibility of establishing
large commercial farms
in the state.
Currently Zimbabwean farmers are
in Kwara State where they have established
mechanised
farms.
Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Farm Development,
Ms. Uwa
Osunbor, who disclosed this in Benin said that representatives of
the
Zimbabwean farmers had already inspected sites in three local govenment
areas in the northern part of the state, adding that each farmer would
require about a thousand hectares, saying that the arrangement would be
comprehensive, giving room for farming processing and export, adding that,
"We have the land and the climate. Since they are willing to come ,'why
not'. We went to three local governments where the chairmen were ready and
willing to accept them."
Ms. Osunbor disclosed that Etsako West,
Etsako Central where the farmers
visited would be suitable for rice farming
just as Uhunmwode and Uromi would
be a good place for pineapple and
oranges.
She, however, said that the farmers would not just be let in to
make their
profit and go away. "They will teach new technologies to our
farmers; how to
apply fertiliser and more."
The special adviser
allayed fears that the farmers would take away the
farmlands from the
indigenous owners, saying, "It is the indigenous people
that will benefit.
Most of the land is wasting away. We have over 200,000
hectares of land
wasting away," even as she indicated that some American
farmers were soon to
come for inspection.
The Daily Catalyst Monday 10 March
10 March 200
As the world commemorated
International Women's day on the 8th of March
2008, Zimbabwean women had
nothing to celebrate as the socio-economic and
political crisis in Zimbabwe
worsens with women being the most affected. The
theme for this year's
commemoration was 'Investing in women and girls'.
According to the World
Health Organisation (WHO), the life expectancy rate
for Zimbabwean women is
standing at 34 years as compared to 60 years at
independence which is lower
than that in war torn areas. Iraq's life
expectancy rate stands at 61 years,
Afghanistan, more than 40 years and
Sudan, 57.
The inflation rate
was, at the end of January 2008, pegged at 100,580.2%[1]
while 85% of the
population in Zimbabwe are living in abject poverty. Women
continue to bear
the brunt of the soaring economy. Sanitary ware, which is a
basic right for
any female is being sold for more than Z$30 million, which
is way beyond the
reach of the majority. Many women have thus been driven
into prostitution
due to the economic hardships being faced in the country.
HIV and AIDS
have ravaged families with females being the worst burdened
with nursing the
family members who have succumbed to the deadly disease.
WHO reports that
approximately 3 500 people are dying in Zimbabwe every week
mainly due to
the AIDS pandemic and related illnesses. Women are forced to
care for the
sick as stereotypically they are viewed as caregivers. This has
impacted
heavily on the women who still have to wake up in the early hours
of the day
to pursue their daily chores of fetching the basic commodities
which are in
short supply.
The government, which is supposed to be promoting women's
rights, continues
to expose them to abuse through its uniformed forces. On
19 February 2008
when the Progressive Teacher's Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
leaders were
illegally detained by the ZANU PF youth militia, the women who
were among
those detained reported that they were beaten on their private
parts and
accused of being prostitutes. This was in full view of a police
officer from
the Harare Central Law and Order section.
In addition,
women are being harassed by the police under 'Operation Chipo
chiroorwa'
(Chipo get married) where the police are targeting prostitutes.
However, a
number of innocent women have been incarcerated and accused of
prostitution
even in instances when they have been sported returning to
their homes from
buying groceries. Such actions by those tasked with
safeguarding the law
show how stakeholders are failing to uplift females.
As state party to
the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW),
the Zimbabwean government should promote and respect
women's rights in order
to fully invest in women and girls. The government
should improve the
social, political and economic environment which allows
both men and women
to have equal opportunities if the country is to develop
in line with the
Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]
Central Statistical Office-January 2008