The Zimbabwean
BY
A CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - The senior Anglican prelate in Central Africa
has dropped all
charges against Harare's controversial Bishop Nolbert
Kunonga, an ardent
supporter of the Mugabe regime, causing outrage in the
church and demands
for the trial to resume.
Diocese of Harare
Chancellor Bob Stumbles, a leading lawyer, learned only
through press
reports in Russia's Pravda and Zimbabwe's state-run Herald
that Archbishop
Bernard Malango of Malawi, the head of the Church of the
Province of Central
Africa, had ordered that the charges be dropped. The
string of charges,
brought by mostly black parishioners and priests, ranged
from incitement to
commit murder to bringing the church into disrepute.
"The time has come
to speak out against what is turning out to be a travesty
of justice,"
Stumbles declared in a statement last week. He said the
archbishop had no
right under church laws to make this ruling and that
Kunonga's trial must
resume.
Stumbles, a well-known lawyer who is also the Deputy Chancellor
of the
Anglican Central Africa province covering Botswana, Malawi, Zambia
and
Zimbabwe, said the archbishop's unilateral ruling violated "the laws of
evidence, the laws of the church and natural justice." "It is submitted that
his ruling is null and void and that the archbishop has not fulfilled his
lawful obligation as holder of that office," added
Stumbles.
Originally, the ecclesiastical trial of Kunonga was ordered by
the
archbishop. The hearing convened in Harare last August and quickly
turned
into a farce, getting bogged down in technicalities raised by
Kunonga's
lawyers before the judge, James Kalaile of Malawi's Supreme Court,
announced
he was standing down and would ask the archbishop to appoint
another judge.
For six months, the archbishop dodged demands for the
trial to resume under
another judge. Then came the report by Pravda. The
agency quoted
unidentified officials at the Harare diocese as saying that
the archbishop
in a letter dated December 19 last year had informed the
region's 12 bishops
that the case against Kunonga had been dropped, adding:
"The matter is
closed and cannot be revived."
Kunonga, 55, has long
been a controversial figure. His activities range from
preaching sermons in
support of Mugabe and the ruling Zanu (PF) party;
receiving at least two
seized white-owned farms; trying to ban the duly
elected church council of
Harare's Cathedral of St. Mary's and All Saints;
to allegedly seeking help
from state security agents and militant war
veterans to have 10 parishioners
and priests killed because they opposed his
tenure.
When the
ecclesiastical trial opened briefly in Harare it was filled with
black
Anglicans ready to give evidence against the bishop. One priest, the
Rev.
James Mukunga, who fled Zimbabwe in 2004, submitted an affidavit that
the
bishop had sought to murder critics.
The hearing ended before Kunonga was
asked to plead. But he appeared
delighted at the outcome, emerging from the
court-room wearing a cerise
cassock and claiming victory.
There was
no immediate explanation of why Archbishop Malango has apparently
decided to
try to suppress the matter and clear Harare's embarrassing
bishop, who is
among the supporters of the regime named in a U.S. travel
ban. Malango said
in his letter to the bishops that anyone seeking to bring
charges against a
bishop must not raise "purely administrative issues masked
as canonical
offences."
'This veiled threat against the persons whose very complaints
the archbishop
once recognised as triable is ill-founded and misleading,"
said Stumbles,
adding that the laws of the church province make no
distinction between
"canonical" and "purely administrative"
offences.
Stumbles said Archbishop Malango has "no jurisdiction to
interrupt or close
the trial, which he himself ordered to take place, nor
does he have the
right to usurp the authority of the court. He does, however
have the right
and duty to make sure the case is resumed."
"The
archbishop needs to be called upon to comply with the laws of the
province,
appoint another judge immediately and reconvene the court
forthwith," he
added.
The Zimbabwean
BY SKID MASUKU
With the emergence of militarist groups
in the struggle to overcome Robert
Mugabe's repressive rule in Zimbabwe, the
country's crisis may be heading
for a new dimension that could lead to
convoluted circumstances for the
entire region.
The militants declare
that peaceful means to effect democratic rule have
failed, largely
frustrated by Mugabe's government, and so the sole option to
gain freedom is
through the barrel of a gun.
At this moment, such groups may not be taken
very seriously by some
observers, ostensibly because their operations are
carried out in a
clandestine manner. It would however be naïve for serious
thinkers to
dismiss such groups as non-existent impostors who want to reap
financial
gain from supporters.
A high degree of secrecy is normally
observed in militant movements, as it
is paramount for the survival of
members. Considering the omnipresence of
the CIO in and outside the country,
if the militants operate openly they
wouldn't last long enough to effect any
change in Zimbabwe.
To date, such groups include the controversy-ridden
Zimbabwe Action Support
Group (ZASG), the even more covert Zimbabwe
Patriotic Resistance Forum
(ZPRF) and the newly announced Patriotic Military
Front (PMF), all of which
call for a violent confrontation with the Zanu
(PF) government.
Viewed from a certain angle, allegations that the ZASG
faked having
addressed 'star rallies' in Maputo may be immaterial; though
they have cast
a great deal of doubt on its credibility. Nonetheless, the
group still
deserves the benefit of the doubt, in that as a purported
militant
organization, as distinguished from a strictly political one, it
has to
operate differently.
MDC chairperson Isaac Matongo recently
berated the ZASG, which he said was
formed by his opponent in the 'other
MDC' Welshman Ncube. He accused it of
misleading the nation and SADC region,
and threatened to close it down. He
also distanced his party from the group,
which was a wise thing to do to
protect his faction from being branded as
being aligned to a dubious and
violent organisation.
The emergence of
the Zimbabwe Patriotic Resistance Forum (ZPRF) is another
indication of
possibly scary times to come. Its spokesperson, Gen Ibva
Chembere, announced
in a recent press statement that the group is planning
armed resistance to
topple Mugabe's despotic regime, as is the Patriotic
Military Front
(PMF).
Anyone who calls for armed insurrection against any government in
the world
must know that he is drawing armed attention to himself. For
journalists to
pose questions to the ZASG's Rodgers Mudarikwa or the ZPRF's
Gen Chembere
about their clandestine activities, just as they would with
ordinary
opposition politicians, may not draw the desired
results.
Mudarikwa's seemingly confused response about the 'faked'
rallies may carry
conflicting perceptions, since a rally may be one thing to
an ordinary
politician or journalist, and something different to a militant
fighter. A
group of 10 armed resistance fighters may meet at a secret venue
and hammer
out strategies to overthrow the Zanu (PF) government, and to them
that might
be considered a 'star' rally.
In the past, similarly
clandestine militant groups have emerged in Africa
and succeeded in
overthrowing repressive regimes, albeit sometimes replacing
them with
similar ones. All those initially mobilized secretly, till they
gathered
enough momentum to conduct bold operations and publicise their
operations.
The weapons and personnel can easily come from the
Zimbabwe National Army
(ZNA) itself, since it contains thousands of
disgruntled soldiers who only
need direction and encouragement to overthrow
the despot.
Such a development certainly keeps the CIO on its toes, and
probably eases
its focus on ordinary opposition politicians and harmless
citizens. Given
its ineptitude, displayed ever since it was formed by the
Rhodesian security
services decades ago, the CIO is very likely to suspect
the wrong people,
arrest, torture and even murder them.
As a
political organization, the MDC does well to distance itself from the
ZASG,
not only because it may have been formed by a rival faction
leader.
Plunging the country into civil chaos in order to save it is
certainly not a
pleasant option, and would lead to untold suffering.
However, at this stage
the indication is that it may be the alternative that
provides hope for the
suffering people of Zimbabwe, since their preferred
MDC political leaders
were rigged out of power and now seem to have run out
of ideas. Those who
protest continue to be routinely detained without trial,
assaulted and
humiliated in police custody.
This is probably prime
time for South African President Thabo Mbeki to
increase the volume on his
diplomacy over the Zimbabwean crisis, if the
'quiet' one still exists at
all. The same applies to other regional and
African Union leaders, all of
whom have so far appeared terrified of the
Zimbabwean despot.
Leaders
of the global onslaught against terrorism also have to remember that
civil
strife is a fertile recruitment ground for international terrorists,
and
should at least get interested in the events unraveling in Zimbabwe.
They
have seen the terrorism in East Africa, following the Somalian collapse
of
government and ensuing civil chaos. Resulting from a meltdown in
Zimbabwe,
the terror venues may shift from Nairobi to Harare, Johannesburg,
Maputo,
Lusaka and Gaborone; so George Bush be warned.
The Zimbabwean
BY RITA
PERRY
HARARE - A few nights back I was invited to a farewell
dinner given by a
small local company. I sat next to a young man who told
me that he grew up
in what used to be a thriving commercial farming
area.
Usually when people from that area tell me that they come from
there I
assume that they are referring to the nearest rural area. But he
shook his
head and said he'd grown up on a commercial farm, the son of a
tractor
driver.
I lived in that area for a year or so in the 1960's.
As a farm assistant's
wife I would have held a marginally higher status than
a tractor driver's
son! It certainly wasn't all roses and I remarked that
it must have been
difficult.
"It was wonderful!" he replied, to my
surprise.
"I was very fortunate. I had a great childhood and it's often
only when
you've lost something that you really understand how valuable it
was.
"It was so beautiful then. If the council didn't mow the verges
then the
farmers did and it all looked so good. Not like it looks now!
It's a real
mess. I went out there a couple of weeks ago to visit my
father. I thought
about how sometimes at the weekend we went on the trailer
to play football
on other farms. It was a good life."
It was so
refreshing that he remembered so many good things.
"The farmer's wife was
so kind to people, she'd take them to the hospital or
wherever they needed
to go. Sometimes the farmers or their wives would give
us a lift to or from
school in the back of the truck. But often we had to
walk the five
kilometres there and back. We never missed a day of school."
He spoke
highly of the younger generation of one of the well-known farming
families.
They're now in Australia but they were instrumental in helping
him on his
way. And he was employed by the son of another one of those
families who
promoted him to the office after less than a month of working
in the
lands.
There wasn't a name, of a person or a farm, which I could think of
that he
didn't know. And I was intrigued by the minute detail that he knew
about
the lives of so many of the farmers. He's a diplomatic man though and
when
I asked him about people who I remember as being perfect shits, he
would
merely mention the name of the farm and say he knew of
them!
"What was the name of the people who would have been on your farm
in the
late 1960's?" I asked.
"It is difficult to know because we
often called the farmers by nicknames.
The names usually referred to
mannerisms or quirks of behaviour and I only
know the name Khami."
I
asked if Khami had a meaning and he said not as far as he knew. Then he
called his older brother on his cell phone and when he'd finished talking he
mentioned the name of a man who had become a legend in that area. I never
met him but I knew who Khami was.
He was a boy of seven when Khami
and his family left the farm. He remembers
how they ran along side their
car all the way to the main road and that the
adults were crying as they
watched them leave.
His father still lives on the plot of land he was
given all those years ago.
And it's to protect him that his son asked me not
to name the area. He's
in his 90's now and came originally from
Malawi.
His father never went to school. And there was something about
the way he
spoke about him that was so loving and so proud. He said that his
father has
an uncanny ability to remember not just dates but also the day of
the week.
When telling a story in the great African oral tradition he'll
always add
that it was a Wednesday for example. His son checked him out on
the
Internet on a day in 1953 and found that he was right!
That his
father never went to school couldn't change the intelligence that
was passed
on to his children who had that benefit.
Africa is full of highly
intelligent people who are uneducated. And
unfortunately the reverse is
also true and we have far too many educated
fools!
"We were never
hungry you know," he continued, "People were not hungry then.
If a man had
many children he was given more maize meal and beans. We had
vegetables,
milk and sometimes meat when an ox was killed."
What came through with
such stunning clarity was that this man had grown up
as part of a thriving
and flourishing community. Hilary Clinton makes the
point that a child
needs a village. The child that this man once was had
the good fortune to
have that sense of belonging. He also has the
intelligence to appreciate
it.
I came home in a pensive mood and thought about how uplifted I felt
by his
story. In the midst of this senseless destruction and suffering it
felt
like the flicker of a candle flame, one that has never quite gone
out.
The Zimbabwean
BULAWAYO - A cabinet
minister considered by many to be one of Robert Mugabe's
favourites could be
facing as many as 50 years in jail for stealing cattle
if the normally
selective arm of the law catches up with her.
Mugabe went to
extraordinary lengths to secure Sithembiso Nyoni's
ministerial status after
her loss in parliamentary elections made her
ineligible for cabinet under
the country's constitution. The small to medium
scale enterprises minister
survived after Mugabe appointed her to the newly
created
senate.
Three of her workers have been arrested for stock theft after 14
cattle were
found on her farm in Matabeleland South.
According to the
state-owned Sunday News the cattle, which belong to Nyoni's
neighbour, a
white commercial farmer Robert Bruce Moffat, are being held at
a secret
location for use as exhibits for any future trial. Moffat has so
far lost
over 50 cattle to rustlers. Under old colonial laws inherited from
the
Rhodesian government the country has stiff jail sentences for cattle
rustling.
Several ordinary Zimbabweans have been slapped with jail
sentences ranging
from 30 to 60 years in prison. It remains to be seen if
Nyoni will face the
same type of justice. Given the political favours Mugabe
has granted her
however, few expect the matter to go anywhere further than a
'closed door'
rebuke. - Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa
10/03/06 |
Z$ |
|
|
Mealie Meal - 5
kg |
235,000 |
Yoghurt - 150 ml |
53,000 |
Bovrite - Zimbabwean equivalent of Bovril |
451,000 |
Sugar - 2 kg |
n/a |
Apples - 1 kg |
305,000 |
Lettuce - One |
49,000 |
Rape - 4 leaves |
15,000 |
Onions - Only Imported available - 1 kg |
228,000 |
Margarine - Buttercup 2 kg |
835,000 |
Eggs - 1 dozen |
244,000 |
Cooking Oil - 750 ml |
260,000 |
Milk - 500 ml |
54,000 |
Baked Beans - 425 grams |
100,000 |
Stay Soft - 750 ml |
235,000 |
Shampoo - Local - 750 ml |
431,000 |
Deodarant - 45ml |
370,500 |
Sanitary pads - 10 |
475,000 |
Schweppes Lemon 300 ml- with deposit |
34,000 |
Coke/Fanta/Sprite/Soda etc |
n/a |
Two Torch Batteries |
317,000 |
Dettol - 50 ml |
126,000 |
Johnsons Baby Oil - 200 ml |
469,000 |
Johnsons Baby Acqueous Cream - 100 ml |
307,000 |
Sanpic - 750 ml |
734,500 |
Kitchen Scourers - 3 |
399,000 |
Small Marshmallow Easter Egg |
25,000 |
The Zimbabwean
'Ncube's whole life is an
act of selfless love'
Pope Benedict has chosen to write his first
universal letter on love. It has
met with a refreshing reception even among
those who have nothing to do with
the Catholic Church. There, sitting
uncomfortably on the pages of the
world's papers, which deal so much with
violence, hatred, fraud and revenge,
is an article about a world leader who
writes on love.
No one can object to his choice because everyone knows
that the most
fundamental thing about our existence is our desire to love
and be loved.
The pope is quite daring, at least in Catholic eyes used to
traditional
reticence on the subject, in speaking about eros as the first
wellspring of
love. This Greek word, source of our common word erotic, only
appears twice
in the scriptures, he tells us, and both times in the Old
Testament.
But Benedict is determined to trace love from its origins to
its goal. Eros,
he says, represents an indeterminate "searching" love,
whilst agape -
another Greek word - is the typical expression of the
biblical notion of
love 'which involves a real discovery of the other,
moving beyond the
selfish character that prevailed earlier' (with eros). So
love, that most
powerful force that 'makes the world go round,' has to move
from eros to
agape, from self-centredness to concern for another person or
for other
people. It is purified through life's difficulties and often
considerable
suffering.
Pope Benedict moves on to the implications of
love for our human society.
Love is meaningless unless it is expressed in
action for justice. The
traditional Marxist analysis used to see charity as
a pernicious way of
delaying revolutionary change. It salved the conscience
of the rich to give
something from their excessive wealth to the poor. In so
doing the rich
blunted the anger of the poor and oppressed.
There is
some truth in this. But what kind of love would it be to let the
hungry
starve so that the revolution comes sooner? We have to respond to
suffering
now but we also have to work for justice now. Truly, says
Benedict, creating
a just society is the work of politics and the church
cannot do it. But the
Church has to proclaim the demand for justice. He
quotes Augustine of Hippo
(North Africa) who wrote in the fifth century,
remota itaque iustitia quid
sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia, a government
that does not function
according to justice is just a bunch of thieves.
Benedict goes on: The
Church cannot and must not take upon herself the
political battle to bring
about the most just society possible. She cannot
and must not replace the
State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not
remain on the sidelines
in the fight for justice. She has to play her part
through rational argument
and she has to awaken the spiritual energy without
which justice, which
always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A
just society must be
the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the
promotion of justice
through efforts to bring about openness of mind and
will to the demands of
the common good is something that concerns the Church
deeply. (No.
28)
There was a recent article in the Herald trying to isolate Archbishop
Pius
Ncube from his fellow bishops. What the writer fails to understand is
that
the archbishop is expressing the mind of the Church and his whole life
is an
act of selfless love.
The Zimbabwean
BY MUONGORORI
For those of you
who have not lived in Africa, an African storm is a
fearsome thing. The day
will be hot and breathless and about mid afternoon
you will hear a low
rumble in the distance. In a short while the wind comes
up and the black
clouds tower majestically into the skies above.
Suddenly lighting splits
the sky and the clouds seem to be cut in half as
the air rushes into the
space created by the heat of 'God's fire'. Then
comes the rain falling in
vast wet sheets across the open veld. In seconds
the gullies are full and in
minutes the streams are rising out of their
banks. When the storm passes we
are left with the roar of nearby rivers as
they rush down to the
lowlands.
Each of the seasons of Africa has their own special character.
Of them all I
appreciate the late summer and early winter - it is still
green and lush,
the rivers are running and yet it is cool and dry, often
with zero humidity.
The early mornings are just superb, the early light from
the rising sun,
cool and crisp atmosphere and the joy of the birdsong. The
late evenings,
iridescent greens and fantastic skies with the glow of the
setting sun. The
early night sky, clear as crystal with millions of stars
and a translucent
moon, the night sounds, a roar of crickets, the rasping
grunts of frogs, the
soft cry of a nightjar.
As I write this, a storm
approaches - I am nervous for the computer and my
modem, but the news of the
day compels me to write again of the storm over
Zimbabwe.
At a cost
of Z$10 thousand million dollars, our president recently held his
birthday
party in Mutare - a City close to the epicenter of the earthquake
that hit
this region a day later. He arrived, I am told, in a 150-vehicle
convoy with
his own ambulance, a contingent of the Presidential guard and
dozens of
Ministers (we have 58 at last count) all of whom would have been
accommodated in local hotels and lodges at even more expense.
At the
rally held by local Zanu (PF) "chefs" thousands gathered - many were
simply
told to attend (school children) others were forced to attend by
roaming
Police and Army patrols. They arrived at 09.00 hrs and sat in the
sun until
12.00 when the "great man" arrived to speak. He spoke for an hour
and then,
without even a free cool drink, they were told to go home while
the elite
went off to a fabulous spread.
Then the shocking news from an IMF press
conference in Washington that our
estimated budget deficit in 2005 was 60
per cent (yes, I said SIXTY per
cent) of our GDP. In 2004 it was a "moderate
24 per cent). No wonder our
currency is spiralling out of control and prices
are rising so fast we
cannot keep track any more.
Far from facing up
to the crisis in the country, Parliament met for two days
and then adjourned
until mid April - not a mention of the crisis and no
discussion of any
solutions. In fact I think they have given up on finding a
solution while
Mugabe is in power and his henchmen rule the roost. It's not
that they do
not know what to do - they do. It's just that to take those
steps would run
the risk, which they dare not take, of letting the tiger
loose.
So Zanu (PF) finds itself locked into a crisis situation
of it's own making
and to which they have no solutions, no exit. I found it
interesting that
they did not bring forward expected constitutional changes
designed to
extend the term of office of the President to 2010 and to allow
Zanu (PF) to
appoint Mugabe's successor. This legislation was expected and
has been
drafted. I think it points to the fact that Mugabe does not want to
step
down at all - he wants to finish his term and he wants it to run to
2010. He
wants four more years!
There is simply no way that that is
going to happen. So I predict a storm is
coming - a real African storm,
violent, spectacular and short and that this
storm will wash away the debris
we have accumulated in the past 25 years and
signal a new beginning for
Zimbabwe. If you do not like or fear storms like
this then it is time to get
your closet ready. You might need it for a
while, but when you come out
hopefully you will find the country washed
clean and the dry veld coming
alive again.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - The
frustration and fear experienced by the ordinary person living
in the hell
of Zimboland, is what lead to the creation of "The Dictator"- a
board game
along the lines of Monopoly that was launched last week.
"Normal
channels of debate do not exist and ordinary daily activities oblige
people
to become criminals in order to feed their families. This game is an
attempt
to show the bizarre life that is forced on the average person living
there,"
said the creator of Dictator in an exclusive interview with The
Zimbabwean.
He hopes the game will provide Zimbabweans with
an avenue through which to
express their frustration and give some level of
satisfaction. "Normal
channels of debate have long since died in that dear
land, and the truth
lies buried very deeply. The real magic is that humour
(a most endearing
quality of the people) helps tremendously in seeing people
through these
difficult times, and this game is hilarious!" he
said.
A Dictator is appointed by general consensus, and the
"people/players" then
throw dice to advance around the board, and are
obliged to follow
instructions that apply to the various blocks they land
on. These
instructions lead to a great deal of fun and laughter, and the
object of the
game is to outwit and dethrone The Dictator. This is the
struggle of the
Oppressed against the Oppressor, and if you feel the game is
sometimes not
fair, you are right!
"We are continuously
appointing agents in all areas to assist in the
distribution process. We ask
all freedom loving people to distribute our
story and STRIKE A BLOW FOR
FREEDOM!" says Dictator's creator. The game can
be ordered by going to the
website and paying by card or emailing
sales@thedictator.co.za
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - State
Security minister, Didymus Mutasa, has shocked Zimbabweans by
issuing
threats, on state television, of physical elimination against MDC
President
Morgan Tsvangirai and others in the party's top leadership.
"That a top
government minister could appear on national television making
such chilling
statements confirms that the regime is panicking. The
dictatorship is
suffering from a serious guilty conscience over its
authorship of the
Zimbabwean crisis and is now engaged in shameful acts of
shadowboxing," said
party spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
"We would like to sternly warn the MDC to
desist from attempting to unseat
the government. We will eliminate them
physically. We will not hesitate to
do that because they are inviting
physical elimination. This is a disastrous
way that Tsvangirai has chosen
for himself. We will not fold our hands,"
said Mutasa.
Two months
ago, President Tsvangirai told diplomats in Harare that the
regime was
intent on physically eliminating him, that there was a plot to
destabilize
the opposition and to physically eliminate its leadership. Those
ignorant of
the ways of this regime doubted the sincerity of his statement.
But Mutasa
has now let the cat out of the bag.
"Lawlessness is a hallmark of the
Mugabe regime. Mutasa has provided the
world with the proof that he is
prepared to engage in Zanu (PF)-inspired
thuggery and revert to
state-sponsored banditry to quell any attempt to
remove the government.
Mutasa is threatening not the law, but death to
President Tsvangirai and all
perceived enemies of this regime. There is no
better illustration of the
absence of the rule of law in this country than
this chilling threat of
state-sponsored banditry," said Chamisa.
He said Mutasa's aim was to
intimidate citizens from demanding a resolution
to the national
crisis.
"In light of these threats, we wish the world to know that we
believe in
peaceful and democratic co-existence with all democratic
political
institutions in the country. But we unreservedly assert our right
to express
ourselves in a democratic and peaceful manner. The right for
Zimbabweans to
express themselves is inalienable. We will defend it with our
lives. We will
not yield to threats or any undue pressure," asserted
Chamisa.
The Zimbabwean
MDC congress 2006 :
"Rallying People for a new Zimbabwe"
Our Congress celebrates six years of
the people's sacrifice and commitment
to our common vision of a new Zimbabwe
and a new beginning. It will also
look at how we can retain the confidence
of millions of Zimbabweans who see
us as their only source of
hope.
Six years ago, the people laid the foundation for the struggle
against
tyranny; the struggle for good governance; the struggle for a better
life
for all Zimbabweans.
This week, we take stock of how far we have
traveled towards fulfilling that
vision. We take stock of the challenges and
lessons drawn from our
experiences in the past six years. And the lessons we
have derived will help
shape and determine our programmes in fighting this
dictatorship.
We all bear witness to the visible signs of collapse and
ruin around us. The
Congress will look at how as a party we respond to all
those issues.
Going back to the people is not a charade. It is a culture
that we have
entrenched so that we continually subject ourselves to the
people to
determine whether we still remain the embodiments of their dreams
and their
vision. Once again, as leaders, we go back to the people who gave
us the
mandate; the people who bestowed upon us the responsibility of saving
our
nation from a corrupt and inept government. Once again, we present
ourselves
to the people's court where the party leadership, the party
programmes and
party policies come up for scrutiny by the real owners of the
party.
The Congress will culminate in elections where delegates are
expected to
give a fresh mandate to a new leadership that will have the onus
of making
sure we achieve our vision of a new Zimbabwe. The second national
Congress
therefore provides a window for leadership renewal and rebirth; a
new and
committed leadership that realizes and cherishes the importance of
carrying
the nation's hope on its shoulders.
The delegates will also
discuss amendments to the party's constitution as
well as proposals for
institutional reform. The party needs to be rebuilt
and reorganized to
reflect our experiences and the new thinking that we must
have as a
political formation that is at a crucial stage in the struggle.
New policy
proposals will also be debated and refined so that we march
bravely into the
future with programmes that reflect a new thinking derived
from our
experiences since 2000.
We will also take a crucial decision on whether
it makes sense to continue
participating in elections whose results are
pre-determined. The Congress
will take a position on whether the electoral
route under the current
electoral management system remains viable. Or
whether we should widen our
options to include using people power to put
pressure on this regime that
has reduced us to paupers and beggars in our
own motherland. We realize
there is strength in unity. Together, we shall
win.
The Zimbabwean
BY
GORA (THE VULTURE)
HARARE - The fate of Zimbabwe will be riding
on the congress this weekend.
If those attending vote in a leadership of
cronies of "kitchen cabinet"
descent, the party will be condemned to the
role of opposition party for the
next decade, at least. By contrast, should
they elect a dynamic team of
creative, courageous and people-minded leaders
then the MDC could become the
change agent so desperately needed in
Zimbabwe.
Over the last two years the party has become moribund by stale
ideas and
leaders with diverging strategies. Now that the "dove" faction,
led by
Welshman Ncube, has made a break from the main support base of the
party
this frees up the hawk-like Morgan Tsvangirai to confront
Mugabe.
However, Tsvangirai needs a team with activist credentials, which
will
impress regional governments with their potential to govern a country.
Such
a team might look like this:
Morgan Tsvangirai (President) Thoko
Khupe (Vice-president), an Ndebele who
has the charisma to attract the
women, and the leadership qualities to get
them onto the streets. Elton
Mangoma (Secretary General), a successful
businessman with a Master's Degree
in Business Leadership from UNISA. He
contested a parliamentary seat against
the brutal Didymus Mutasa in the last
general election.
Elias Mudzuri
(Deputy Secretary General or Organising Secretary), the
elected mayor of
Harare currently completing a Masters Degree at the Kennedy
School of
Government. Mudzuri has the political cunning of a hyena and is
covered by
the skin of a black rhino.
Nelson Chamisa (Youth Secretary) has grown in
popularity amongst the youth.
With the freedom now available to him as Ncube
has left his "command and
control" post as Secretary General, Chamisa must
be compelled to harness the
pent up frustration of the youth.
Roy
Bennett (Treasurer) is an icon of resistance for most Zimbabweans
regardless
of their political persuasion, recently elected as Chairman of
Manicaland
province. His impeccable track record will give donors
confidence.
Isaac Matongo (Chairman) is likely to get re-elected as a
founder and given
his ability to rouse a crowd. He is an effective speaker
at rallies but is
not politically astute and has shown selfish
tendencies.
Tendai Biti has the legal, political and activist credentials
to warrant a
post in the top ten of the party. A team such as this would
provide the
much-needed blend of strategic thinking, courage to resist and
charismatic
leadership.
The MDC needs to take on a more revolutionary
style of politics. Tsvangirai
promises, "disobedience within the law" after
congress. Six of the above
have been incarcerated, which gives them
"resistance credentials".
The MDC lost two golden opportunities in the
last 12 months to rally the
people against the regime - the stolen general
election in March 2005 and
the horrific Murambatsvina operation. Congress
needs to elect a leadership
that will never pass by such opportunities
again. The new team will need to
have the ability to create sustainable and
rolling disobedience out of bread
and butter issues.
Tsvangirai has
said, "NO" to participating in elections until there is a new
constitution
and the conditions for free and fair elections are in place. He
knows this
will not come about without pressure from the people. We all know
that Mbeki
has abandoned the people of Zimbabwe in favour of retaining a
reformed Zanu
(PF) government. As a consequence change must come from within
the
country.
Organisations such as Zvakwana, WOZA and Sokwanele have shown
how effective
"many-small-actions of resistance" can be in destabilising an
already
splintered and fractious regime. If a revamped MDC exploited its
large
membership base, especially the youth and women, along the lines of
the
above-mentioned pioneers in Zimbabwe resistance movements, change could
become a reality
The Zimbabwean
NEW YORK - The North American
District of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-NAD) has condemned the
arrest of some MDC officials back home on
trumped up charges of weapons
possession.
"This is a naked and shameless attempt at seeking excuses to
suppress the
leaders of Zimbabwe's freedom movement. The Mugabe regime has a
history of
making up such charges when it is threatened by its political
opponents.
This time around, the world is not fooled by it. We know that
Mugabe is
preparing to eliminate his regime's opponents as his Security
Minister
openly stated on March 8," says a statement from the
group.
"We appeal to the world community to denounce this cheap trick and
to loudly
condemn the Mugabe regime for destroying freedom in our country.
The MDC
has chosen the democratic and peaceful path to restore the country's
freedoms and prosperity. The only violence in Zimbabwe has come from Mugabe
and his murderous regime." - Own correspondent
The Zimbabwean
Paul Themba Nyathi has
taken issue with our editorial about the confusion
that reigns in the
pro-Senate MDC faction. Nyathi reiterates that his group
is not pro-Senate
(see Letters P 11). Why then are their members still
sitting in that chamber
for Mugabe's geriatric has-beens?
The pro- and anti-Senate labels came
about as those of us on the outside
tried to comprehend what was happening
within the nation's major opposition
party, which embodied the hopes and
aspirations of so many Zimbabweans.
There may have been other
differences, which are not in the public domain,
but the one issue on which
there was considerable acrimonious disagreement
and publicity was the
question of participation in the Senate. We stand by
our position that for
ease of identification one faction is pro and the
other is anti as this was
the catalyst that caused the split in the MDC.
As we understand it, the
rupture was not over the issue of elections per se,
but concerned the Senate
specifically as a new institution. MDC MPs,
including Welshman Ncube,
vehemently criticised the establishment of the
Senate in parliament, and
voted against it.
One would have thought that they would have been
consistent enough to
boycott something whose creation they had
opposed.
Arthur Mutambara in his acceptance speech said if he had been in
that
fateful October meeting (at which the split occurred) he would have
campaigned for a no-participation vote. That puts him squarely in the
anti-Senate camp. Or are we missing something here?
The question of
participation in municipal elections, we would like to
suggest, is a
separate issue. As far as we know, neither faction has taken a
position to
begin boycotting such elections - although of course we all know
that
participation in elections under the current skewed electoral laws and
practises of the Zanu (PF) regime is a futile exercise.
Nyathi also
accuses us of supporting Tsvangirai. Our position is that our
view and
those of the Tsvangirai MDC, together with that of most
Zimbabweans,
converge when it comes to the question of participation in the
Senate - we
are anti-Senate!
Let us make it quite clear that we do not condone
violence from any quarter.
Both factions appear to have been guilty of
violence in one form or another
and we unconditionally condemn it. There is
no room for political thuggery
in any democratic society.
We entirely
agree with Nyathi when he identifies Zanu (PF) as the one true
enemy. Why
don't we all focus and concentrate our energies on fighting that
enemy?
The Zimbabwean
BY A
CORRESPONDENT
HARARE - Head of the National Bakers' Association, Burombo
Mudumo, became
the latest victim of the state media's increasingly ludicrous
attempts to
avoid blaming the authorities for the desperate economic
situation.
The state-run radio, TV and newspapers suppressed or ignored
Mudumo's lucid
explanation of soaring bread prices, a particularly sensitive
issue. Thus
while Mudumo explained in the private media that the hike -
from $45 000 to
$60 000-$75 000 a loaf - was due to hyper-inflation, which
includes huge
rises in flour prices, the state-run media persisted with
incredible claims
that this and the rest of the mess was the fault of
commercial
"profiteering."
In its report covering Feb. 27-March 5,
the Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe (MMPZ), however, attacked both the
private and the state-run media
for inadequate coverage of the local
government polls. The media watchdog
complained, for example, that there was
no examination of the state of the
voters' rolls or location of polling
booths.
ZBH ignored the campaign activities of the fractured opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change, while the state papers mainly regurgitated
handouts by
the Zimbabwe Election Commission, Zanu (PF)'s campaign rallies
and results.
For the most part, the private media didn't bother to cover the
elections -
apart from The Standard which investigated clashes in Chegutu,
where MDC
supporters confronted Zanu (PF) agents taking down names of voters
at
polling stations, and where ruling party agents were also reportedly
promising maize meal in return for votes.
". The rest of the private
media totally ignored reporting on the
elections," said the MMPZ. "It is
such a dereliction of duty that gives the
authorities leeway to manipulate
the electoral process thereby denying the
citizenry their right to choose
leaders of their choice."
But although the MMPZ criticised coverage of
the local elections, perhaps
the private media's lack of interest reflected
the general apathy among
Zimbabweans about voting - because Zanu (PF) always
ensures it will win
while the standard of living for most of those outside
the ruling party
elite always gets ever more miserable.
For the
state-run media, like the administration itself, elections Robert
Mugabe-style are a push-over. Far more difficult is the propagandists'
self-appointed task of blaming anyone but the regime and its
break-all-the-rules policies for the economic crisis. As the MMPZ put it:
"The government media's stories were typically pro-government, piecemeal and
avoided holistically interpreting the issues as indicative of the
authorities' mismanagement of the economy."
Thus the bakers' leader
was censored. Thus massive price hikes in
electricity tariffs by the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
received bland coverage; thus 1
000 percent hikes in police charges for
fingerprints, firearms and clearance
certificates were reported without
comment. Thus, on Spot FM, Mugabe says he
is setting up a "committee" to
look into problems at David Whitehead
Textiles, now operating at 7% of
capacity - but naturally the station
carried no discussion of why this
should be.
MMPZ said that, apart
from the Mirror stable, the private media "generally
linked the symptoms of
economic decay such as the galloping cost of living,
commodity shortages and
the widening budget deficit, to the way the
authorities are running the
economy."
In addition, The Financial Gazette quoted International
Monetary Fund
external affairs director, Thomas Dawson, as blaming skewed
policies,
including by the Reserve Bank, for fuelling inflation and saying
that
Zimbabwe had repeatedly refused to adopt IMF recommended reforms.
Studio 7
quoted economist John Robertson as predicting - correctly - that
attempts
by Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to get IMF help would be
rebuffed
because "Zimbabwe is breaking all the (economic) rules."
The Zimbabwean
'We will take Mugabe
alive'
This article appeared in November 2003 when the Zimbabwe Freedom
Movement
made its first appearance. A small sample of the London press corps
was
yesterday treated to a production of downmarket melodrama, as the
Zimbabwe
Freedom Movement launched its inaugural video onto a hitherto
unsuspecting
world. The MTV awards this wasn't. A camera, which didn't move
from its
tripod, an off-screen interviewer, and two actors so wooden they
had more
grain than the pictures, this low-budget presentation was
reminiscent of
1970's footage from the steamier sort of Latin American
banana republic.
Several of the assembled hacks were heard stifling
giggles as ZFM's National
Commander, Charles Black Mamba and Ntuthuko
Fezela, the group's Deputy
National Commander, outlined their strategy in
electronically distorted
voices. ZFM - the name suggests a radio station
rather than a liberation
movement - would attempt to "take Mugabe
alive."
The scene was dripping with tacky symbolism. The two commanders,
in military
fatigues and ski-mask balaclavas, with Mr Mamba sporting a
rather fetching
beret, sat side-by-side on benches which appeared to have
been ripped from
one of Harare's commuter taxis. The flag behind the two
goggled-eyed
characters had been doctored. The Zimbabwe bird floated alone
in the white
triangle, searching forlornly for the red star which seemed to
have slipped
off the standard.
Other pictures show ZFM's "arms dump",
which consists mostly of stacked
ammunition boxes and half-a-dozen
superannuated rifles. They really should
find a new PR consultant. Speaking
of which, the show was compered by Peter
Tatchell - world-renowned
self-publicist, gay rights activist, and now rebel
group impresario - who
stressed that he was not involved with the
organisation "in any way", but
was solely a facilitator, bringing it's
message to the world. He did manage
to find a half-decent venue - the
Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall
between Admiralty Arch and
Buckingham Palace. Never has an African coup been
launched from so
salubrious a postcode.
ZFM have a website. The
address - www.zfm.cc - indicates that it is
registered in the Cocos Islands (population 630). Is this an unintended
consequence of global warming? Are a group of Indian Ocean islanders
plotting to take over Zimbabwe before their home disappears below the waves?
The Cocos Islands are an Australian territory. Is the combination of rising
damp and direct rule from Canberra proving too much?
Do they see
their future with well-known anti-Australians in southern
Africa? The
islanders have 287 working telephones, one radio station, no TV
station, and
no railway. They would feel at home in Zimbabwe. Or could it be
that ZFM's
website was registered as .cc because .com, .org and .net were
already
taken. Whatever; they appear to have had some small help with their
site,
which so far features "Communiqué 1" and a couple of photos, from a
web
design company in less-than-exotic North London.
If ZFM are who they say
they are, why have they talked the talk before
walking the walk? Most
"rebel" groups at least have the tactical foresight
to take a couple of
hostages, or blow up a few telephone poles, before
presenting themselves to
the world. So far, so ludicrous. But in Zimbabwe
this may play, not as
farce, but as tragedy. For this drivel is the answer
to J Moyo's dreams.
Here, on one video cassette, are all the visions of his
paranoid mind. A
"gay gangster" - once memorably described by Mugabe as
British minister
Peter Hain's "husband" - is seen associating himself with
promises of
violent revolution, in the centre of British imperialism.
Moyo has been
spouting this kind of rubbish week after month after year, and
suddenly the
strands of "evidence", like London buses, all conveniently
arrive together.
Perhaps this is not so much the answer to Jonathan's
dreams, as the product
of them. This will go down like iced-beer with Moyo's
friends in Africa and
beyond who, of course, suspected it all along. And
don't bet against more
ransacking of offices, more mass arrests, more
treason charges, more
draconian laws - on the pretext of this ridiculous
film. - From ZWNEWS.
Don't bother trying to visit the ZFM website at
www.zfm.cc . It is now registered to a German
organisation selling
badmington equipment.
March 16,
2006.
By Andnetwork .com
FORMER Matabeleland North
governor, Mr Welshman Mabhena, who last week
distanced himself from the MDC
faction led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, has
reportedly been nominated for the
post of vice-president of the group, which
Makokoba legislator, Ms Thokozani
Khuphe, hoped to win, it emerged
yesterday.
The
faction's spokesman, Mr Nelson Chamisa, who is tipped to land the
post of
secretary for information and publicity, confirmed that nominations
from the
provinces had started rolling in ahead of the group's congress to
be held in
Harare this weekend with 13 000 delegates expected to attend.
He
would not be drawn into releasing names of the members of the group
that
have been nominated to assume the top leadership of the faction.
"What I can tell you is that the speculation on the nomination process
and
the names that are being thrown around are pretty within the realm of
speculative reality. We have agreed that we will not release the names for
fear of prejudicing the independence of the electoral process and, by the
way, even on the day of the elections people can be nominated from the floor
to contest certain positions, '' he said.
However, reports on a
website and sources yesterday said Mr Mabhena, a
former Zanu(PF) politburo
member dropped from the Government in 2000, was
nominated by Manicaland
province ahead of elections at the faction's
congress this weekend. As part
of the faction's ethnic powersharing act, the
vice-presidency has been
reserved for someone from the Matabeleland region.
Ms Khuphe is
reported to command support from all provinces except
Manicaland which threw
its weight behind Mr Mabhena and Midlands North which
is reported to be
backing Ms Gertrude Mthombeni, who is Ms Khuphe's former
ally in the women's
section of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
This leaves the
Matobo legislator, Mr Lovemore Moyo, who had also been
linked to the
position, in the cold. Although there were earlier reports
suggesting that
Mr Mabhena was being "courted'' by the leadership of the
faction to be
vicepresident as part of the group's quest to infuse "credible
leadership
from Matabeleland'' into its structures and gain lost ground in
the region,
sources said he was likely to lose as the faction was
hardpressed at the
same time to have some "gender balance''.
The appointment of Cde
Mujuru as one of the two VicePresidents of the
country and Second
secretaries of Zanu(PF) seems to have prompted an outcry
from the women's
league of the MDC faction, for the need to emulate the
ruling party on the
gender composition of the leadership of the group.
Last week, Mr
Mabhena said he had not been approached to stand in the
elections and said
he was not a member of MDC, which he described as lacking
an ideology that
people could identify with.
"We were sympathisers not members. We
liked what they were doing not
what is happening now,'' he told Chronicle
last week. Efforts to get a
comment Mr Mabhena yesterday were fruitless as
he was reported to be "away".
Sources said former legislator for
Chimanimani, Roy Bennett, who has
been linked to last week's arms cache in
Mutare and served a year jail term
for contempt of Parliament after
assaulting the Minister of Justice, Legal
and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde
Patrick Chinamasa, in the august house, was
also likely to land the post of
treasurergeneral.
Lawyer and member of the House of Assembly, Mr
Tendai Biti, who at one
time was reportedly contemplating crossing the floor
to join the proSenate
group is being tipped to shrug off a challenge from Mr
Tapiwa Mashakada to
claim the secretarygeneral position.
The
leader of the faction, Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Isaac Matongo are
likely to sail
through unopposed as president and national chairman
respectively. Bulawayo
South legislator and former MDC secretary for legal
affairs, Mr David
Coltart, who turned down an offer to be committee member
in the proSenate
group led by Professor Arthur Mutambara, after being
elected in absentia, is
not likely to be part of the weekend's proceedings
in the Tsvangirai
camp.
Source : Chronicle
New Zimbabwe
By Taffy
Nyawanza
Last updated: 03/16/2006 11:02:29
The Home Office has dropped a
bombshell.
It has announced that it will increase the qualifying period
for Indefinite
Leave to Remain (settlement) from 4 to 5 years with effect
from the 3rd
April 2005. This change will be reflected in the Immigration
Rules.
In a press release dated the 13th March 2006, the Home Office
advises that
for all employment-related categories and the Ancestry category
the initial
grant of leave to remain will now be 2 years, followed by a
subsequent
period of up to 3 years. It is after the combined 5 year
residence period
that one would then be entitled to ILR.
Excepted are
Retired Persons of Independent Means who will still be eligible
for one
single period of leave all the way up to the settlement qualifying
period as
before. Work Permit holders on the other hand will be eligible for
an
initial grant of leave up to the currency of their work permit. The rules
previously allowed for an initial period of up to 12 months leave to be
granted, followed by a subsequent period of up to 3 years.
Highly
Skilled Migrants will now be able to amalgamate continuous time spent
in the
UK as a work permit holder, Highly Skilled Migrant and/or an
Innovator when
applying for indefinite leave to remain as a Highly Skilled
Migrant.
In the 'Question and Answer' portion of the Press Release, a
slightly more
detailed explanation of the purpose of these changes is given.
Essentially,
the UK government's view is that permanent migration must also
be a journey
towards being as socially integrated as possible. How social
integration can
be magically achieved in 5 years instead of the current 4 is
not altogether
clear.
Perhaps, more intriguing is the argument that
these changes are meant to
bring the UK government in line with European
norms. Intriguing because the
UK government has previously argued that its
migration policy will continue
to be determined independently of
Brussels.
For now, however, it looks like people that are already in
categories
leading to settlement (CLS) will have to adjust their plans.
There is some
relief for those that have already made an application for
settlement before
3 April 2006. Transitional arrangements will be put in
place to ensure that
they will have their applications handled under the old
rules, even if the
decision is made after 3 April. The date of application
will be the date of
postage.
Additional transitional arrangements
will also be put in place for those who
apply for settlement immediately
after 3 April having only completed 4 years
in the UK. Those applicants will
have the opportunity to vary their
application from a settlement application
to a one-year leave to remain
application without losing their original
application fee.
Applicants under these schemes will still have to meet
the other
requirements, for instance, those in employment will still have to
show that
there is a need for their skills and that their employer is going
to use
them for the foreseeable future. They will have to show that they are
able
to support themselves and any dependants without recourse to public
funds.
Those not in salaried employment, e.g. investing, continuing in
business or
self-employment, etc., still have to show that they are
maintaining the
purpose for which they came, and that they can support
themselves and any
dependants without recourse to public funds.
But
what exactly is the fuss about ILR?
As previously discussed on this
column, the ILR visa is so coveted primarily
because it has no immigration
related restrictions on the type of work or
business a person on this visa
class may undertake (a work permit in
contrast may prove to be a 5 year trap
because of the limited options to
negotiate out of what my turn out to be a
bad deal). The ILR also clears the
way to a host of tax relief schemes and
other welfare benefits. It means
cheaper home rate higher education fees if
coupled with 3 years residence in
a capacity other than that of a student.
Mortgages and loans in general are
easier to obtain once one is on ILR.
Children born to a parent with ILR are
automatically entitled to British
citizenship. ILR is of course in itself
the first major step towards British
nationality for the holder. Perhaps
more importantly, once ILR is obtained,
it may be lost or revoked by the
Secretary of State only in very limited
circumstances, for example after 2
years absence from the UK.
Many of
the people affected by these changes will feel therefore that the
dream is
slipping away and that this important change has come at too much
short
notice, as well as being arbitrary. They will also feel that this is
the
latest in a series of increasingly restrictive legislative responses by
the
Labour government and a demonstration of just how immigration is
increasingly becoming an important, if not emotive issue. But perhaps more
importantly, they will feel that the government is on to another money
spinner and will treat this with the same cynicism reserved for speed
cameras. Consider this; the initial application for a Work Permit costs
£335. The HSMP costs £315.
After 2 years, a further payment of £335
will be needed to extend the visa
by another 3 years. After the 3 years, the
ILR application itself will cost
another £335. If one is so inclined, a
naturalisation application will cost
a further £268 (£336 for a couple +
£200 for one or more children). A
premium service (which is done in person
and considered the same day) is
available in all the above applications,
save naturalisation, and costs
£500. You do the maths, I will do the
law.
This besides, I personally think that the hallmarks of a good
immigration
system anywhere in the world is predictability. People will
generally invest
emotionally and otherwise in a place where they feel a
sense of permanency.
Is there a solution? Perhaps the legal status of the
Immigration Rules could
provide a way of tackling this one. Immigration
Rules are made by the
Secretary of State and generally do not have the power
of law in the same
way as legislation or secondary legislation such as
statutory instruments.
They do bind the lower courts (the Immigration and
Asylum Tribunal
included), but not the higher ones which have previously
declared them to be
ultra vires, or outside the enabling laws. The
difficulty will of course be
in persuading a court that an extension of 1
year towards qualification for
ILR will have worked great
hardship.
Another angle would be that the Immigration Rules themselves
are by nature
subject to frequent amendments. They are contained in a House
of Commons
Paper which is drafted and then laid before Parliament for
scrutiny under
what is called a 'negative resolution' procedure. If no
objections are made
to the rules within 40 days they are considered to have
been passed by
Parliament. The relevant Statement of Changes in Immigration
Rules for this
particular amendment was laid before Parliament on 10 March
2006. Whilst
this is clearly the lowest level of scrutiny available in
Parliament as the
changes are not debated, it will provide a window of
opportunity for those
affected to contact their local MPs to lobby and make
noises in Parliament
on their behalf.
This drastic proposal may yet
be halted.
Taffy Nyawanza is accredited by the OISC and writes in his
personal
capacity. He can be contacted at profettaffy@yahoo.co.uk
Disclaimer:
This article only provides general information and guidance on
immigration
law. It is not intended to replace the advice or services of a
solicitor.
The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome
different
than would be anticipated by you. The writer will not accept any
liability
for any claims or inconvenience as a result of the use of this
information
Zim Daily
Thursday, March 16 2006 @ 12:03 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
yesterday hiked the overnight
accommodation rate by 50 percentage points to
700 percent, as the February
inflation data released last week showed an
all-time high of 782 percent.
Last month, the central bank hiked the key
policy rate twice inside a week,
in response to weak inflation data. Central
bank governor Gideon Gono has
warned that the Bank would continue using
overnight rates as a 'pre-emptive
tool' in its bid to rein in rampant
inflation.
However, the efficacy of this policy, meant to
tighten credit
conditions, has been undermined by the central bank's own
quasi-fiscal
activities, through which it has doled out trillions of dollars
to support
agriculture, parastatals and municipalities. It remains to be
seen how far
the Bank will conform to International Monetary Fund advice to
discontinue
these operations, which saw it pour no less than $10 trillion
into the
market last year. Gono has himself admitted that the effectiveness
of his
liquidity management policy had been undermined by these
operations.
"The increase in the overnight rate is ordinarily
intended to
tighten credit conditions so as to fight inflation. In our
situation,
however, the existence of concessional facilities significantly
weakens the
effectiveness of the overnight adjustment. "Consequently, the
overnight rate
has not been effective in influencing other interest rates,"
Gono said.
Indeed, retail lenders have long stopped adjusting their lending
rates in
line with the overnight rate, while other investment rates tend to
trend the
benchmark 91-day Treasury Bill rate, whose average yield has
recently risen
to 500 percent from 340 percent at the beginning of the year.
The overnight
rate rose from 95 percent in February 2005 to close the year
at 540 percent.
Zim Daily
Thursday, March 16 2006 @ 12:02 AM GMT
Contributed by: MDC New Zealand
As you gather to begin a process
that we hope will speed up the
change process in Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans all
over the world are keeping a
close eye on this historical event in the
struggle for democracy. We expect
you to pass resolutions that will usher in
a new era of democratic
resistance, which will be the last stage of our
journey towards real freedom
and democracy.
Zimbabwe has
lingered on the precipice of doom for so long and
as such the situation can
no longer be allowed to continue. We in New
Zealand wait with bated breath,
unshaken faith and a strong sense of
solidarity with you as you embark on
the last leg of our journey towards a
truly liberated
Zimbabwe.
We have a message for you. "We shall not you leave
you to walk
this journey alone". It is our Zimbabwe and with an unbridled
resolve we
shall mobilize and support the struggle at home by any means
possible. We
are anguished in our spirits as we witness from a distance the
impoverishment and pauperization of our people by one Robert Mugabe, the son
of Bona. Posters plastered here by world vision of black people suffering in
other parts of the world haunt us as they send constant reminders that the
same situation obtains in Zimbabwe. We talk about you whenever we meet and
we have never doubted your capacity and indeed ours, to one day rise and say
to Robert your time is up, you can not continue your political clowning
whilst we all suffer.
Once again we reiterate our support
for the true President of
Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai. We salute and honor
those who have done immense
consultative and preparatory work towards this,
our second oppressed peoples
congress. May the God of our ancestors guide
all those who will travel to
Harare. May the spirit of our past struggles
against colonialism and all
forms of oppression pervade congress and inspire
every one of us.
Yours in the struggle
Charles Matope Interim Chairperson
New Zealand M.D.C
District
New Zimbabwe
By Chenjerai
Hove
Last updated: 03/16/2006 09:58:02
I HAVE watched with detached
interest the arrival of Arthur Mutambara into
the political realm of
Zimbabwe. I just sit and wonder, bordering on a
cynical observer's
perspective, what all the furore is all about. This is
not the first time
saviours have arrived in our political playing field.
But somehow, we
never seem to learn to calm down and take our time. We
behave as if a new
political arrival is an ice-cream man who appears, sells
his wares, and goes
away. Politics, Zimbabwean or otherwise, is not like
that.
It is a
long time affair. We must learn
to see, calculate, think, meditate, and
decide.
For, there was a time when Zimbabweans, due to lack of
experience, neither
had the patience nor experience to wait a little bit and
calculate. Such a
time was independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans did not
have the patience to reflect a little bit about people
who came as
fist-waving
liberators.
They were thirsty for independence, at
whatever price. So, they got Mr
Robert Mugabe and he has turned out to be
our worst nightmare.
Other saviours surfaced, but the urgency was not the
same. The 1980 urgency
was to wave our own flag, to hear the new Prime
Minister speak better
English than the Queen of England, to see how many
academic degrees he had
been able to amass while in prison. And when the
cabinet was announced, many
remarked correctly that it was 'the most degreed
cabinet in the world.' And
there was celebration. The people danced, not
because they enjoyed the
vision of the leader, but because they had only
been crying for too long.
They needed something to celebrate, at whatever
cost.
From that experience, we should have learned many things. The
noises being
made by Zimbabweans about poor Arthur Mutambara are reminiscent
of those
days: a people in urgent need of survival will clutch at anything
that comes
and floats near their dreams of survival.
This is not to
demean the good professor. It is only to highlight a few
issues which
Zimbabweans are entitled to demand from their leaders so that
the same
blunders of the past shall not be repeated.
Zimbabwean politics has been,
for a long time, a game of who insults the
other in more vulgar language
than everyone else.
The ruling party, which is ruining most of the time,
has always insisted on
no particular political, economic and socio-cultural
programme. It was like:
vote for me or I will make your life
miserable.
The politics of threat and victimization, the politics of
insults. Someone
should compile a book of the insults Mugabe has used
against his perceived
enemies. Makes interesting reading, I
think.
But the psychology of insults says that a lot can be revealed from
the type
of vulgar and insulting language which the speaker uses.
The
new politics demands people, men and women, of vision, dreamers who
think,
not in terms of how evil Mugabe is or how dictatorial Tsvangirai is,
but in
terms of what do I want to give to the country, to the people. And
what do I
want to receive from the people. A national vision is not measured
in
five-year or ten-year development programmes. It is measured in how far a
leader can see in the next twenty years, fifty years, one hundred years. A
national vision does not depend on the lifespan of the leader. It goes
beyond the physically visible.
Mutambara is soon going to be dragged
into the politics of hurling insults
at others. He has already started by
attacking another opposition figure,
Tsvangirai. The fact of the matter is
that we are not interested in the
amount of verbage he can master in
insulting Mugabe or Tsvangirai or anybody
else. We are interested in a
creative vision of how he wants to save the
country, practically, not in
terms of robotics. This is a new world of human
activity which all manner of
scientists have never managed to master. Human
endeavour, aspirations and
dreams are more complex than the ordered world of
scientific proof and
mathematical equations.
As far as I can see, Zimbabwean politicians tend
to have extremely limited
creativity in approaching national political work.
For example, every
Zimbabwean politician wants a rally yesterday, a big one,
a game of public
numbers. They usually call the people 'the masses', an
insult to which they
are prepared to cling until death. A political rally is
a gathering where
the leader arrives, usually late, to 'tell' the people. No
Zimbabwean
politician has ever sat with villagers under a tree and say: I am
here to
listen, and not to address you. Tell me what you think I can do for
you.'
Zimbabwean politics has always a monologue, never a dialogue.
People need
political dialogue in its multifacetted nature, not an
'I-know-it-all' way
of thinking which has destroyed the country in so many
complex ways.
National dialogue and vision transcends the limits of
political party
programmes or factions. It invariably involves all, the
weak, the organised,
the disorganised, the poor and dispossessed, the rich,
the educated and the
confused. No monopoly of wisdom can ever save a
country, especially Zimbabwe
which has been ruined by a determined
incapacity to listen to other voices.
Zimbabwean politicians tend to
think they know it all. The people, povo
('people of varied opinions', as
the politicians say when disrespecting the
people) are ignorant and so, do
not deserve to be listened to. That is a
fatal mistake. It has cost many a
Zimbabwean politician the hearts and minds
of the people. If the people were
so ignorant that they do not deserve to be
listened to, how have they
survived for so long under such harsh conditions?
I would like to hear a
Zimbabwean politician who says his mission is to go
out in the country, in
the villages, the streets, the factories, the
universities, and just listen
to how the people see their country and how
they think the problems can be
solved. There are so many answers and
questions out there that if someone
dared to listen, they would never go
around the country telling the people
that 'I am going to, I am going to.'
The use of the 'I' is symptomatic of
sick politics. And the use of the
honorific 'we' as also so presumptious
that the politician thinks he is some
kind of god, a saviour. It is better
to say 'you' to the people, like 'you
tell me what to do to save our
country, and you tell me how to do it. You
and I can try the solutions
together.' What we are faced with a worthless
monologues which plunge us
deeper into the abyss.
Mutambara seems to have arrived with a big 'I',
and that is dangerous for
our country. That fits exactly into the politics
of Robert Mugabe and
others. As it is now, the ruling party does not seem to
imagine themselves
without the 'I' of its president. The party is the
president, and the nation
is the president, all in one
'I.'
Zimbabweans have to move beyond the politics of a hero, a saviour, a
small
god who wants to be worshipped for whatever reason. When are we going
to
have a humble leader whose sole vision will be the humility to talk to
the
smallest person, the weakest?
In the process of trading insults,
the politics of Zimbabwe has been
premised on the basis that in order for
one to achieve certain political
ends, they have to destroy someone, or
another party, another leader. That
is the politics of evil, and Mutambara
does not seem to have escaped that.
So soon, and so fast! Why not
concentrate on his own programme and vision,
what is to be done, how to do
it, and how to get people to see what he wants
to do.
That is hard
enough without having to insult others or, as Mr Mugabe usually
puts it in
his elections speeches, 'crushing' anyone.
There is a lot of historical
evidence to suggest that politicians who enter
the game through the wrong
door usually do not make it to the final lap. Our
good associate professor
Jonathan Moyo went into it through the wrong Zanu
PF door and suffered the
consequences. Our new professor Arthur Mutambara
seems to have done that
again, and we have to wait and see how many laps he
is going to cover. It
must be quite ego-boosting to just be invited to be
leader of a party
without even having a local structure one belongs to. I
hear Professor Moyo
did not even have a Zanu PF card when he rose so fast to
become one of the
most feared politicians in the ruling party which he had
spent so many years
criticising. The late Kamuzu Banda, too, was invited in
the same manner, a
kind of saviour. And you can see what happened!
We have now learnt that
these professors do not seem to be effective
politicians. They might be good
analysts, but on the ground they have not
impressed very much. Historically,
the game of politics has never been the
same as the game of
academia.
Honestly, I do not see the fuss in the arrival of Mutambara in
Zimbabwean
politics. He still has a lot of work to do, and he has to realise
that
African politics, especially, is an extremely dirty game, very far from
robotics and things like that. It has to do with the art of understanding
the queer mixture madness, greed for power/wealth and cruel survival. We
still loook forward to a new type of poiltics: the politics of dedicated
service and commitment to the basic ideals of justice and human dignity for
all citizens in society.
Without a clear-sighted leadership for our
country we risk a situation where
the young are going to be so fed up that
they will destroy all that has been
put in place by their wounded history.
Remember the food riots where the
youths, having lost faith in the visonless
leadership, decided to destroy
all in their way, like a storm?
Chenjerai
Hove is a Zimbabwean novelist and poet
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Nkululeko Sibanda in Bulawayo
issue date
:2006-Mar-16
A GOVERNMENT minister yesterday ordered the Bulawayo City
Council to
repossess all houses and stands allocated clandestinely under
Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle - a national programme meant to benefit the
poor.
The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Nicholas
Goche,
who also heads the inter-ministerial committee overseeing the
allocation of
houses under the programme, declared that council should
repossess all the
stands and houses allocated to undeserving people and give
them to intended
beneficiaries.
Goche made the remarks soon after touring
the programme's housing units in
Bulawayo's Cowdray Park and city centre
vending malls also built under the
scheme.
He said council would liaise
with his inter-ministerial team to ensure the
said properties were
repossessed, and challenged the municipality to quickly
come up with the
list of deserving beneficiaries.
"We held a meeting this morning with council
officials where that issue was
discussed. It emerged that although council
had raised a pertinent issue, it
(the irregularities in the allocation of
houses) had not been pointed out to
the inter-ministerial committee," the
minister said. "What we have done now
is that the council should come up
with a list of deserving people. Council
will then sit down with the
committee so that those that irregularly
benefited from the exercise are
removed from the list and the houses
reallocated to deserving cases."
He
said the repossession crusade would also affect people allocated houses
after having been on the city's housing waiting list.
The minister also
revealed that the government and local authority had
reached an agreement
that would see council reserving a percentage of stands
for civil servants
transferred to Bulawayo.
"As you are aware, there is what is called the
institutional housing
programme. It is this programme that we envisage would
accommodate
government employees who would have been transferred to
Bulawayo," Goche
said. "This province is a new establishment and we are
bound to see more and
more employees coming into the city and that is why we
have agreed with
council that a certain percentage of stands be reserved for
such instances."
Goche's move follows a proclamation by Local Government,
Public Works and
Urban Development minister Ignatius Chombo that houses
under Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle were not for civil servants and
politicians, but for
the poor.
The decision also comes amid growing
discontent over the manner in which the
houses were allocated in Bulawayo,
Matabeleland North and South.
Under the Bulawayo programme, 450 houses have
been completed with a further
61 units nearing completion while 159 units
are reportedly at various stages
of construction.
Goche lauded residents
that managed to finish putting up their houses in the
face of a serious
shortages and high costs of building materials saying
their example was
worth emulating.
Impeccable sources within the scheme said several housing
co-operatives had
failed to take up stands allocated them to construct
low-income houses.
Only a few co-operatives - Reverend Obadiah Musindo's
Destiny of Africa
Network included - had owned up and started constructing
houses.
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle was launched by the government last
year as
a successor to Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order to provide
decent
accommodation to people affected by the latter scheme.
Operation
Restore Order was meant to rid cities and towns of illegal
structures and
vice.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Business Reporter
issue date :2006-Mar-16
WHEAT farmers
countrywide are wary of growing the crop accusing government
and the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) of failing to deliver inputs as well as
paying farmers
for the crop delivered in time last season.
This surfaced at a meeting
the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) held in Chinhoyi
on Tuesday meant to
mobilise its members to start land preparations to grow
the crop.
The
meeting heard that government had set a target in which wheat should be
put
under not less than 100 000 hectares as the country wishes to realise at
least 400 000 tonnes during the forthcoming winter season.
ZFU's
Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Tommy Charewa told
stakeholders at
the meeting that various institutions were failing farmers.
"As farmers we
are keen to do our level best in producing both food and cash
crops to
support the government in its efforts to turn around the economy of
the
country," Charewa said.
"However, our problem is that stakeholders seem not
to be showing
commitment on their part to ensure that the crop's targeted
output is
realised."
The farmers have already made complaints through
their respective unions
that have been submitted to government for
consideration before they go back
to the land.
Despite having received
complaints from farmers, government and institutions
that include GMB and
Agribank are insisting that the issues would be
urgently
addressed.
Agribank has been accused of disbursing required funds late
forcing farmers
to abandon some farming programmes. GMB paid farmers as late
as last month
for a wheat crop that was delivered in November last
year.
Each wheat-growing region is expected to put the crop under a given
hectarage.
Mashonaland West is expected to put the crop under 36 000
hectares - or a
third of what government wants the crop to be put under
nationwide.
Said Charewa: "As farmers we would want to know the position as
regards to
other players concerning roles they will playing in the
production of
wheat."
"We are willing to grow the crop. However, other
stakeholders should also
show their commitment now to make the wheat
production programme a success."
He said although the union would be embark
on mobilising farmers to grow the
crop as from yesterday, there was a need
for dialogue at various stages of
the crop's production in order to review
progress made and the prevailing
situation on the ground.
The meeting
noted that although government was keen to see farmers going
back to the
land, there were several hurdles that farmers faced.
The farmers called for
an improvement in the delivery of inputs such as
fuel, fertilisers,
chemicals and tillage services.
They also called on government to urgently
improve bad roads that lead to
and from farms and to provide adequate
machinery both for tillage and
harvesting.
Other problems they faced were
labour shortages as well as farmers'
inability to sustain labour costs due
to untimely or late disbursement of
funds for supporting wheat production
and the lack of adequate and accurate
information on the modus operandi of
disbursement of funds.
The meeting also urged government to come up with, and
announce a wheat
producer price in time to help them plan their
budgets.
Mashonaland West Provincial Governor and Resident Minister, Nelson
Samkange
who graced the meeting echoed the need for commitment especially on
the part
of stakeholders. "It is a pity that stakeholders have a record of
delivering
inputs late," Samkange said.
"For example, our farmers are
still receiving inputs like fertilisers that
is supposed to be used in
planting tobacco at this time of the year when
they were supposed to have
received it in October. The delivery system of
our inputs to farmers should
be improved."
People's Daily
Zimbabwean Vice President Joice Mujuru has said
her country can
reclaim the status of bread basket in the southern African
region again if
the nation uses innovative methods of farming.
Mujuru made the statement at the launch of two maize hybrid seeds
developed
by Pioneer Seed Company in Mazowe in Mashonaland Central Province.
The new maize varieties, PHB 30V53 and PHB30G19, can yield up to 12
tons per
hectare and are resistant to different maize diseases.
"For us to
reclaim our Southern African Development Community ( SADC)
bread basket
status, this could be achieved by using such hybrid seeds and
other
innovative methods of farming," said Mujuru.
She said in Zimbabwe
every family had a piece of land for farming and
everybody should work hard
to produce enough food.
"If we are Zimbabweans who want to preserve
their dignity, then we
should remain serious in farming," Mujuru
said.
The vice president said Pioneer Seed Company's innovative
hybrid seed
would go a long way in securing food in many households because
it was
proved to be ideal for the weather conditions in the
country.
Mujuru said the Ministry of Agriculture should educate
women in rural
areas to concentrate on small pieces of land and make maximum
production
rather than keeping vast tracts of land producing little
yields.
She said Zimbabwe was rich in natural resources and must
improve
itself.
Source: Xinhua
People's Daily
A senior Zimbabwean official has said the
government will soon
finalize 99-year leases that will be issued to new
farmers as security of
tenure.
Minister of National Security,
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement
Didymus Mutasa said on Wednesday that
after the cabinet approval, the leases
would first be issued to new farmers
but there was need for the farms to be
surveyed.
The minister
was quoted as saying on Thursday that it was critical for
the farms to be
surveyed in order to come up with the actual hectarage on
the lease
agreement.
New farmers have been eagerly waiting for the leases as
financial
institutions were reluctant to give them loans due to lack of
collateral
security.
Apart from improving farmers' chances of
accessing loans from banks,
leases provide a practical land tenure system
that can enhance agricultural
production.
The lease system is
common throughout Africa with only a few countries
not practicing it,
amongst them Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Turning to the issue of the
land audit, Mutasa said the exercise had
been completed in Manicaland
Province and the report was ready for
submission to the
presidium.
He said the audit team would soon be moving to
Mashonaland Central
Province before going to other provinces.
A
preliminary audit carried out last year indicated that 70 percent of
land
allocated to newly resettled farmers was being used productively while
the
rest was lying idle.
Source: Xinhua