The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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MSNBC

C'Wealth chief says majority backed Zimbabwe move

By Nicholas Kotch


JOHANNESBURG, March 18 - South Africa and Nigeria only reluctantly agreed to
Zimbabwe's continued suspension from the Commonwealth, a month after calling
for the penalty to be lifted, the 54-nation group's senior official said on
Tuesday.
       Neither President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa nor Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo has commented in public about the decision to extend the
suspension, announced on Sunday by Commonwealth Secretary-General Don
McKinnon.
       But McKinnon told Reuters that Mbeki and Obasanjo, who along with
Australia make up a Commonwealth ''troika'' on Zimbabwe, were sticking to
their position that Zimbabwe should be re-admitted but acknowledged they
were not in the majority.
       ''I believe that to be right,'' McKinnon said in an interview on
Tuesday, when asked if the two African leaders stood by their view that
Zimbabwe had done enough to justify its return to the fold of mostly former
British colonies.
       ''They recognised that the broad overall view was to have the
suspension extended,'' he said, adding that he had spoken with Mbeki as
recently as Saturday.
       The sanction against President Robert Mugabe's government was imposed
in March last year in protest at alleged election-rigging and the seizure of
white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
       The suspension been due to expire on Wednesday, but was extended on
Sunday until at least December.
       New Zealander McKinnon, speaking from London, said he canvassed
almost every Commonwealth government before announcing the extension.
       ''There are very mixed feelings about the issue. This is one of the
most difficult situations we have ever had to face in the Commonwealth.
       ''(But) the clear majority was for the suspension to remain until
leaders could assess the situation again in December. They would like to see
more progress in Zimbabwe, particularly in terms of reconciliation,'' he
said.

''FRANK EXCHANGE''
       Nigeria is due to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM)
summit in December. Diplomats said Obasanjo, seeking a second term in
presidential elections next month, was anxious the divisive Zimbabwe issue
should not dog summit preparations.
       Diplomatic sources said a meeting between McKinnon and Commonwealth
High Commissioners in London on Monday had seen a frank exchange of views.
       The Commonwealth has looked racially split over Zimbabwe with many
African and Asian members either supporting Mugabe or unwilling to line up
against him -- a split personified inside the troika of members handling
Zimbabwe policy.
       Australian Prime Minister John Howard is in total disagreement with
Mbeki and Obasanjo, saying the political and human rights situation has
deteriorated and justifies stronger sanctions against the Mugabe government.
       In a statement last Saturday, Obasanjo said he and Mbeki were at one
on Zimbabwe and wanted the suspension lifted. He denied he had changed his
mind and wanted 79-year-old Mugabe to leave office after 23 years in charge.
       McKinnon said the extension was the best compromise he could obtain
from the troika and other leaders.
       ''Whatever happened would have been seen as a slap in the face for
someone...By Saturday afternoon I had clear agreement from all three leaders
to proceed to make the statement I did.''
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Reuters

Mob rampages in Zimbabwe
By Cris Chinaka


HARARE (Reuters) - Mobs have burned a bus, blocked roads and stoned
motorists in the capital Harare on the first day of a national strike called
by the opposition to protest against President Robert Mugabe, police say.

Factories and shops were shut on Tuesday as thousands of workers joined the
two-day mass action called by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in
the first major challenge to Mugabe since his controversial re-election a
year ago.

MDC officials said the two-day protest would help to marshal international
focus on Mugabe's "repressive rule" at a time when the world spotlight is on
Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

"People are sick and tired of this regime and this is their message," said
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi, who estimated 80 percent of businesses
were affected by the strike.

Many shops and factories in Harare's main industrial districts were closed
on Tuesday, but some government offices and banks were still open downtown.

Witnesses in the southern city of Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold, also
reported most businesses were closed.

State radio called the strike a flop with only white-owned companies
affected. A government spokesman said: "The MDC is desperate and they are
failing desperately".

Police said mobs began roaming through Harare after midnight, blocking roads
into the city centre and hurling stones at passing motorists.

"There was a bus that was burned in the early hours of this morning and a
policeman was critically injured," said Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena.

He could not confirm reports that a crowd beat up commuters boarding a train
in the township of Mufakose near Harare, triggering clashes at the train
station.

"We are compiling details, but we have made several arrests in Harare and
(the eastern border city of) Mutare," he said.

Police had warned they would deal ruthlessly with any violence during what
the government calls an illegal strike.


MUGABE'S POLITICAL STORM


Zimbabwe is grappling with its worst political and economic crisis since
independence from Britain in 1980. The economy is in its fourth year of
recession with record high unemployment, inflation and acute shortages of
fuel and foreign currency.

Economists say a 220.9 percent annual inflation rate could hit 350 percent
before the year-end due to high prices for scant basic goods which has
fuelled anger against the government.

Nearly half the country's 14 million people face food shortages blamed on
drought and the impact of Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.

Mugabe has been at the centre of a political storm since February 2000 when
militants from his ruling ZANU-PF party invaded white-owned farms in support
of his drive to transfer farms to landless blacks.

The crisis deepened when ZANU-PF won parliamentary elections in June 2000
after a violent campaign against the MDC, and after Mugabe's controversial
re-election last March in a presidential poll critics say was rigged.

The Commonwealth group of mainly former British colonies decided on Sunday
to extend a one-year suspension of Zimbabwe at least until December over the
disputed polls and land policy.

With the group's 54 nations split on whether the measure should be continued
beyond Wednesday's one-year expiry, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don
McKinnon said it would be maintained until a heads of government meeting in
Nigeria.

Mugabe has denied mismanaging the country's affairs and accused foreign
enemies of sabotaging the economy over his land transfer programme.
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Sky News

      PROTESTS TURN VIOLENT

Protests in Zimbabwe against President Robert Mugabe's government were
teetering on the brink of violence after police fired tear gas to disperse
demonstrators.

Anti-government activists erected roadblocks and a bus was set on fire in
the capital Harare, as a national strike gained momentum.

The action was called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
calling for the end of state repression, economic mismanagement and
corruption, which they say has put over half of Zimbabwe's 13m population in
danger of starvation.

The strike - the first major challenge to Mugabe since his controversial
re-election a year ago - shut many factories and shops across the country.

An MDC official said the protest would last two days, and urged workers to
back the action.

"The reports we have so far is that there is an 80% shutdown around the
country," said MDC spokesman Paul Thamba Nyathi.

"People are sick of this regime and this is their message."

A government spokesman said the MDC was "desperate" and warned that police
would deal ruthlessly with any violence during the strike.

Zimbabwe is currently suffering record high unemployment and inflation as
well as acute shortages of fuel and currency.
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JOB OFFERS

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To market automotive chemicals to service providers.
Technical knowledge with good marketing skills required.
Work on a commission basis - excellent prospects.
Please contact Mark Wilson on 011-218006.

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Small, busy company.
Please contact Robin Jones on 011-407028 or 023-229459.

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The Australian

Zimbabwe blasts ban: report

March 19, 2003
ZIMBABWE has reacted angrily to news the Commonwealth has extended the
country's suspension from the 54-member organisation, saying the decision
was taken unilaterally, the state-controlled Herald said.

Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon late on Sunday announced that
Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth councils, which was due to be
lifted this week, would be extended for nine months until December.

The southern African country was originally excluded from the councils after
international observers ruled that elections a year ago, which returned
President Robert Mugabe to power, were seriously flawed.

"McKinnon has no authority to issue such a statement," The Herald quoted
Zimbabwe's high commissioner to London, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, as saying.

He said there was no way the decision to extend Zimbabwe's suspension could
have been based on a consensus among Commonwealth members.




In taking the decision, McKinnon claimed it was widely agreed among
Commonwealth members to leave the question of Zimbabwe's readmittance until
the group's next full meeting in December.

Following Zimbabwe's suspension in March last year, a special troika -
comprising the leaders of Australia, Nigeria and South Africa - was set up
to deal with the Commonwealth's concerns about the country.

Both Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, of Nigeria, and Thabo Mbeki, of South
Africa, had indicated prior to the announcement of the extension that they
supported Zimbabwe's readmittance.

But Australian Prime Minister John Howard favoured continued suspension.

"The two members of the troika who decided that the suspension should be
lifted have not changed their stance," Mumbengegwi told The Herald.
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      ZIMBABWE: Vulnerable rely on food aid
      IRINnews Africa, Tue 18 Mar 2003

      ©  IRIN

      Food aid leaves WFP's Mutare warehouse

      MUTARE, - On Mutare's tobacco auction floor rather than bails of
golden-leafed burley, sacks of maize and corn soya blend are neatly stacked
in row upon row.

      Burley tobacco never really took off in the Mutare area in eastern
Zimbabwe, and the town's auction floor closed at the end of last year's
growing season after a decade of operation.

      Its new tenants, however, are extremely busy.

      Mutare is one of four transhipment depots for the World Food Programme
(WFP). Food aid trucked through South Africa or carried by rail from the
Mozambican port of Beira arrives at Mutare to be off-loaded. The relief
supplies are then repacked onto vehicles heading to food distribution points
in the seven districts served by the warehouse, as part of the WFP's
emergency operation to feed more than half of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million people
in urgent need of assistance.

      Diana Sibanda was just one of the 2,844 recipients at Chiranda primary
school last week who had waited patiently for the delivery of WFP's monthly
ration. She had struggled hard not to be in this predicament. Since November
last year she had planted three times, only to see the rains stop early each
time, and her maize crop whither in the sandy soil.

      "I can pick one or two cobs to roast, but the crop has failed," she
told IRIN.

      As a widow, Sibanda has been classified as "vulnerable" by WFP and
therefore entitled to 10 kg of maize meal, 1 kg of pulses, 1 kg of corn soya
blend - used as a nutritious porridge - and a little vegetable oil each
month. This, she said, had been the difference between life and death.

      "When I saw my crops fail I felt pain and worried how I could live. I
feel gratitude [for the aid], without it we would have died," she explained.

      Tendai Mujiwechi said that before the WFP programme began in October,
she was surviving on un-ripened fruit - mangoes and paw-paw - which she
would boil. "They taste good when you are hungry," she told IRIN.

      In Mutare, as in much of rural Zimbabwe, subsistence farmers scrape a
living growing a little maize and sorghum. The area is dry, and more suited
to ranching, but both Sibanda and Mujiwechi said in a good year they could
grow enough to produce a small surplus for sale.

      But three consecutive years of poor rains exhausted the few resources
they had to fall back on. With even the wealthier farmers facing a poor
crop, opportunities to work in their fields as wage labourers, a traditional
coping strategy, dried up.

      "As old as we are, we really grew scared because of the hunger,"
Mujiwechi said.

      Alongside the vulnerable fed by WFP - deemed as the elderly, widows,
women-headed households, orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS -
increasing numbers of the just plain poor have appealed to be included on
the distribution register.

      Supplies of cheap price controlled maize in Mutare, provided through
the government's Grain Marketing Board, were described as "erratic" by aid
workers.

      Throughout the region is the evidence of the failure of the rains
during the crucial months of November and December, when the maize crop
should have matured. In the small plots that surround each homestead, rows
of scorched and shrunken stems stand abandoned.

      Compounding the bad weather were problems at the village level over
access to seeds and fertiliser during the planting season last year. Maize
seeds, when available, were late in arriving in Mutare. Both Sibanda and
Mujiwechi said they had been forced to plant without fertiliser.

      Complaints by producers over the fixed price of seed and problems with
the government's input support programme had delayed deliveries.

      In a warning of worsening food insecurity in 2003, the Harare-based
Famine Early Warning System said in a report last month that due to
"inadequate inputs and poor rainfall distribution", crops were in "a much
worse situation than last year, when more than half of the country
experienced a complete crop failure or well below-average yields".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item
on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or
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      All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs 2003
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Telegraph

Zimbabwe's cities halted by MDC-led mass strike
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: 19/03/2003)


Tens of thousands of Zimbabwean workers observed a call for a general strike
yesterday as the opposition launched the biggest protest against President
Robert Mugabe's rule for six years.

Much of the nation's commerce and industry was halted and streets were empty
in the capital, Harare, and the second city, Bulawayo, on the first day of
the protest, which will end tonight.

Officials of the Movement for Democratic Change said the strike would focus
international attention on Mr Mugabe's "repressive rule".

Paul Themba Nyathi, an MDC spokesman, estimated that 80 per cent of
businesses were affected. Three policemen were injured, one seriously, in
unrest connected with the strike. Three buses were set alight and 53
opposition supporters were arrested.

The strike, the first successful protest since Mr Mugabe won rigged
elections a year ago, has shown the MDC "still has the capacity to flex its
muscles", according to Prof Brian Raftopoulos of the University of Zimbabwe.

Andrew Nongogo, an analyst and spokesman for the Zimbabwe Crisis Group,
said: "This strike, which has been surprisingly successful and is still
growing, has shown the opposition that if it is willing to take the lead
people will follow."

The strike is the most widespread since 1997 when the MDC's president,
Morgan Tsvangirai, then leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions,
called the people out to protest against food price rises.

He could not take part in the action yesterday as he and two MDC MPs were in
the High Court facing treason charges, arising from an alleged plot to
assassinate Mr Mugabe before last year's elections.

Police said the strike was illegal and state radio said it had flopped, with
only white-owned companies affected.

Zimbabwe is grappling with its worst political and economic crisis since
independence from Britain in 1980. The economy is in its fourth year of
recession, with record unemployment, runaway inflation and acute shortages
of fuel and foreign currency.

Nearly half the country's 14 million people face food shortages blamed on
drought and the impact of Mr Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless blacks.
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VOA

Zimbabwe Lashes Out at West; Defends Land Reform
VOA News
19 Mar 2003, 02:31 UTC


Zimbabwe's Justice Minister lashed out at western nations Tuesday during a
speech at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Patrick Chinamasa said in launching a war against Iraq without a U.N.
mandate, the United States and Britain had no right to preach about
democracy. He accused the two countries, which are his nation's most
strident critics, as having double-standards.

Mr. Chinamasa said if the west respected human rights, it would not "want to
unleash a senseless war on Iraq without regard to the human rights of
defenseless Iraqi children."

The justice minister also defended Zimbabwe's much-maligned land reform
policy. He said his government had redressed what he called "colonialist,
racially induced inequalities" in land ownership in Zimbabwe.

Under the controversial policy, white commercial farmers were forced to hand
over their land to blacks.

Zimbabwe has been under sharp criticism ever since last year's widely
condemned elections won by President Robert Mugabe. The nation was suspended
from the Commonwealth, and the European Union slapped sanctions on Mr.
Mugabe's government in protest.

Last week U.S. officials said they would lead an effort to condemn Zimbabwe
for its "flagrant and ruinous" human rights abuses at the human rights
meeting.
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Telegraph

Britain should support Olonga's stand
By Paul Hayward  (Filed: 19/03/2003)


There are people in this country who will tell you that all asylum seekers
are parasites. They will breathe ale on you and say that "political
persecution" is a fancy excuse for sponging. Funnily enough, some of those
same folk will also try to persuade you that a red carpet should be unfurled
for Henry Olonga, the Zimbabwean cricketer who stood up to Robert Mugabe's
tyranny in the most heroic protest by an athlete since Muhammad Ali refused
to fight in Vietnam.

Britain will be a much better country if Olonga comes here from his hiding
place in South Africa, from which seven of Mugabe's henchmen tried to snatch
him this week. God knows our country could do with a few more people who
believe in something. Mugabe's goons were in East London to see through the
president's threat to have the first black cricketer to represent Zimbabwe
tried for treason and probably executed. According to the Home Office, 7,695
Zimbabweans fled to Britain in 2002 and 2,245 have already been accepted.
Most of us would rejoice if Olonga made that 2,246.

But since freedom and justice are at the top of his wish-list for that
blighted land, it must be right that Olonga submits to the same procedure as
anyone else fleeing a dictatorship: both in county cricket and at the
immigration desk. When John Carr, director of cricket at the England and
Wales Cricket Board, said as much this week, it sounded like classic
bureaucratic insensitivity. Olonga, though, made his stand on the question
of basic human rights. Courage of the sort that few of us will ever be asked
to demonstrate should not entitle him to leap over the 3,870 Zimbabweans who
applied to become British citizens but were turned away.

Olonga is in mortal danger as long as he remains within reach of Mugabe's
death squads. So, too, are many of the fellow Africans he leaves behind. He
was a candidate for state-sponsored murder from the day he provided the
cricket World Cup's most electrifying and enduring moment. The black-armband
protest against the 'death of democracy' in their country made Olonga and
Andy Flower the political equals of Ali. Flower is nicely set up with
another year on the county circuit with Essex and his wife and children are
already here. Olonga may be heading for a career as a classical singer.
Something tells me he will end up as a great British figure and Renaissance
man.

By coincidence, on Monday night, Channel 5 showed a documentary on Ali in
which sport's most celebrated refusenik told David Frost (with the help of
subtitles): "I made a stand [on Vietnam] and I turned out right." In April
1967, Ali was stripped of the world heavyweight title for refusing to be
conscripted and lost 3.5 years of his prime. Ali lost his stage, his
livelihood and some of his speed around the ring. The difference today, I
suppose, is that Olonga risks losing his life.

Veterans of the American civil rights era might try to correct that
assertion: in an age of political assassinations, Ali, who for a time was a
Muslim fundamentalist who argued that all white people were "devils", was
probably at risk from the lone gunman as much as a Kennedy or a Martin
Luther King.

The comparison is made solely to accentuate Olonga's heroism in looking down
the barrel of Mugabe's gun while also sacrificing his international career.
In the annals of moral protest, he certainly surged past, say, Robbie Fowler
and his 'Support the Liverpool dockers' T-shirt - a gesture for which Fowler
deserved respect, regardless of whether you agreed with the sentiment. Not
until Olonga arrives on these shores, though, will we know whether he
possesses any of Ali's imperishable wit. During the Frost interview, the
former 'King of the World', who has chronic Parkinson's disease, closed his
eyes and snored. Tragic, we thought. But then the Ali eyes sprang open and
he mumbled, through a grin: "Did I fool you?" Rope-a-dope, for interviewers.

An esteemed colleague sent me a laminated card showing one of Ali's most
famous aphorisms: "I know where I'm going and I know the truth and I don't
have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want." This is the
essence of Olonga's protest. It was an expression not just of collective
indignation but his own desire for individual liberty. It damaged the Mugabe
regime far more than Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.

At 26, after 30 Tests and 50 one-day internationals, Olonga was saying that
there is more to life than a career in games: especially when the sport of
which you are part lends succour to a regime that sent out uniformed thugs
this week to beat and harass members of the Movement for Democratic Change.

Zimbabwe doubtless went off the radar of everyday consciousness the moment
England effectively boycotted their World Cup match in Harare. While we
looked for a new moral saga to fill the radio phone-ins, Olonga moved from
black armbands to white wrist bands. Different symbol, same message. His
father, a medical practitioner in Bulawayo, warned him that he would be
tried and probably executed if he returned from South Africa, to which he
had taken "documents and a few valuables" as a precaution.

By that point, most of us would have had enough, but Olonga was ready to
take on South Africa's ruling ANC - the party of Nelson Mandela - who have
been less than trenchant in their criticisms of Mugabe's Zanu-PF. "You have
to remember that the ANC and Zanu-PF are bedfellows. I'll only feel
completely safe once I get to England," he said. This brought a stern
rebuke. "While he may be an accomplished cricketer," the ANC said in a
statement, "Olonga clearly knows nothing about the constitutional and
political environment in South Africa. His suggestion that his life could be
in danger in South Africa is insulting." They said he was either "delusional
or supremely ill-informed".

But does he sound that way to you when he talks about not "condoning the
grotesque human rights violations that have been perpetrated . . . against
my fellow countrymen"? No, me neither. Bravery is defined many ways. One way
to pin it down is to say that the truly courageous do things we cannot
imagine doing ourselves. Ali's ultimate defence against the charge of
cowardice was that he climbed through the ropes with Joe Frazier and George
Foreman. Thus it was easy to recognise as profound strength his famous
disclaimer: "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong."

An English businessman has already offered to pay Olonga's county salary for
a year. First, he has cricket's two-foreigner-per-team rule to overcome.
More appealing still is the idea of him making a CD with Barrington
Pheloung, an Australian conductor living in London who has offered him work.
Pheloung, who wrote the score for Inspector Morse, heard him singing on the
radio.

So maybe now the xenophobes who assume that all asylum seekers just want to
beg on the Tube or steal your mobile phone will remember the story of Henry
Olonga; and keep in mind Britain's highly honourable tradition of providing
a refuge for people who stand up for what they believe - even at the risk of
being snuffed out by the state. Olonga would gain a lot by coming here. But
we would gain more.
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TO ALL CFU MEMBERS

The CFU Communications Committee is about to launch a new medium for its information: from March 2003, we will be running a monthly section inside Thomson Publications' TOBACCO NEWS.  What's exciting is that from now on, Tobacco News is to be called THE ZIMBABWE FARMER, and as a result the magazine will have something for everyone. 

You can expect to receive your complimentary March issue of The Zimbabwe Farmer shortly.  If you like it, and want to continue to receive it, you'll have to subscribe.
 
Don't miss the April issue of The Zimbabwe Farmer - it will include the ART FARM report, as well as lots of information from CFU.

There are various categories and rates for subscribers:
ALL RATES QUOTED ARE FOR A SIX-MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION.
LOCAL                                 $5 000.00
REGIONAL                          $9 000.00
INTERNATIONAL:  
    Within Africa - Airmail    $10 320.00
    Europe - Airmail               $11 880.00
    Europe - Surface mail       $  5 445.00
    Elsewhere - Airmail          $14 760.00
    Elsewhere - Surface         $  5 040.00
CORPORATE: 10% discount on a minimum of 10 copies.
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From Reuters, 17 March


Zimbabwe police to charge MP over woman's death


Harare - Zimbabwe police said on Monday they had arrested an opposition
legislator and would charge him with culpable homicide after he allegedly
hit and killed a woman with his car while he was fleeing political clashes.
Police Chief Superintendent Bothwell Mugariri said Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) member of parliament Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa was arrested late on
Sunday hours after the incident, in which a man was also seriously injured.
Tumbare-Mutasa was believed to be fleeing from fighting between MDC
supporters and those of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party in
Kuwadzana, a black township on the outskirts of the capital Harare. "The
first charge that I know of is culpable homicide for accidentally killing
the woman. I am not sure if he will also be charged with trying to flee from
the scene of the accident," Mugariri told Reuters. There have been several
incidents of violence in Kuwadzana and the neighbouring Highfields
constituency over the past month as campaigning heats up for elections to
replace two MDC legislators -- one who died while awaiting trial for the
murder of his wife and another who was expelled by the party.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 March


SA appears surprised at McKinnon decision


International Affairs Editor


SA appeared to have been taken by surprise by the decision by Commonwealth
secretary-general Don McKinnon to continue the suspension of Zimbabwe's
membership until its member heads of state meet in December. Bheki Khumalo,
President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman, said yesterday SA would await the outcome
of last night's meeting of Commonwealth diplomats in London before
commenting on the development. "We understand this matter will be discussed
at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of missions. We will await the outcome of
that meeting before issuing a statement," he said. SA shares Nigeria's view
that Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth was for a year and that the
Commonwealth troika tasked with taking a decision on the matter should not
meet to take a decision. In a letter to Australian Prime Minister John
Howard, the chairman of the Commonwealth troika, Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo, accused Howard of acting in a pre-emptive manner by imposing smart
sanctions on Harare.


While McKinnon's decision poses the risk of deepening divisions between
countries that take opposing views on Zimbabwean membership, there are new
possibilities of internal pressures on the government of President Robert
Mugabe with a call for mass action by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) which will start today. The MDC has not specified what form the
action will take, but has said that its members know what to do to show
their anger. Indications are it will be an appeal for people to stay away
from work today and tomorrow. Under what appears to be growing pressure from
intimidation, arrests and court appearances, the scale of the mass action
will be a test of the MDC's strength. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
said it has been preparing for mass action for some time. While the mass
action has the support of labour, commerce and industry have refused to be
drawn on whether or not they support the show of force against Mugabe.
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<

List of Businesses not participating in Stayaway

Harare

A&G Motors

AA Zimbabwe

Abacus Real Estate

ABC Auctions

Aberfoyle Holdings

Academic books

Ace international

Acol Chemicals

Active Glass Supplies

Adam & Sons

Adam Bede

Adhesive tapes and Multipac

Athletes World

B&P Panel Beaters

Bakers Inn

Banet & Harris

Barclays Bank

Barret Electronics

Bata

Bata Low Density Studies

Beverley Building Soc

Blue Arrow

Bon Marche

Borrowdale Fashions

Cairns Chemicals

Car Guard

Celsys

CFU

Chibuku

Circle Video

Clicks

Climax

Coconut Joe

Coleksieuner

Country Road

DAB MARKETING

DAHMER and CO

DANS PANEL BEATERS

Dixons

Eagle Insurance Co. Ltd.

Earthern Fire

Earthwind Freight (Pvt) Ltd.

Eastern Plumbers.

Eastlea Panel Beaters

Eclipse Executive Selection (Pvt) Ltd.

Edgars Stores Ltd

Edisan Engineering.

Electra Installations & Repairs (Pvt) Ltd.

Electric Centre (Pvt) Ltd.

Electrical & General Maintenance (Pvt) Ltd.

Electro Panels (Pvt) Ltd

Elliot Accounting & Secretarial Services.

Eltom Enterprises

Empire Gym.

Enbee

Ericom

Ernst & Young.

Errol Tarr Landscapers

Escapades (Pvt) Ltd.

Esgar Products & Investment Co. (Pvt) Ltd.

Exor Petroleum.

Floral Wonder

Gwebi College

Habitat design -

Hackney transport

Haddon motors -

Haggie Rand

Halsted Brothers

Hamburger Hut

Hamilton King

Happy days

Happy eater catering

Harare Engine Repairs Hatfield

Harare Fish Products Graniteside

Harare Leather Co

Harare Lock & Key

Harare Parts Distributors

HarareToyota

Hard Chrome

Hardware Home

Harlequin Furniture Manufacturers

Harrison & Hughson Graniteside

Hart Real Estate

Hassam Kassam Jewellers

Hassans Leopold Takawira

Headhunters iNcorporated

Heart Geotechnical Engineers

Hefty Marketing

Henderson Insurance

Henmar Agencies Avondale

Henry Schoultz Avondale

Hensman & Wilkins

Heritage Insurance

Highlands Plumbers

Highrise Real Estate

Hino Zimbabwe

Honey Bags Clothing

Horizon Ventures

House of Kumali

IDAS Irrigation

Imperial Refrigeration

Ind Vee Belts

Ingersoll Rand

Innscor

Intermarket Discount

Intermarket Stockbrokers

Intrepid Contractors

Invicta Construction

Irvine & Johnson

Jaggers

Jewellery Haven

K. & K. Communication Systems;

K. & N. Radiators;

K. & N.Distributors;

K. & S. Bus Service;

K. & S. Machine Tools;

K2-Techtop Consultation;

Kabvunde Trading Company;

Kadison Security Services;

Kadmat Industries;

Kalamazoo Business;

Kamfinsa Hardware

Kantor & Immerman;

Kapenta Distributors;

Kapuya ZM Bookkeepers;

Karate Headquarters;

Karina Textiles;

Kasasisi Gardens;

Kasico Pvt. Ltd.;

Kassim A1.

Keg & Sable

kingkold - Chisipite

Kingstons B/Dale

L&W Electrical

LACC Enterprises

L'Electron

Lemons Pharmacy

Lever Bros

Linsell Saachi & S

Lintas

Lister Engines

Lobels

Lounge Lizards

Lucullus

Lyons

Lysaght Steel

Lytton Tobacco

M & H Educational

M & M Coachworks

M & M Painting

M & M Scale Co

M & N Caterers

M & S Metal Fabricators

M & T Plastics (GMB!)

M Hapsis Fabrics M'Reign

M Langs Enterprises

MA Agencies

Mabel Taxis

Mabelreign Bazaar

Mabelreign Hardware

Mabelreign Pharmacy

Mabelreign Plumbing

Mabelreign Service Station

Mabor Zimb - Superbake Bakery

Machados

MacMaine School of Computing

Mac's Supermarket

Madz Contractors

Magic Mail Marketing

Mahomed Mussa

Mako Haulage

Makon Handling

Makro

Mandel Training

Mannix Cash Wholesalers

Marathon Retreads

Mardon Plumbers

Marvo

Masasa Timber

Master Angler B/Dale

Maurice Hassan Garments

MCD

McKeeman & Stally

Metropolitan Bank

Millenium Motors

Mimis Sam Levys

Mukuyu

Multicool

Mweb

N&I Entertainment HICC

NA sales and services

NAD Construction

Nadia creche

Nado Enterprises

Naina Creations

Nameplate Sign Centre

Namow Trading

Nasaden Trading (motor spares)

Nashua HO

National Breweries

National Carpets B/Dale

National cartridges

National council - motor trade

National Dairy Coop

National Discount House

National Fencing

National Foods HO

National Link Systems

National Shopfitters

National Spring Steele

National Tested Seeds

National Tyres

NCR

Ncube Burrow

NDH asset managers

NEI Zim

Nels diesel

Netone

Neuber Management systems

Neumatic Tool company

Neves iron craft

New Happenings

New Horizons

Harare (cont)

Nicoz

NSSA

Obsession B/Dale

OK Bazaars

Olivine Industries

philpott & Collins

Pomona Bakery

QV Pharmacy B/Dale

Reflections B/Dale

Reliant computers

Retail Automation

Retail Automation

Rezende auto repairs

Rhino industrial

Richard Rennie

Ricoh

RMS

Rooneys hire service

Royal Harare golf club

RV Patel

Saltrama

School Ties

Snack Attack Arundal

South Wales Electric Southerton

Tableware House

Tag Net Education.Supplies

Takura Ventures

Tanaka Trading

Tandem

Target Research

The Framing Centre B/Dale

TM

Town and Country

Toyota

Truworths

Twin Trades B/Dale

Valley Fresh

Van Leer Zimbabwe

Vanity Kitchens

Variprint

Video Flicks Avondale

Viking Security

Vita Form

Volvo

Von Seidels Trust

Vumba Cheese

Wimpy

Zacks Cycle

Zambezi Chemicals

Zambezi River Authority

ZDBank

Zebra Freight

Zellco

Zimbabwe Flooring

Zimbabwe Tobacco Assoc


Bulawayo

Ale Eng.

AMC

Amigos

Amtec

Anark Panel Beaters

Anes

Archer

Arenel

Astra Chem

Astra paints

Astra Supplies

Autobot Tech

Avery Berkel

B & S Truck

Bake & Cake

Barzen

Bee Supermarkets

Boots

Brenmark

Canvas and Allied

CarGuard

Carrolls Cars

Central Pipe and Gate

City Furniture and Electric

Clicks

Colcom

Conquip

Cotton Printers

Cut Price

Dannys Elec

Datlabs

Delicatess Meats

Dicks

Diesel Elec

Dollar 13

Downings Bakery

Dulux Paints

Dunlop

Eagle Roller Meal

Edgars

Edmund Car Sales

Elida Parts

Esats

Express Stores

Factory Shoes

Farm and City

Fazak

Food 4 Less

Garrick Distributers

Gees

Golden Goose

H & S

Haefelis Bakery

Haggie Rand

Hardware City

Henry Dunn Steel

High Peak Eng

Hunyani

Ingwebu Breweries

Innscor Africa

J & K Truck & trailer

J Mann

Key Services

Kingstons

Label Clothing

Lancashire Manufacturing

Lobels

Makro

Maksons

Mansed

Marlon

Max Meats

Max Metals

MBA Fasteners

Meikles

Merlin

Mica

Midas

Mine Machines

Mirco

Monark

Monark Workshops

Motor Glass

Multi Sign

Multi Spares

Multichoice

N & B Bakery

Nabeen Ent

Nat Foods

National Blankets

National Fencing

Nisma Eng

Noach

Non ferrous Metals

Office Max

OK Bazaars

Orlando Furniture

Oxyco

P & S Motors

Perkins Steel

PG

PG Glass

Piggott Naskew

Power Sales

Premier Products

Premium Products

Puzey and Payne

Quest

Radiator and Tinning

Ramjes

Red Star Wholesalers

Sara Bedding

Save Centre

Savings Centre

Security Mills

Shoprite

Simms

Sisters Restaurant

SKF Bearings

Solomons

South Fork Tools

Spares Africa

Station Furniture

Sterling Furnishers

Supersonic

Suzuki Centre

T. Mann Truck parts

Tabs-Cash Avon

Tech Tools

Technim

Textile Mills

Tiger Brake

TM

Tool Making and Engineering

Topics

Toppers

Trade Centre

Travel Goods

Tregers

Truworths

Turnal

TV Sales and hire

Tyreman

UBM

Universal Components

Victoria Foods

Vita Foam

Wallace Labs

Warman

Western transport

Wheels

Wrays Diesel