http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
18 March
2009
Fifteen activists of the Movement for Democratic Change
formation of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai taken into custody late last
year by police
remain missing despite recent inquiries by the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee established to resolve outstanding
issues following
the formation of Zimbabwe's national unity government last
month.
The monitoring committee, known as JOMIC, recently summoned the
two
ministers who share control of the Home Affairs Ministry to inquire into
the
whereabouts of the activists, who were accused of plotting to overthrow
the
former government of President Robert Mugabe but apparently have never
been
formally charged with any crime by the authorities.
The release
of political prisoners was among the issues not yet resolved
last month when
the unity government was finally constituted on Feb. 13,
five months after
the signature of the power-sharing agreement providing for
such
collaboration by the two formations of the MDC and President Robert
Mugabe's
ZANU-PF after disputed elections in March-June 2008.
High-profile
prisoners such as Zimbabwe Peace Project Director Jestina
Mukoko, abducted
by state security agents in December 2008 and later
produced by police, and
Tsvangirai MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett, named deputy
agriculture minister,
been released on bail. But a number of less-known MDC
activists and a
photo-journalist remain behind bars.
The Home Affairs co-ministers, Kembo
Mohadi of ZANU-PF and Giles Mutsekwa of
the Tsvangirai MDC formation were
unable to account for the whereabouts and
disposition of the activists,
according to sources familiar with the JOMIC
proceedings last
week.
However, of 18 activists described as "missing," three were
released by
police following the JOMIC meeting with the two ministers, the
sources said.
Police are said to have told the Home Affairs ministers
they had been
holding the three men in protective custody, but denied any
knowledge of the
other 15 activists.
Economic Planning and Investment
Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma of the
Tsvangirai MDC formation, chairman
of the JOMIC panel this month, told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that the
committee is panel is making every effort
to find the missing activists.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Charles Tembo and
Tendai Maronga Thursday 19 March 2009
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's once brilliant public education sector is in a
shambles, with the
government unsure how many teachers or pupils were in
schools and without
cash to revive the schools or pay teachers.
"Our schools are
derelict and we do not have accurate information on
how many teachers are in
schools, and the schools have been vandalised,"
Education Minister David
Coltart told journalists in Harare on Wednesday.
Coltart said pleas
to international donors for cash to pay teachers
had yielded nothing to date
- a situation that could trigger a fresh job
boycott by the country's
teachers.
Teachers unions said earlier this week that their members
would not
report for duty in the second term in May if salaries were not
increased
from the US$100 a month every civil servant is currently
getting.
"Our entreaties (for money) to donors have failed. Money
has not flown
into our coffers yet," said Coltart, a member of the former
opposition MDC
party who joined government in February under a power-sharing
deal with
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party and the main MDC wing led
by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
"While we are very
concerned with the genuine demands of the teachers,
right now I can not
promise anything in terms of salaries," said Coltart,
who appealed to
teachers unions to show a spirit of patriotism by delaying
industrial action
while the government looks for money for salaries.
Very little
learning took place at public schools last year as
teachers spent the better
part of the year striking for more pay or sitting
at home because could not
afford bus fare to work on their meagre salaries.
As teachers left
schools unattended and pupils to their own devices,
hooliganism crept in and
buildings at most schools were vandalised with
doors removed and windowpanes
broken.
A semblance of order has returned to schools after teachers
returned
to work after the government paid them salaries/allowances in hard
cash but
staffing levels at some schools remained very low, according to
Coltart who
announced a 14-member body to help cobble up a plan to restore
Zimbabwe's
schools to their former glory.
The National
Education Advisory Board is chaired by Isaiah Sibanda a,
former permanent
secretary in the ministry of education, former education
minister Fay Chung,
MDC member Trudy Stevenson and Sharayi Chakanyuka.
Union leaders,
Tendayi Chikowore from the Zimbabwe Teachers'
Association (ZIMTA) and
Takavarasha Zhou from the Progressive Teachers'
Union of Zimbabwe are also
members of the advisory board.
The board was tasked to carry out a
detailed assessment of the
education system and develop a five-year
education plan. It will also
provide advisory services to
Coltart.
Zimbabwe's public education system was once highly rated
and the envy
of many across Africa but a decade of political crisis and
acute recession
left the education in disarray and without resources to
maintain or develop
infrastructure.
The economic crisis also
inspired a severe brain drain that saw
thousands of skilled professionals,
among them teachers and other education
workers fleeing Zimbabwe to go
abroad where salaries and living conditions
were better.
The
government of national unity is seen as the providing the best
opportunity
for Zimbabwe to end its crisis.
But rich Western governments with
capacity to fund the unity
government have refused to provide support until
they see evidence Mugabe is
committed to genuine power sharing and to
implementing comprehensive
political and economic reforms.
Meanwhile Coltart said results for last year's public examinations
should be
available by the end of the current school term in April.
Answer
sheets had remained unmarked after teachers refused to mark
them because of
the paltry allowances they were being paid for the exercise.
UNCEF had to
step in with the cash to pay teachers to mark the papers, said
Coltart.
"We should not have high expectations for the quality
of the results.
Children were in schools for less hours than expected per
year and we had
about 40 percent of teachers in schools. There was massive
disruption of the
school calendar last year and this will be reflected in
the results," said
Coltart. - Zimonline
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk
18
March 2009
Zimbabwe's
pro-Mugabe attorney general has ordered the eviction and
prosecution of the
country's last remaining white commercial farmers.
Johannes Tomana, the
country's chief prosecutor, has already faced calls for
his dismissal from
opposition supporters after declaring his support for
Robert Mugabe amid
fears he will execute his duties in a partisan manner
along political
lines.
Invasions of the few last remaining white-owned commercial farms
intensified
following the formation of the inclusive government between
Mugabe's Zanu-PF
and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Analysts and critics say this is an attempt by Mugabe allies to
grab as much
land as possible before the MDC can begin to take control in a
government
and order the arrest of farm invaders to put a stop to the land
invasions.
White commercial farmers evicted since February have had their
court appeals
to reclaim their land thrown out by magistrates, and the
Commercial Farmers
Union says the state magistrates are taking orders from
the attorney
general.
"There is no let up on prosecution of white
farmers for alleged occupation
of their farms. Most of the present farmers
still on their land have some
form of permission," CFU president Trevor
Gifford said.
"However, a recent document issued to all magistrates by
the [attorney
general] suggests all white farmers should be summarily found
guilty and
evicted if they are not in possession of an official letter or
permit and a
land resettlement lease."
Prime minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's calls for a stop to farm invasions has
been largely ignored by
the Zanu-PF militants and war veterans.
While there is lawlessness, and
sometimes violence on the last remaining
commercial farms across Zimbabwe,
the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has not
acted, just as it did over the
last ten years.
Indeed, some farm invasions are reportedly being led by
police officers, and
members of Zimbabwe's army. The Southern African
Development Community
(SADC's) tribunal ruling ordering a stop to farm
invasions has also been
ignored.
In his 85th birthday celebrations
last month President Mugabe said: "Again,
I want to say to the farmers who
owned those farms which now have been
designated... they must vacate those
farms. They must vacate the farms.
"Some farmers went to the SADC
tribunal, but its nonsense, absolute
nonsense, no one will follow that. We
have courts here in this country that
can determine the rights of the
people. Our land issue is not subject to the
SADC
tribunal."
Invasions of prime farming land by war veterans started in
2000 with the
blessing of President Mugabe. This resulted in agricultural
output
plummeting to low levels since the new owners had no farming
expertise.
Since then, the nation has survived on imports and handouts
from aid
agencies.
© Adfero Ltd
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Observers differ over whether
Zimbabwe's president is mellowing or up to his
old tricks in a new
guise
GEOFFREY YORK HARARE
Globe and Mail Update
March 17, 2009
at 7:56 PM EDT
For many Zimbabweans, it was an astonishing sight. There
was President
Robert Mugabe at the bedside of his long-time enemy, and at
the funeral of
his rival's wife, expressing what seemed to be genuine
sympathy and grief.
It was such a remarkable display - coming from a man
who had once denounced
Morgan Tsvangirai as a "traitor" and allowed his
thugs to assault the
opposition leader - that it brought a poignant response
from Mr.
Tsvangirai's son, Edwin, who said it had "changed my understanding"
of the
85-year-old President.
Was it a new Robert Mugabe, finally
mellowing with age, finally willing to
reconcile with his old enemies, and
perhaps even preparing for his departure
from the political stage?
Or
was it just another tactical manoeuvre by a wily old fox, buying time in
a
crisis by forging a temporary alliance with the opposition leader in order
to attract financial aid from foreign donors?
It's the biggest
question in Zimbabwe these days, and it drives all other
questions. If the
donors decide that Mr. Mugabe has genuinely changed into a
conciliator who
is slowly giving up power, it could unlock the assistance
and recognition
that Mr. Tsvangirai desperately needs to keep alive the new
"unity
government."
But if the alliance with the opposition is seen as just a
tactical trick, if
Mr. Mugabe has no intention of ceding power or stepping
down, the donors
will be much more cautious, and Zimbabweans will be
reluctant to trust the
new government in which Mr. Tsvangirai is the Prime
Minister.
Few people in the new government are willing to comment
publicly on Mr.
Mugabe's future since it touches on sensitive issues about
his health - and
since there is always a risk that the President could turn
vengeful again.
But privately, most insiders are convinced that this will be
the final year
of the long reign of one of Africa's most famous autocrats,
the man who has
dominated Zimbabwe since 1980.
Many are convinced
that Mr. Mugabe will give up most of his power by the end
of this year,
allowing a successor to assume leadership of his long-ruling
ZANU-PF party
when it holds its annual conference in December.
He might remain as the
national president after this year, some say, but his
job would become
increasingly ceremonial. Few expect him to be a candidate
in the next
election, likely to be held within two years.
"Our impression is that he
is tired and he'd like to step down," said a
senior official of Mr.
Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic
Change. "He's frail, and he
fades. He'd like to go, but he's scared to let
his guard
down."
Rumours abound. Some say Mr. Mugabe is able to work for only two
hours a
day. Some say he is ill, with medical conditions that require
treatment
abroad. Some say he is forgetful, rambling in interviews, dozing
or nearly
falling asleep at functions.
"He is too old to run in the
next election," another top MDC member says.
"He has to rest. He has done
his bit, and it's time for a new broom. But the
transition has to be smooth
- otherwise it could become an ocean of blood."
If it is true that Mr.
Mugabe is weary and seeking a safe way to retire, the
new unity government
might be his best hope of easing away from power
without any vengeance from
his enemies.
"For him, it represents a dignified way out, an honourable
exit," said a
veteran journalist in Harare. "He's exhausted and he wants to
leave the
political stage, as long as he is assured that nothing will happen
to him.
He's not healthy at all; you can see it in him. But the people of
Zimbabwe
can be very forgiving."
If he does give up power, of course,
his successor might be as ruthless and
authoritarian as Mr. Mugabe
himself.
Many analysts suggest that the next leader of ZANU-PF will be
the defence
minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa - nicknamed Ngwena, the crocodile -
who is one
of Mr. Mugabe's most feared lieutenants. Though he was demoted in
previous
power struggles, he has now returned to the most powerful post in
the
cabinet.
"Ngwena has spread his tentacles in all crucial
sectors," a party source
told an independent newspaper, The Zimbabwean. "He
is ready to take over."
But nobody should assume that Mr. Mugabe has made
an irrevocable decision to
leave. Despite his health problems, he is still
capable of defying all the
pressure to depart. Skeptics are doubtful of his
rumoured plan to quit.
"Mugabe will not step down," a long-time
human-rights activist in Harare
says. "He can't step down because he knows
ZANU-PF would be wiped out. If he
has his way, he will die in power."
Lance Guma talks to former Education
Minister Dr Fay Chung - She backs Dr Simba Makoni Dr Fay Chung
FULL TEXT INTERVIEW - SW Radio Africa Producer/Presenter Lance Guma speaks to
former Education Minister Dr Fay Chung, in a wide ranging interview. How does
she see the prospects of success for the new coalition government, given the
constant violations by ZANU PF? Lance also asks her about the problems rocking Dr Simba Makoni’s Mavambo
Movement, which she is part of. Dr Chung explains why she made the decision to
support Makoni’s presidential bid last year. Would she ever be tempted to join
the MDC? Lance: Hello
Zimbabwe and welcome to another edition of Behind the Headlines. My special
guest this week is Dr Fay Chung as you will know she is a former Education
Minister serving 1988 right up to 1993. Dr Chung thank you for joining us on the
programme. Dr Chung: My pleasure. Lance: Right now…the starting point, political developments in Zimbabwe. We
have a coalition government that has hit the ground running, what do you think
are the prospects of this new arrangement? Is it going to work? Dr Chung: I
very much hope that it will work because it will give the country a breathing
space. I think all parties have talked about an election in about 2 years time
and I think a 2 year breathing space when we have peace and we can recover from
some of the drastic suffering…..(inaudible) valued by Zimbabweans as a whole and
makes me optimistic and hopeful that this inter-party agreement will work. Lance: Mm this
new arrangement obviously has been blighted by what have been described as
violations. We’ve seen the detention of people like Roy Bennett, Jestina Mukoko
till recently before she was released. Do you think all these are issues that
will harm the arrangement? Dr Chung: Well I think they are very unfortunate, because I think it
is important for these abducted and detained people to be released as soon as
possible. I think that is absolutely essential. But I guess what is happening is
each side is flexing its muscles to show they are still in power or they can
make a difference and this is what we see. Lance: But
obviously Zanu PF has focused on trying to get targeted sanctions removed and
they are not doing enough some would argue to convince skeptical western
countries that things have changed. For example, I mean why would you be asking
for targeted sanctions to be removed while you have Roy Bennett locked up in
Mutare jail? I mean what’s the reasoning there. Dr Chung: Yeh,
well I think each side is trying to please its constituency to show that they
still have power to do what their particular constituency thinks is important.
But I do agree with you that the targeted sanctions will remain as long as we
have people imprisoned without trial. I think it is essential that these people
be released as soon as possible. I don’t see these targeted…ah what are called
restrictions; I don’t think they will go away, without some movements being
taken along those lines. Lance: Now
looking at your C.V, Dr Chung, very impressive in terms of your contribution to
Zimbabwe. Minister of National Affairs Employment Generation and Cooperatives,
Minister of Education Sport and Culture, Deputy Secretary for Administration in
the Ministry of Education Sport and Culture. What is your relationship now that
you are in a sense out of Zanu PF, how are you interacting with your former
colleagues? Dr Chung. Oh, I am still very friendly with colleagues who are working
with me. I think we feel that change is needed at this time. I think if I look
at people who were with me in the liberation struggle, who were with me in the
early years of the independent government, I still have very good relationships
with them. I don’t have any problems with them and they don’t have any problems
with me. So I don’t see personal relations as a problem. I think most of them do
feel that Zanu PF somehow lost its way over the last decade I think and I think
this is a consensus opinion, not just myself but within Zanu PF people, I think
people are quite critical of the fact that we have not had succession over the
last 10 years when obviously succession was necessary, that we allowed a lot of
decay to take place. You know, I mean the cholera is one, the decay of the
medical system, the decay of the education system, the closure of so many
industries, I think all that is noted by everybody. It’s not a secret; you know
it’s staring you in the face. Lance: Last
year you were one of the early public supporters of independent presidential
candidate Simba Makoni, a decision that maybe surprised a few. Dr Chung: Oh I thought it was very important to come out with people
who are serious about solving the country’s problems in Zimbabwe in a
technically sound way. In a way Simba is an extremely brave person to have come
out the way he did. And also he is a technocrat, I mean he is a competent person
and it was important at our stage of development to say lets look at the
problems we facing in the country rather than which party are you and we are
going to bash you down if you are the other party. And we are saying no there
are solutions and we have to go for the solutions. So I think it was very
important to move away from the polarization of the two party system were each
side feels….on the Zanu side they say the MDC is a representative of the
imperialist forces and from the MDC side they say Mugabe is a dictator and so
on, so we have to move from that kind of over-zealous, over simplified and half
truths really on both sides to go to find ways to solve the real problems we
face and I think Simba is offering that way. Lance: And are
you still involved with Simba’s project or you doing something else? Dr Chung: Oh yes I am still heavily involved and in the midst of
working out how to form a political party, cause so far we have Zanu PF and the
two MDC formations but we feel its important to have another political party
which is independent of both and that is what we are in the midst of doing. Lance: In terms
of problems that have rocked the Mavambo project. I mean we had retired Major
Mbudzi convening a press conference with his colleagues and saying Dr Simba
Makoni had been removed at the helm of the organization. Dr Chung: Ah well I don’t think it’s resolved because Mavambo had not
yet been formed into a political party so I don’t know how you can remove
someone from a non existent political party that’s one problem. I think the
other is fighting over resources particularly money and cars. I think Simba is
by nature a very cautious person in terms of how money is used, in terms of the
regulations Vis a Vis cars. So that is very much the quarrel that he was too
slow in forming the party and he was to release the money and cars to people. As
you know in Zimbabwe people fight over these cars and I think that is one of the
issues we have today. So I think it’s a good thing really that Major Mbudzi and
Ibbo Mandaza and others have chosen to leave Simba. Lance: Now last
year I spoke to former Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa, in fact I think
it’s this year, and he said the reason why he supported Simba Makoni, it was a
rescue operation and they wanted to prevent either Morgan Tsvangirai or Robert
Mugabe from winning outright and this is what led to the run-off some are
saying. Is that a fair assessment of the role Simba Makoni played because some
are saying he acted as a spoiler and created the run-off? Dr Chung: I don’t think he was a spoiler, I don’t believe that at all.
I think the issue was that he saw that neither of those two candidates was
offering a solution. You know they were kind of organizing against each other
mainly on the basis of personality. Up to now you know I think I can say without
fear of contradiction that neither Zanu PF nor the MDC have clear long term
policies or strategies for improving the situation in this country. And what you
hear really is we want a return to what it was like in the 1980’s but I think
that is not a proper solution. We can not return to the so-called good times of
the 1980’s. I think actually that is a delusion. Lance: Well
those two parties as you say are now in a coalition government. Dr Chung: Well I think if MDC plays its cards well and shows a lot of
progress in the two years its future will be very comfortable. So I think it ’s
very much up to the MDC to show what it can do in two years. I think if it does
not show great progress in the next two years then the kind of doors open for
new parties and in fact that’s what I foresee really at the next election we
will have more parties than we have now. I can see new candidates coming in. New
parties forming because the old parties may not be offering proper answers to
the challenges we have. Lance: Would
you ever be tempted to join the MDC? Dr Chung: Well I think MDC has a very solid working….the urban working
class base and I think it has had very good support from the trade unions. So in
that way I do see it as a progressive party. I think because it formed as an
opposition to Zanu PF and based on an analysis that the problem is a person,
that is Robert Mugabe. It became fairly confused because, you know, it seems
very often the policy is if Robert Mugabe is removed all the problems will be
solved, so I don’t believe that at all. I think there is much more to be done in
Zimbabwe than just removing one person. And I think also kind of focusing on a
personality muddies the analysis because I think we have very poor analysis on
both sides you know and in some MDC side you kind of hear if we had not done
land resettlement we would be okay, that is wrong analysis. From Zanu PF they
think that MDC spoilt everything by getting too much support from Britain and
America. Well I think that is partially true in that some of the kind of
confused messages that we get from MDC is from getting too much support from too
many different groups both inside and outside the country. You know there have
been very favoured in terms of those internal and external support and I think
these different groups have wanted their different messages to be the most
dominant ones, you know. Let’ Lance: That was
Dr Fay Chung joining us on Behind the Headlines and certainly she has a lot to
say on Zimbabwe and we hope to get her again for a part two. Dr Fay Chung, thank
you for joining us. SWRadio Africa
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Any particular
reason you chose to back Dr Makoni?
Umm how has that
matter been resolved so far?
Simba on his side is
continuing with the formation of the party. So I don’t see..I guess in the end
we might have two parties coming out but with Simba we still have the majority
of people who followed him through the bid he made to challenge Mugabe and
Tsvangirai for the presidency.
I think we need some new
solutions which neither have come upwards. That is were Simba comes in, to offer
a new vision of where we are going to. I think the older generation really harks
back to restoring the good times which of course were based on the good
inheritance of the Rhodesian days but I think there are problems with the
Rhodesian days because the Rhodesia was perfect only for a minority, at that
time a white minority. But after independence you had a black minority enjoying
all these advantages but the majority of the people were not able to gain very
much from either the Rhodesian system or from the post independence system. I
mean of course in the education, health, clean water supply they were better off
for lets say the first decade or so. But after that even that went backwards you
know, health care is gone backwards, education has gone backwards, and off
course water supply has ended up in cholera. So I don’t think we have a clear
vision of were we go to from those two parties.
Clearly both
are eyeing the elections in 2 years if we are to have a new constitution. Who do
you think will come out the winner from this, Zanu PF or the MDC?
s take the two main groups, the trade unions on
the one side and the white commercial farmers on the other side. In a way they
are very disparate groups but they are the two groups which are the most
prominent in supporting MDC. So I think there certain types of mixed messages
which come out. Umm….so your question is would I join MDC, well I think at the
present moment I definitely would not.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by
Simplicious Chirinda Thursday 19 March 2009
HARARE -
Zimbabweans will on Friday hold a belated commemoration of
International
Women's Day (IWD) at a gathering set to bring together women
from different
political parties to promote unity and harmony, a top
government official
said on Thursday.
"We are organising a national event where we will
invite all women from all
political parties to commemorate the International
Women's Day on March 20,"
said Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender
and Community Development
Evelyn Masaiti in Harare
yesterday.
Speaking at an event organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers For
Human Rights
(ZHLR) and the Zimbabwe Young Women's Network for Peace
Building to mark IWD
in the high-density suburb of Mbare, Masaiti said her
ministry was preparing
for an event on Friday where supporters of different
political parties would
be invited to attend.
The organisers will
allow the women to attend the event at the City Sports
Centre fully dressed
in the regalia of their different political parties to
promote tolerance and
togetherness in a country deeply divided along
political lines.
"We
want all the women in Zimbabwe to come to this event in their different
party regalia as a way of fostering peaceful co-existence despite coming
from different political parties," said Masaiti.
"We even want those
in religion, the judiciary, academia or any other
profession to come in
their professional regalia."
A major day of global celebration for the
economic, political and social
achievements of women IWD is celebrated on
March 8 every year.
Friday's event will mark the first real attempt by
Zimbabwe's new unity
government at bringing together people from different
political parties at a
national event to promote peace and harmony in the
country following violent
elections last year.
Human rights groups,
churches and the country's political leadership have
said that Zimbabwe
needs national healing to promote peace and harmony after
a decade of gross
human rights abuses and politically motivated violence
left the country
deeply scarred and polarised.
Politically motivated violence and murder
have accompanied elections in
Zimbabwe since the 1999 emergence of the
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) as the first real threat to President
Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF
party's decades-long hold on power.
The
country witnessed some of the worst political violence and torture after
a
March parliamentary election last year that was won by the MDC while the
party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a parallel presidential
poll but with fewer votes to avoid a second run-off ballot.
In a bid
to ensure Mugabe regained the upper hand in the second round vote,
ZANU PF
militia, war veterans and state security agents unleashed an orgy of
violence and terror across the country, especially in rural areas many of
which virtually became no-go areas for the opposition.
Tsvangirai
later withdrew from the June 27 run-off election because of
violence that
left about 200 of his supporters dead, leaving Mugabe to win
uncontested in
a ballot that African observers denounced as a shame and
Western governments
refused to recognise.
A power sharing agreement was signed on September
15 to stop the bloodshed,
leading to the formation of an inclusive
government last month and a
committee of senior ministers set up to begin
the process of national
healing and reconciliation.
Incidents of
political violence have also resurfaced in some rural areas of
the country
such as Buhera, Prime Minister Tsvangirai's home area where
houses were
torched last week despite recent calls for an end to violence by
both Mugabe
and Tsvangirai. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience
Rusere
Washington
18 March 2009
With an
eight-month-old cholera epidemic slowing but far from extinguished,
the
government of Zimbabwe has called a summit on water Friday in Bulawayo
to
focus attention on delivery of clean water as the most critical component
of
a strategy to vanquish the disease.
The one-day summit will assemble
officials of the five-week-old national
unity government, civil society
organizations, engineering companies, and
international
donors.
Public health experts say the restoration of water systems in
cities, towns
and rural areas is indispensable for halting the spread of
cholera.
The World Health Organization said authorities had recorded a
cumulative
91,265 cases since August 2008 resulting in the deaths of 4,030
people
through Monday.
Health experts say recent weekly data have
sketched a decelerating trend in
the appearance of new cases - but 287 new
cases and 11 more deaths were
recorded March 16.
Spokesman Fambai
Ngirande of the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organizations said
water contamination is the the root cause of the
epidemic, therefore making
clean water widely available to Zimbabwean
households is the key to stopping
it.
http://www.businessday.co.za
18 March 2009
FOR all its numerous and well-documented shortcomings,
the
African Union (AU) has been consistently correct in its policy towards
coups
d'état on the continent: it refuses to recognise any government formed
through military intervention, even if the ousted party has failed to live
up to basic democratic standards.
That is the right
approach - even though it gives entirely
undeserved protection to tyrants
such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and
Equatorial Guinea's Obiang Nguema -
because any endorsement of
unconstitutional regime change is bound to be the
thin end of the wedge.
Coup leaders seldom make good on promises to hold
elections and hand over
power to civilians, and the instability caused by
the violent overthrow of
one administration encourages others to resort to
similar undemocratic means
of unseating unpopular leaders in
future.
The trouble with the AU's stance is that it does not
back it up
by using other means to isolate African leaders who rig
elections, suppress
legitimate dissent and treat the national treasury like
a personal piggy
bank. This not only gives people such as Mugabe a sense of
impunity, but
ultimately encourages the very military solution the AU
ostensibly seeks to
avoid.
The situation in Madagascar at
present is a case in point:
President Marc Ravalomanana, who surrendered
power to the army yesterday,
was helped into power by the AU after disputed
elections in 2002, when his
predecessor was threatening to use the military
to remain in office against
the wishes of the people. However, having helped
prevent a coup by making
clear that the resulting administration would not
be recognised on the
continent, the AU then sat on its hands while
Ravalomanana proceeded to
misgovern Madagascar and take an increasingly hard
line on the resulting
dissent, culminating in the presidential guard opening
fire on demonstrators
in February, killing 28.
A period
of instability is now inevitable, and even if free
elections are eventually
held, a precedent will have been set that is likely
to haunt Madagascar for
decades to come.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za
It's very early days and a mountain of decay, corruption and plain
thievery
stands in the path but the feeling of hope continues to
grow.
Cathy Buckle*
18 March 2009 00:51
Its been a month now
since Zimbabwe's unity government took office and this
seems an appropriate
point to record the changes that are affecting everyday
life.
The
economy is now running completely on US dollars and the prices of most
goods
are still two, three or sometimes even four times more expensive than
in our
neighbouring countries. But, on the positive side, more and more
shops have
got products back on their shelves so at least now we can find
food - even
if we can't afford most of it! Basic economic rules of supply
and demand and
competition are coming back into play and forcing the
outrageous profiteers
to back down. Seeing shelves stocked with food is such
a shock that we still
stand and stare wide-eyed at the sight of tins and
packets and bottles. For
such a long time we've been scavenging, scrounging,
bartering and just going
without that seeing food for sale again makes us
realize the terrible abuse
that was inflicted upon us by the previous
leadership.
Another
positive development has come for civil servants who have begun
receiving a
small monthly salary in US dollars, and a top up in Zimbabwe
dollars.
Frankly the top up in Zim dollars is a waste of time and utterly
useless as
there is nothing at all that you can buy in local currency - not
even a
single banana or cup of ground nuts from a woman on the roadside. The
US
dollar amounts being paid to civil servants is nowhere near enough, is
not
linked to people's qualifications and is not comparable to salaries
being
paid for the same work in the region, but it is a start.
I had to visit a
Police station recently and seeing the appalling
circumstances under which
these men and women have to work is truly
shocking. Ceilings falling in,
broken tables, chairs collapsing and without
backs, no stationery, nowhere
for people to sit, doors falling out of their
frames, roadways almost
unusable because of deep gullies and potholes. This
situation is similar in
almost all government buildings and is another
shocking legacy left by the
previous leadership.
In the last month utilities, licences and other
urban service fees have gone
through the roof and despite our paying in US
dollars no changes are yet
noticeable on the ground. Garbage is still not
being collected (its been a
year now) roads are a maze of deep potholes,
street lights still don't work
and sewage continues to run openly in some
streets. Water and waste
management is in a perilous place and the handing
back of assets, tools,
chemicals and other equipment by ZINWA (controlled by
government) to the
local municipalities has opened a writhing can of worms.
Water pumps have
gone missing, chemicals have vanished and assets which
actually belong to
the ratepayers, have simply disappeared. We are told by
the incoming MDC
officials that legal action is being taken and that people
will be held to
account. This promise is a breath of fresh air but actions
speak louder than
words!
It's very early days and a mountain of
decay, corruption and plain thievery
stands in the path but the feeling of
hope continues to grow. Change must
come from the top, the middle and the
bottom; we're ready at the bottom!
©Copyright cathy buckle 16th March
2009
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
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line.
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email:
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Jailbirds United
Hello Jag
From being in the fast track to
eviction and conviction, we now seem to
be on the slow road to nowhere. We
keep going to court, and from first
day being hurry- hurry, two hours to find
a lawyer, now we spend the
whole morning waiting.
We get shuffled from
one court room to another, the magistrate has a
problem with his Zesa at home
and cant get to work....and when we
eventually have a place to be convicted
(or not) everyone is so tired
that not only does our police officer fall
asleep, but the Chief Witness
falls asleep, and the Chief prosecutor stops
writing our lawyers
deposition out to have a little snooze. Yes she did have
a lot to say,
but she had waited a very long time, and she was getting really
irritated
with the situation, and the situation warranted a lot to
say,
particularly as she did not want to seem frivolous and vexatious, and
had
to produce good examples of how other people were not
considered
frivolous and vexatious in the past.
Meanwhile those of us
in the Front Row get to have long meetings under
the Indaba Tree outside the
courthouse, coffee and sarmies, and
reacquaint ourselves with old
friends.
But let those in the backline be aware, that when the Front
row
collapses, the back line get tackled....word is that the Chosen Few
who
can continue farming, are warned not to be around us. But then
this
always was like a communicable disease. It is noticeable that those
who
are in the backline of farming, have never played rugby.
Best
wishes
JAILBIRDS UNITED.
[Parts 1 & 2 were published in https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/mar5_2009.html#Z21 ]
http://www.independent.co.ug
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 09:21 By Mahmood
Mamdani
In this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor
Mahmood Mamdani
examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe's
crisis
What land reform has meant or may come to mean for Zimbabwe's
economy is
still hotly disputed. Recently there have been signs that
scholarly opinion
is shifting. A study by Ian Scoones of Sussex University's
Institute of
Development Studies - in collaboration with the Programme for
Land and
Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape -
challenges
some of the conventional wisdom in media and academic circles
within and
beyond Zimbabwe.
The problem with this wisdom is that
certain highly destructive aspects of
reform - coercion; corruption and
incompetence; cronyism in the
redistribution of land; lack of funds and an
absence of agricultural
activity - have come to stand for the whole process.
In particular, Scoones
identifies five myths: that land reform has been a
total failure; that its
beneficiaries have been largely political cronies;
that there is no new
investment in the new settlements; that agriculture is
in ruins; and that
the rural economy has collapsed. Researchers at PLAAS
have been quick to
point out that over the past eight years small-scale
farmers 'have been
particularly robust in weathering Zimbabwe's political
and economic turmoil,
as well as drought'. Ben Cousins, the director of
PLAAS and one of the most
astute South African analysts of agrarian change -
who had previously argued
that the land reform would destroy agricultural
production - now says that
the future of Zimbabwe lies in providing small
farmers with subsidies so
that food security can be achieved. According to
researchers at the African
Institute for Agrarian Studies in Harare, new
farms need to receive
subsidised maize seed and fertiliser for a few seasons
before achieving full
production. Some might give up during this period, but
not many - partly
because the land tenure system doesn't allow land sales;
only land permits
or leases can be acquired.
Zimbabwe has seen the
greatest transfer of property in southern Africa since
colonisation and it
has all happened extremely rapidly. Eighty per cent of
the 4000 white
farmers were expropriated; most of them stayed in Zimbabwe.
Redistribution
revolutionised property-holding, adding more than a hundred
thousand small
owners to the base of the property pyramid. In social and
economic - if not
political - terms, this was a democratic revolution. But
there was a heavy
price to pay.
The first casualty was the rule of law, already tenuous by
1986. When
international donors pressured the regime in the run-up to the
parliamentary
elections of 2000 by suspending aid and loans - a boycott
favoured by the
MDC and the unions - the government simply fixed the result
in its favour.
In the violence that followed, more than a hundred people
died, including
six white farmers and 11 black farm labourers. Some of the
violence was
government-sponsored and most of it state-sanctioned. The
judiciary was
reshaped, local institutions in rural areas narrowly
politicised, and laws
were passed which granted local agencies the powers
necessary to crush
opponents of land reform. Denouncing his adversaries in
the trade unions and
NGOs as servants of the old white ruling class, Mugabe
authorised the
militias and state security agencies to hound down
opposition, as repression
and reform went hand in hand. In 2003, the leading
independent newspaper,
the Daily News, was shut down. While jubilant
government supporters
applauded the sweep of the revolution in agrarian
areas, the opposition
denounced the repression that accompanied it. Land
reform had been ruthless,
but in 2004, the violence began to abate. There
was noticeably less violence
surrounding the parliamentary elections of
2005.
In retrospect, it is striking how little turmoil accompanied this
massive
social change. The explanation lies in the participation of key
rural
figures in ad hoc but officially sanctioned land committees. When
first
introduced in 1996, these committees had mixed fortunes, some not
functioning at all, others becoming instruments of this or that group of
squatters. But a radical change occurred in 2000, when the committees were
expanded to include centrally appointed security officials, ruling party
representatives and local government personnel, as well as local veterans
and traditional leaders. Charged with implementing fast-track land reform,
these committees sidelined the old local administrative structures. They
also had a national impact, since they reported to similarly constituted
provincial committees, which in turn reported to the Ministry of Local
Government. It was the infusion of veterans that gave the new
semi-bureaucratic committees the edge over their wholly bureaucratic
counterparts. Local committees usually comprised between 15 and 30 members.
The veterans formed 'base camps' represented by 'committees of seven' which
took the lead in identifying land for acquisition as well as finding
prospective beneficiaries (mostly from veterans' waiting lists and rosters
in former 'communal areas'). They also judged disputes, punished petty
criminals and allocated farm equipment, seeds and so on. In a word, the
committees co-ordinated everything, thus constituting new centres of
power.
The second casualty of the reform was farm labourers. There were
about
300,000 in all, around half of them part-time. Fast-track reform
resulted in
a massive displacement of these workers, who were traditionally
drawn from
migrant labour. Nearly a fifth came from neighbouring states and
were
regarded with suspicion by peasants in communal areas; even if they'd
been
born locally, they were often seen as foreigners and denied citizenship
rights. Migrants and women (many employed as casual labour) were the weakest
links in the rural mobilisation for land reform. Many were thought to have
been encouraged by landowners to vote against the government's
constitutional proposals, and the anti-land-reform lobby certainly tried to
organise farm workers, ostensibly to protect their jobs, but really to
protect the white ownership of farms. When the workers rallied by the MDC,
civil society activists and white farmers clashed with veteran-led
occupiers, they came off badly. Occupiers held meetings to explain to
workers what was at stake and eventually came themselves to distinguish
between white farms, not only on the basis of size, proximity to communal
areas, and the amount of unused land, but also on the basis of the farmer's
attitudes, particularly on race and towards his workers, and whether he had
participated in the counter-insurgency during the independence
struggle.
Some of the 150,000 full-time farm workers threw in their lot
with the
occupiers, though usually not on the farms where they had been
employed.
About 90,000 kept their jobs on sugar and tea estates, and on new
or already
established tobacco and horticulture farms. About 8000 were
granted land,
but most were denied it on the grounds that they or their
elders had come
from foreign countries, though some were given citizenship.
Many went from
steady employment to contract or casual work; many others
were forced to
supplement their meagre incomes through fishing, petty
trading, theft and
prostitution.
The best publicised casualties of
the land reform movement were the urban
poor who hoped to benefit from
extending land invasions to urban areas. The
veterans spearheaded
occupations of urban residential land in 2000-1.
Housing co-operatives and
other associations followed their lead and set up
'illegal' residential or
business sites. But the state feared that it would
lose control over towns
to the MDC if the land reform movement was allowed
to spread and met these
occupations with stiff repression, including
Operation Restore Order/
Murambatsvina, a surprise military-style
intervention in 2005 in which tens
of thousands of families were evicted.
Not surprisingly, those who opposed
land reform in rural areas were the
strongest critics of government efforts
to stifle occupations in urban
areas.
The final casualty was food
production: Zimbabwe, once a food surplus
country, is today deficient in
both foreign exchange and food. In 2002-3,
half the population depended on
food aid: this was a drought year and the
figures improved in 2004-5. The UN
now estimates that nearly half the
country's 13.3 million inhabitants will
once again be dependent on food aid
in 2009, after another drought year. A
million of these are poor, urban
residents who can't afford imported food.
The rest are peasants, most of
them hit by drought. Climate change is
clearly a factor here, its role most
obvious in marginal land: the communal
areas worked by millions of small
farmers. A 2002 World Food Programme study
noted that there had been three
droughts in Zimbabwe since 1982 and that the
2002 drought, which also
affected several neighbouring countries in Southern
Africa, was the worst in
20 years. The WFP estimated that 12.8 million
people in the region would
require assistance as a result of that drought
and that in Zimbabwe alone,
overall production would decline by 25 per cent,
with cereal production down
57 per cent and maize, the staple in the diet of
ordinary Zimbabweans, down
by a devastating two-thirds.
To separate
out the effect of drought and that of reform - and thus to
understand how
land reform has hit production - one needs first to
distinguish between
three groups of agricultural producer: local white
farmers, who were the
target of the land reform; peasants with farms in
communal areas; and
foreign corporations, whose large farms (except for
small tracts of unused
land) remain intact. Harry Oppenheimer, for example,
lost most of his
private land, but his firm, Anglo American, kept its sugar
estates, which it
then sold to Tongaat Hulett, a South African firm with
15,000 hectares in
Zimbabwe. In a nutshell, white commercial farmers focused
on export crops,
whereas communal farmers were the major source of food
security. The
production of tobacco, hitherto the main source of foreign
exchange, is
concentrated in large-scale commercial farms; it has seen the
most severe
decline, almost entirely as a result of land reform. Maize and
cotton are
peasant crops and have not really been directly affected by land
reform, but
have suffered badly from prolonged drought - maize production
was down by 90
per cent between 2000 and 2003. In contrast, the production
of crops -
sugar, tea, coffee - grown mainly by the large corporate
plantations has
remained steady.
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of
Government in the departments
of anthropology, political science and
international affairs at Columbia
University. This article first appeared in
the London Review of Books; it is
published by The Independent with his
permission.
http://www.independent.co.ug/
Wednesday, 18 March 2009 08:22 By Mahmood
Mamdani
This is the last of a four-part series in which renowned Ugandan
scholar
Professor Mahmood Mamdani examines the historical causes of
Zimbabwe's
crisis.
Besides drought and reform, there is a third cause
of declining production:
the targeted donor boycott. Zimbabwe has been the
target of Western
sanctions twice in the last 50 years: once after UDI in
1965 (very 'soft'
sanctions, which did not stop the country becoming the
second most
industrialised in sub-Saharan Africa by the mid-1970s) and again
after
Zimbabwe's entry into the Congo war in August 1998. Zimbabwe's
involvement
in the war was not well received in the West. Participants in
the donor
conference for Zimbabwe that year were decidedly lukewarm about
committing
funds. Britain announced a review of arms sales to Zimbabwe and,
after the
conference, again disclaimed any responsibility for funding land
reform.
The following year the IMF suspended lending to Zimbabwe, while
the US and
the UK decided to fund the labour movement, led by the ZCTU,
first to oppose
constitutional change and then to launch the MDC as a
full-fledged
opposition party. Its enemies have claimed that, by the late
1990s, the ZCTU
was dependent on foreign sources for two-thirds of its
income. Once
'fast-track' land reform began in 2000, the Western donor
community shut the
door on Zimbabwe.
The sanctions regime, led by the
US and Britain, was elaborate, tested
during the first Iraq war and then
against Iran. In 2001 Jesse Helms,
previously a supporter of UDI, sponsored
the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery bill (another sponsor was
Hillary Clinton) and it became law in
December that year. Part of the act
was a formal injunction on US officials
in international financial
institutions to 'oppose and vote against any
extension by the respective
institution of any loan, credit or guarantee to
the government of Zimbabwe'.
In autumn 2001 the IMF had declared Zimbabwe
'ineligible to use the general
resources of the IMF' and removed it from the
list of countries that could
borrow from its Poverty and Growth Facility. In
2002, it issued a formal
declaration of non-co-operation with Zimbabwe and
suspended all technical
assistance. The US legislation also authorised Bush
to fund 'an independent
and free press and electronic media in Zimbabwe' and
to allocate six million
dollars for 'democracy and governance programmes'.
This was fighting talk,
Cold War vintage. The normative language of
sanctions focuses less on the
issues that prompted them in the first place -
Zimbabwe's intervention in
the Congo war and the introduction of fast-track
reform - than on the need
for 'good governance'. In citing the absence of
this as a reason for its
imposition of sanctions in 2002, the EU violated
Article 98 of the Cotonou
Agreement, which requires that disputes between
African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries and the EU be resolved by the
joint EU-ACP Council
of Ministers.
Clearly, the old paradigm of sanctions - isolation - has
given way to a more
interventionist model, which combines punishment of the
regime with
subsidies for the opposition. So-called 'smart' sanctions are
intended to
target the government and its key supporters. In 2002, the US,
Britain and
the EU began freezing the assets of state officials and imposing
travel
bans. Only four days after the EU imposed sanctions, the US expanded
the
list of targeted individuals to include prominent businessmen and even
church leaders, such as the pro-regime Anglican bishop, Nolbert
Kunonga.
Nonetheless, sanctions mainly affect the lives of ordinary
people. Gideon
Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, wrote
recently that the
country's foreign exchange reserves had declined from $830
million,
representing three months' import cover in 1996, to less than one
month's
cover by 2006. Total foreign payments arrears increased from $109
million at
the end of 1999 to $2.5 billion at the end of 2006. Foreign
direct
investment had shrunk from $444.3 million in 1998 to $50 million in
2006.
Donor support, even to sectors vital to popular welfare, such as
health and
education, was at an all-time low. Danish support for the health
sector,
$29.7 million in 2000, was suspended. Swedish support for education
was also
suspended. The US issued travel warnings, blocked food aid during
the heyday
of land reform and opposed Zimbabwe's application to the Global
Fund to
Fight Aids - the country has the fourth highest infection rate in
the world.
Though it was renewed in 2005, the Zimbabwe grant is meagre.
Agriculture has
been affected too: scale matters, but no one disputes that
subsidies are
vital for agriculture to be sustainable, and sanctions have
made it more
difficult to put a proper credit regime in
place.
Despite the EU's imposition of sanctions in the run-up to the
parliamentary
elections of 2002, Mugabe polled 56.2 per cent of the vote
against Morgan
Tsvangirai of the MDC's 42 per cent. There were widespread
allegations of
Zanu-PF violence and last-minute gerrymandering, with polling
stations in
urban areas - Tsvangirai's electoral base - closing early and
extra stations
being set up in rural areas, where Mugabe's support was
assured.
Nonetheless, it was clear that support for Zanu-PF was higher than
in the
pre-fast-track elections of 2000. Bush and Blair refused to recognise
the
outcome, but Namibia, Nigeria and the South African observer team, which
had
monitored the elections, concluded that the result was legitimate.
Whatever
the truth of the matter, the Africans could do little in the face
of
mounting Western pressure, from Britain especially: a three-member panel
of
Commonwealth countries - Australia, Nigeria and South Africa - was
convened
to consider the question of Zimbabwe. There were reports of intense
pressure
from Tony Blair on Thabo Mbeki. The panel suspended Zimbabwe from
the
Commonwealth for a year. Zimbabwe withdrew from the
organisation.
The experience of land reform in Zimbabwe has set alarm
bells ringing in
South Africa and all the former settler colonies where land
shortage is
still an issue. In South Africa especially, the upheaval and
bitterness felt
in Zimbabwe seems to suggest that the 'Malaysian path' to
peaceful
redistribution and development is not inevitable. An anxious South
Africa
and less powerful members of the Southern Africa Development
Community tend
to feel that sanctions, along with other destabilising
policies pursued by
the West against Zimbabwe, have only made matters worse.
SADC states have
long tried to reconcile the need to resist Western
influence with the fact
that they serve as a bridge between Africa and the
wealthy Western
economies, but South Africa's non-confrontational policy
vis-à-vis Mugabe -
which Mbeki pursued despite mounting criticism from the
ANC and the unions
in South Africa - along with its provision of fuel and
electricity to its
northern neighbour, set it at odds with Western
governments. South Africa
and the SADC states describe their approach as one
of 'non- interference',
'stabilisation' and 'quiet diplomacy', but the West
sees it as a deliberate
effort to undermine sanctions, and critics in South
Africa - most recently
Mandela - have found the Mbeki line much too
conciliatory.
In 2007, SADC called for an end to sanctions against
Zimbabwe and
international support for a post-land-reform recovery
programme, but earlier
this year Western countries brought their influence
to bear on key SADC
members - Botswana and Zambia - to split the
organisation. Ian Khama, the
president of Botswana, went so far as to
announce publicly that he would not
recognise the results of the 2008
elections. The pressure on SADC came not
only from Western countries, but
from trade-union movements in the region,
in particular Cosatu of South
Africa, which has strong links with the ZCTU.
Here is another striking
aspect of the current Zimbabwe crisis: it is not
just Western and pro-
Western governments that have joined the sanctions
regime, but many
activists and intellectuals, for the most part
progressives, have aligned
themselves with distant or long-standing enemies
in an effort to dislodge an
authoritarian government clinging to power on
the basis of historic
grievances about the colonial theft of land. Symbolic
of this was the
refusal by Cosatu-affiliated unions to unload a cargo of
Chinese arms
destined for Zimbabwe when the An Yue Jiang sailed into Durban
in
April.
The arguments, which are not new, turn on questions of nationalism
and
democracy, pitting champions of national sovereignty and state
nationalism
against advocates of civil society and internationalism. One
group accuses
the other of authoritarianism and self-righteous intolerance;
it replies
that its critics are wallowing in donor largesse. Nationalists
speak of a
historical racism that has merely migrated from government to
civil society
with the end of colonial rule, while civil society activists
speak of an
'exhausted' nationalism, determined to feed on old injustices.
This fierce
disagreement is symptomatic of the deep divide between urban and
rural
Zimbabwe. Nationalists have been able to withstand civil society-based
opposition, reinforced by Western sanctions, because they are supported by
large numbers of peasants. The tussle between these groups has even greater
poignancy in former settler colonies than it had a generation earlier in
former colonies north of the Limpopo, for the simple reason that the central
legacy of settler colonialism - the land question - remained unresolved and
explosive after independence. Southern African leaders have tried, with some
success, to put out the fires in Zimbabwe before they spread beyond its
borders. It is worth noting that the agreement between Zanu-PF and the MDC
signed in September and brokered by Mbeki accepts land redistribution as
irreversible and registers disagreement only over how it was carried out; it
also holds Britain responsible for compensating white farmers. In the wake
of Mbeki's resignation as president of South Africa it is vital that this
agreement remains in place. Few doubt that this is the hour of reckoning for
former settler colonies. The increasing number of land invasions in KwaZulu
Natal, and the violence that has accompanied them, indicate that the clock
is ticking.
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government
in the departments
of anthropology, political science and international
affairs at Columbia
University. This article first appeared in the London
Review of Books; it is
published by The Independent with his permission.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13569
March 17, 2009
By Sibangani
Sibanda
TOWARDS the end of last year, I wrote about an investment that I
had made
that was yielding at rates that I doubt have ever been seen
anywhere else in
the world.
An investment of some sixty seven million
in mid-October turned into nine
hundred and fifty quadrillion Zimbabwe
dollars by the beginning of December
2008. In just under two months I had
become a billionaire, then a
trillionaire, then a quadrillionaire! Had
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor
Gideon Gono not intervened, I was very
close to becoming a quintillionaire!
Not even Bill Gates can challenge
that!
Gono did intervene and effectively shut down the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange
whose unbelievable "Bull run" was responsible for the yields that
my
investment was enjoying. Rather than withdrawing my investment, and
getting
a cheque to put in the bank from which I could not withdraw, I
decided to
leave my quadrillions where they were until the fate of the
Zimbabwean
bourse was decided. It was.
Earlier this year, the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange started to trade again - in
hard
currency.
Last week, having allowed a decent period for the new trading
to take shape,
I inquired about the fate of my considerable fortune. My
investment was
still intact, I was told, much to my relief. It had even been
converted into
United States dollars! Staying calm, in spite of my sweating
palms, I asked
how much it was worth. Well, replied the very pleasant
sounding lady at the
other end of the line, I had something in excess of
sixteen thousand units
in my investment (in unit trusts), and these were now
worth all of three
American Dollars and some change.
The rest of my
fortune is still sitting in the bank not worth taking because
I cannot buy
anything with it! It is worth a few hundred thousand Zimbabwe
dollars -
after the removal of the many zeroes by our Reserve Bank
governor - but in
reality, is worth less than discarded old newspapers which
can be useful as
wrappers and, in desperate circumstances, toilet tissue.
It strikes me
that after many years of working, I am down to my last three
dollars and
have to put away any thoughts of retirement any time soon! I am
in the same
position as a school leaver just coming into the world of work
with nothing.
But I have a lot less energy!
Of course, I have been pinning my hopes on
the vow by our new unity
government's Finance Minister that he would "save"
the Zimbabwe Dollar. He
has been strangely silent on the matter since then.
The government seems
more concerned with assuring civil servants - many of
whom are, in my view
at least partly responsible for the mess we find
ourselves in by their
inefficiencies and rampant corruption - that they will
get paid salaries in
hard currency, which the government does not have, but
is hoping to get from
international aid agencies!
The rest of us can
do what we can to earn money in the new liberalized
environment - without
any Capital!
Gono, on the other hand is still Reserve Bank Governor - no
doubt earning
hard currency - in spite of his disastrous monetary policies
being widely
held responsible for the melt-down of our economy and the
demise of our
dollar. And in spite of his many quasi-fiscal policies that
disbursed money
with little accountability, his new "bosses" - those from
the MDC side at
least - seem unable to do anything to keep him in
check.
New Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's utterances about
reviewing Gono's
monetary policies and Patrick Chinamasa's budget were met
with an arrogant
rebuff that seems to have sent the deputy PM whimpering to
a corner to lick
his wounds. New Finance Minister Biti is reported to be
unhappy working with
Gono, but, it seems to me that Gono is all he
has.
There are others, with even less energy than I have, and without
even the
three American dollars that I have who are unable to "Jingirisa"
(Do
whatever it takes to survive) like many of us are having to. They can
only
watch as supermarkets , some of which are now open twenty four hours,
fill
up with luxuries they cannot buy. Their lot is to wait for death by
curable
diseases because they cannot afford medical treatment, or by
starvation
because they cannot afford to buy food.
Many of them
suffered beatings and torture because they dared to hope for a
better life
for themselves and their children. They must now wonder what
that was all
about.
http://www.nehandaradio.com/blog/?p=503
House of Lords
Monday
16 March
2009
Zimbabwe
Question
Asked By Lord Blaker
To ask Her
Majesty's Government what is their assessment of recent
developments in
Zimbabwe.
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, we are ready, with other
donors, to support
the new Government when we see demonstrable commitment to
reform. Tendai
Biti's appointment as Minister of Finance is a positive
development, and an
IMF mission this month provides an opportunity for
constructive dialogue.
However, major concerns remain about commitment to
democracy, respect for
human rights and the rule of law. Of course, our
thoughts are with Morgan
Tsvangirai after the tragic loss of his
wife.
Lord Blaker: My Lords, I am sure that the whole House will agree
with what
the noble Lord has just said about Tsvangirai's wife. Were not
specific
commitments made in the Memorandum of Understanding between
political
parties in Zimbabwe? Does not Mugabe's party continue flagrantly
to breach
those commitments? Does not the memorandum also say that
implementation of
the global political agreement,
"shall be
underwritten and guaranteed by the Facilitator, SADC and the AU"?
Is not
the facilitator Thabo Mbeki?
Is the Minister aware of any censure by the
guarantors over those continuing
breaches or, given the expectation by SADC
members that the UK will provide
funding for Zimbabwe, have we been given
any indication by SADC and the
African Union of measures that they intend to
adopt to make good their
guarantee?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords,
as I indicated in my original Answer, there
are one or two developments that
give some cause for optimism, but progress
is very slow, as the noble Lord
indicated. That is why the British
Government are extremely guarded in our
response to developments in
Zimbabwe. The noble Lord is right that there is
a role that Thabo Mbeki is
to play in monitoring the development of and
encouraging the restoration of
those features which I have indicated in
terms of the rule of law and the
return to democracy. We wait and see. At
this stage, it would be premature
to reach judgments, but the noble Lord is
right to raise the issue. We must
be watchful of what are very limited
developments in Zimbabwe at present.
Lord Acton: My Lords, are the
Government satisfied that the money they give
Zimbabwe via United Nations
agencies is allocated as it should be? Is there
monitoring that is
independent of the United Nations of the distribution of
such international
funds?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the House is pleased to see my
noble friend
back, and I am encouraged by this question. The position of the
British
Government with regard to aid in Zimbabwe is that aid is
concentrated on
food aid under the United Nations programme and on concern
about the health
and welfare of the people of Zimbabwe, particularly given
the background of
the recent cholera epidemic. Those are both priorities to
which
international support is being given. Although there is always a
difficulty
about monitoring certain flows of funds, the international
community and the
British Government have a great interest in ensuring that
the two main
issues in Zimbabwe-food and the restoration of some degree of
public
health-are priorities that can be monitored.
Baroness D'Souza:
My Lords-
Lord Avebury: My Lords-
The Minister of State,
Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department
for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My
Lords, can we hear
from the Cross Benches first and then the noble Lord?
Baroness D'Souza:
Thank you, my Lords. More specifically, the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee was set up by SADC to oversee the
power-sharing
agreement between ZANU-PF and the MDC. Never has its work been
more
desperately needed than now. I heard last week a first-hand account
stating
that this committee does not have the resources to do its work. Can
pressure
be brought to bear on SADC countries, or are the Government
themselves
prepared, to supply the committee with the resources it needs to
do this
job?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the SADC commitment was entered
into
voluntarily and the Prime Minister, of course, is responsible for
seeing it
through. We are concerned about this monitoring position. The
question of
whether there are sufficient resources also relates to the
extent of the
will to monitor effectively. It is still early days to reach
judgments on
that matter, but the noble Baroness is quite right to identify
it as a key
element, because this was the assurance given as regards
underpinning the
development of the new arrangements in
Zimbabwe.
Lord Avebury: My Lords, I should like to be associated with the
condolences
expressed by the Minister on the tragic loss of Mr Tsvangirai's
wife. While
I note the Zimbabwean Government's declaration of the principles
that have
to be satisfied, does the Minister agree that the best way of
restoring
confidence in the international financial institutions would be
for them to
comply with the specific requirements of the constitution as
amended,
including full consultation before the appointment of senior
government
officials, such as the governor of the bank, Gideon Gono, and the
Attorney-General, Mr Tomana? Can the noble Lord assure the House that he has
specific proposals on these matters, particularly on the release of the 40
political detainees, to place before the G20 when it meets in the near
future?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, Zimbabwe remains an
important issue for the
international community. Therefore, I have no doubt
that these issues will
be discussed. Tardy progress has been made towards
the development of the
principles upon which the Government should be
founded that the noble Lord
identified. He is right to express anxiety about
appointments, as I have
indicated, but one or two developments and
appointments, including the
swearing into office of Mr Bennett who has been
freed from prison, offer
some limited encouragement. We have to be patient
in circumstances where
quite a significant transition of this Government
needs to occur.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13582
March 18, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The wife of Chief Superintendent Chrispen
Makedenge, one of the
most dreaded police officers in Zimbabwe, committed
suicide Monday
reportedly over serious marital problems with her
husband.
Sources within the police say Makedenge, who is in charge of
Harare's
Criminal Investigations Department (CID) homicide section, had been
having
endless disputes with his wife. She allegedly took poison on Sunday
evening.
Mrs Makedenge was employed by the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (NOCZIM).
She is said to have been a frequent visitor to Dubai in
the United Arab
Emirates where she bought goods for resale in
Harare.
"She took poison on Sunday evening and was rushed by Makedenge to
the
Avenues Clinic for treatment," said a source on condition of anonymity,
"She
died at midnight on Monday."
Makedenge has been associated over
the years with the arrest of opposition
politicians, journalists and human
rights activists.
He is the chief architect of last year's abductions on
32 Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and human rights activists who
included a couple
with its two year old child.
The abductees, some of
whom have since been released, were seized from
different places in Harare
and surrounding towns on allegations of
attempting to overthrow President
Robert Mugabe's government through
banditry.
Some of his victims, who
include Jestina Mukoko, the Zimbabwe Peace Project
director, are now nursing
permanent injuries as a result of weeks of torture
while in secret
captivity.
Makedenge, whose normal duty is to investigate crimes
involving murder
including suicide cases, was also the investigating officer
in MDC secretary
general Tendai Biti's treason case.
Biti was in June
last year subjected to both physical torture and
intermittent interrogation
by the police which lasted long hours.
Makedenge is also feared by his
subordinates some of whom he routinely
accused of supporting the
MDC.
For this, Makedenge has been rewarded with new vehicles that had
been placed
at their disposal, an unlimited fuel of supply and permanent
bookings in
various hotels throughout the country.
He has also been
allocated a commercial farm in the agriculturally rich
Banket farming
area.
He benefited immensely from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's farm
mechanisation programme.
Comment from The Globe and Mail (Canada), 16 March
Geoffrey York
Harare - The debate over the fate of
Zimbabwe's new government rages nightly
at the Quill Club, a dingy drinking
establishment in downtown Harare where
local journalists hang out. The giant
head of an African buffalo is mounted
on the wall above a pool table and a
bar where Amos the bartender pours
frothy mugs of Lion beer. As the night
wears on, the Zimbabwean journalists
argue heatedly with a former colleague
who is now a top official of the
Movement for Democratic Change. Jameson
Timba, an ex-journalist who has
become the MDC deputy minister of media and
information, sits at a table
with a beer in front of him, listening to his
journalist friends accusing
the new government of not doing enough for press
freedom. Mr. Timba vows
that the new government will take steps to free the
tightly controlled state
media. Within 100 days of its inauguration last
month, all banned newspapers
will reopen, and the government will call for
licence applications for
independent radio and television stations, he says.
He admits it's an uphill
struggle.
Zimbabwe today has only one daily
newspaper and one television network, and
both are propaganda organs for the
Zanu PF party of President Robert Mugabe.
The daily newspaper, The Herald,
is slightly less biased than before - it
actually gives some coverage to MDC
cabinet ministers these days - but a
report last week by an independent
media-monitoring agency concluded that
Mr. Mugabe's party still has a
"stranglehold" on the state media. Mr. Timba
says he is convinced that the
new government will succeed in liberalizing
the state media. And if there is
resistance from the bosses of the state
media? "They will be fired," he
says. So far, however, the new government
has been reluctant to fire anyone.
There has to be a "soft landing" for the
leaders of the old regime to avoid
the bloodbath of civil war, Mr. Timba
says. Veteran journalists here are not
persuaded by Mr. Timba's claim that
the state media are becoming more
balanced. "It's a small shift, and very
begrudging," says Bornwell
Chakaodze, a former editor of The Herald who is
now a columnist at an
independent weekly. "By and large they are still Zanu
PF mouthpieces," he
says. "There's a little opening up, but no change in
mindset. The MDC
ministers are covered in The Herald when they reinforce
Zanu PF policies.
When they criticize those policies, they are completely
ignored or relegated
to the inside pages. The change doesn't seem to be
happening as fast as it
should."
http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=1883&cat=1
'Flash
out corrupt leaders'
By Fidelis Munyoro
FIRST LADY Amai Grace
Mugabe yesterday urged Government to investigate and
flash out corrupt
leaders, saying vice had destroyed the country and
retarded economic
development.
She said there have been several reports of corruption,
which need to be
investigated.
"Wealth is not for the leadership, the
economy should not be in the hands of
President Mugabe alone.
"There
is no smoke without fire. Investigations should be done. We have to
ask
ourselves about all these things we hear about corruption. Corruption
has
killed the country.''
Some people, she said, thought if they occupy
high positions they have a
passport to amass wealth for themselves at the
expense of the majority.
She urged Zimbabweans to emulate President
Mugabe's character that
demonstrates a true and honest revolutionary leader
with people at heart.