The Herald (Harare)
March 7,
2006
Posted to the web March 7, 2006
Kudzai
Chawafambira
Harare
THE consumer basket for a family of six has
increased by 28,8 percent to $28
million in the month of February, from the
January figure of $21,8 million.
The basket has maintained an upward
trend since the beginning of the year
owing to incessant price increases,
which continue to erode consumers'
purchasing power.
"The increase in
the basket was largely propelled by price increases
experienced throughout
the month. Almost all components of the basket
recorded increases," said the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe.
Notable increases were witnessed in basic
commodities such as salt whose
price rose by 385,8 percent to $79 750 for a
500g packet. Washing powder
shot up by 107,6 percent, white sugar 25,8
percent, 1kg margarine went up by
26,6 percent to $438 500 and a 750ml
bottle of cooking oil shot up by 49
percent to $256 428.
Although
shortages of some basic commodities continue to persist, white
sugar has
been trickling into the market while roller meal has been scarce
since the
beginning of the year.
The consumer watchdog noted that in the last week
of the month under review
the price of bread increased from the gazetted
price of $44 000 to between
$60 000 and $66 000.
"The Government
denounced the increases even though bakeries have not taken
heed of the
calls. Bakeries have cited imminent collapse of the baking
industry if the
prices are not reviewed upwards. "Therefore, the CCZ urges
the Government
and industry to agree on prices which not only take
cognisance of the plight
of the consumer but also ensure viability of
various industries," said
CCZ.
It was also against this backdrop that the consumer watchdog was
calling on
Government, business and labour --- under the auspices of the
Tripartite
Negotiating Forum (TNF) --- to expedite the implementation of an
effective
pricing and incomes stabilisation mechanism in order to come up
with
holistic solutions to challenges besetting the economy.
"The
year started with optimism following the announcement of the agreement
made
by the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) partners to set up the
Incomes and
Prices Stabilisation Protocol but hopes have been dashed as the
protocol is
yet to deal with distortions in the current economic
environment.
"This has left consumers in limbo since they have been
kept in the dark on
whether the TNF discussions will resume. The CCZ urges
the parties to come
up with solutions to pricing and income problems being
experienced," said
the consumer watchdog.
Consumers' disposable
incomes have continued to decline in the face of
escalating prices with
low-income earners among the hardest hit.
The hyperinflationary
environment is expected to continue to erode
consumers' buying power as
price adjustments are now being effected almost
on a daily basis.
The
CCZ basket is viewed in economic circles as an accurate barometer of the
cost of living for the average low-income urban worker in Zimbabwe. This
means if it was adopted as the official Poverty Datum Line millions of
Zimbabweans would be classified as living in abject poverty.
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 7
Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Mining company Implats says the Zimbabwe
government's plan
to take a 51 percent controlling interest in mining
operations in the
country "is not in the best interests of developing the
platinum industry in
Zimbabwe".
Newspapers in South Africa and Zimbabwe have devoted many
column inches to
the news that the government planned to become the majority
shareholder in
the country's estimated US $20 billion mining
sector.
According to South Africa's Business Day, Zimbabwean Minister of
Mines Amos
Midzi told the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines last week that the
cabinet had
approved draft proposals requiring mining companies to surrender
51 percent
of their assets to the government and/or indigenous groups,
depending on the
commodity. The government would pay only for 26 percent and
the remainder
would be a "free carry".
Midzi reportedly warned that
alternative foreign investors had been
identified to take over equity in
mines if the current external shareholders
did not co-operate.
South
African mining house Implats, which has significant interests in
Zimbabwe's
platinum mining sector, told IRIN that the company was aware of
the plan but
a company spokesman would not expand on a statement issued on
Sunday that
Implats was "in receipt of a cabinet-approved draft proposal
relating to
ownership of the Zimbabwean platinum industry" and that Implats
believed the
proposal was "not in the best interests" of the platinum
industry.
The government's scheme was also "inconsistent with
previous discussions
[the company has had] with the Zimbabwean government",
Implats added.
"The company will actively engage with and seek further
clarity from the
Zimbabwean government on the proposal, and remains hopeful
that a solution
will be found in the best interests of Zimbabwe and the
companies invested
there," Implats noted.
Zimbabwean economist Dennis
Nikisi said the government's strategy was in
line with similar developments
in countries such as Namibia, Botswana and
South Africa, where the
authorities have moved to ensure their countries
reap greater rewards from
the extraction of natural resources.
But, he cautioned, the difference
between enhancing equity and sabotaging an
already weakened economy lay in
how the proposed plan was executed. The
rationale behind the government's
proposal was "basically that all the
mineral resources in the country belong
to Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans".
"Many of the corporations that are
extracting these mineral resources in
Zimbabwe have been doing so
independently, without any shares owned by the
government or indigenous
individuals. As such, it is improper that the local
people - either through
themselves or the government - should not directly
benefit from the
extraction of these minerals," Nikisi explained.
The proposal was thus
intended to ensure that Zimbabwe "benefits from its
own
resources".
The "free carry" part of the scheme was based on the belief
that the
government would warehouse those shares for eventual purchase by
indigenous
groups.
But, he cautioned, "we must be very careful -
already Zimbabwe is perceived
as a lawless country, and as people who do not
respect international
agreements."
Taking a fast-track land
restitution approach to reforming the ownership
structure of the mining
sector could mirror the effects of farm invasions on
agriculture.
"This [mining sector reform] must be executed in a
manner that is beneficial
to mining companies as well as government,
particularly at this delicate
stage where we want to be perceived as willing
to be part and parcel of the
global community," Nikisi said.
Zim Online
Wed 8 March 2006
DURBAN - The head of southern African
Catholics says he and other
church leaders have told President Thabo Mbeki
to impose sanctions against
President Robert Mugabe's government but the
South African leader will not
do it because he lacks the political
will.
Cardinal Wilfred Napier told ZimOnline that South African
church
leaders and himself had met Mbeki over Zimbabwe's deteriorating
political
and economic crisis on a number of occasions during which southern
Africa's
most powerful president explained his attempts to mediate a
solution to the
crisis in that country.
But the clergymen
advised Mbeki to adopt a more robust and tougher
stance against Mugabe
including imposing sanctions against the Zimbabwe
leader, his wife and top
officials, much the same way the European Union
(EU) and the United States
(US) have done, according to Napier.
The
Cardinal said: "We had a couple of meetings with President Mbeki,
who
explained the negotiating role he has played. We raised the point that
we
thought that targeted sanctions should be considered by the South African
government.
"They have the intelligence services to point out
the weaknesses and
where they could be applied. They know what will affect
Mugabe. However,
Mbeki doesn't have the political will to do
this."
The US, EU, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand have
imposed visa
and financial sanctions against Mugabe and his lieutenants over
their
failure for allegedly stealing elections, failure to uphold human
rights,
rule of law and seizure of white farms without paying
compensation.
Zimbabwe is grappling its worst economic crisis,
worsened by Mugabe's
controversial seizure of white-owned farmland for
redistribution to landless
blacks which knocked down food production by 60
percent to leave the once
food-exporting country dependent food handouts
from international aid
agencies.
Inflation is above 600
percent, unemployment is above 80 percent while
fuel, electricity, essential
medical drugs and nearly every basic survival
commodity is in critical short
supply.
But Mbeki, regarded by the US and its allies as the
point-man on
Zimbabwe, has refused to publicly condemn Mugabe or change his
"quiet
diplomacy" policy under which he has regularly consulted with the
Harare
administration behind close doors but with little movement to resolve
the
worsening crisis. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 8
March 2006
MASVINGO - Zimbabwe Environment Minister Francis Nhema
on Tuesday said
the government will not evict villagers who illegally
settled in game
conservancies including in Gonarezhou Park that is part of a
multibillion
dollar trans-frontier wildlife venture with South Africa and
Mozambique.
Nhema, who earlier this year vowed to clear illegal
settlers from
Gonarezhou where they are accused of extensive poaching, said
Harare was now
of the opinion that the villagers should remain in the park,
adding that the
government had already begun teaching the settlers wildlife
conservation.
Gonarezhou is part of the Great Limpopo
Trans-frontier Park that links
up the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique
and South Africa's Kruger
National Park. It is expected to generate millions
of dollars in hard cash,
when fully developed. But land invasions and
poaching in Zimbabwe has slowed
down development of the giant park project
for years.
Nhema said the government will teach the villagers not
to grow crops
in the park area, poach animals or cut trees down
randomly.
"We have embarked on a programme where we are educating
those in our
parks to be part of the wildlife conservation process," the
Environment
Minister said. "We are telling them that if they see a baboon it
is worth
US$500. If they see a kudu they should think beyond meat since it
is worth
US$700."
But wildlife experts expressed dismay at the
government's decision to
let the villagers stay in Gonarezhou and other game
parks saying it required
more than education to dissuade the peasant farmers
from growing crops in
the conservancies and hunting down animals for
meat.
They said huge amounts for resources - which the government
does not
have - were required to support the villagers to start small-scale
game
sanctuaries within or near Gonarezhou which could provide an
alternative
source of livelihood to poaching and crop farming.
"The decision is shocking because these people have never been in such
an
industry before . . . for one to operate a conservancy there is need to
consider the time factor. It takes about 10 years to have a fully fledged
conservancy without realising any profit," said Mike Stuart, a prominent
wildlife operator in Masvingo province where Gonarezhou lies.
According to conservative estimates, Zimbabwe has lost more than 50
percent
of wildlife to poaching since supporters of President Robert Mugabe
and his
ruling ZANU PF party began invading private game conservancies and
national
parks over the past six years in what Mugabe has said were
demonstrations of
hunger for land by blacks.
Dozens of conservancies were also seized
by the government under its
controversial land redistribution programme and
given over to top officials
of ZANU PF and the government who promptly
proceeded to decimate wildlife
there through uncontrolled hunting. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 8 March 2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe police yesterday
arrested several student leaders
in the city of Bulawayo to thwart plans by
students at a state university
and three other institutions in the city to
stage street protests against
the government's decision to hike fees at
state tertiary colleges.
ZimOnline was unable to confirm the exact
number of students that were
being held by the police by late last night but
other sources indicated as
many as 25 students could have been arrested as
they attempted to march
through the city.
Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU) secretary general Promise
Mkhwanazi said two members
of the student representative council at the
National University of Science
and Technology (NUST) and two other student
representatives from other
colleges in the city were being held by the
police.
Those
confirmed detained by the police are NUST student council
secretary general
Zwandile Ndlovu and two other student leaders, Lawrence
Neshungu and Isaac
Chimuteshu. NUST student council president Beloved
Chiweshe was arrested but
later released.
"So far there are four leaders we are aware of who
were picked by
police at the NUST campus and we are still trying to get our
lawyers to
Bulawayo central police station so that we can know the exact
number of
people arrested," Mkhwanazi said.
Bulawayo police
spokesman Shepherd Sibanda confirmed that the police
had arrested and
detained several students but he said he could not say
exactly who these
students were or how many of them were in police cells
because he was still
to get a full briefing on the matter.
"There are some students that
police picked for inciting other
students to demonstrate but I do not have
enough information as yet," said
Sibanda.
Students at state
tertiary schools across the country have vowed to
boycott classes and engage
in street protests unless the government reverses
a decision to hike fees by
more than 100 percent.
Apart from raised tuition fees, the students
are also unhappy about
low stipends and falling standards at state
universities and other tertiary
institutions - most of which are derelict
after years of under-funding and
mismanagement.
Protests by
hungry students and underpaid lecturers at Zimbabwe's
universities and
technical colleges have become routine because the
cash-strapped Harare
government does not have money to run the schools.
Zimbabwe's
education and the health sectors were have for many years
the envy of many
in the developing world but have now crumbled after six
years of a severe
economic recession. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 8 March 2006
HARARE - Justice Simpson
Mutambanengwe will today rule on whether
fugitive Harare High Court Judge
Benjamin Paradza could be sentenced in
absentia after both the state and
defence yesterday told the court they did
not believe it had the right to
sentence the runaway judge in absentia.
Mutambanengwe, a retired
Zimbabwe High Court judge and now a member of
the Namibian Supreme Court
bench who was specially appointed to hear
Paradza's case, convicted the
judge on two counts of corruption for
attempting to coax two Bulawayo-based
judges to release a passport of his
business partner who was facing murder
charges.
The judge's business partner, Russell Labuschagne, was at
the time on
bail after his arrest for murdering an alleged fish-poacher at
his fish farm
in Zimbabwe's northern Binga district. Labuschagne, whose
passport had been
seized by the state as part of his bail conditions, was
subsequently jailed
for 15 years for the murder.
Paradza wanted
the passport released so Labuschagne could travel
overseas to scout for
hunting business with the judge standing to gain US$60
000 from the
business.
The disgraced Paradza was convicted last January but
slipped out of
the country before he could be sentenced. Reports in the
government media
have suggested that the judge might be hiding in the United
Kingdom. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wed 8
March 2006
JOHANNESBURG - More than 100 Congress of South African
Trade Unions
(COSATU) activists on Tuesday demonstrated at Zimbabwe's
consulate in
Johannesburg against harassment of trade union leaders by
President Robert
Mugabe's government.
The powerful union also
held similar protests at the border post
between South Africa and Swaziland
to press King Mswati to stop harassing
union leaders in his
kingdom.
COSATU spokesperson, Patrick Craven said his union was
concerned about
the continued harassment of workers and labour leaders in
Zimbabwe and in
the kingdom of Swaziland where 13 pro-democracy activists
aligned to the
trade unions there are facing treason charges.
"Our demonstration at the Zimbabwe consulate was meant to draw
attention to
the harassment of trade unionists in the two African countries.
COSATU fully
supports trade union rights and democracy," he said.
Last week, the
Zimbabwe government - which has banned COSATU officials
from visiting the
country - deported a South African labour expert, Pat
Horn, after mistaking
her for a COSATU official.
Horn, whose Street Net group is
affiliated to COSATU, was visiting
Zimbabwe to deliver a lecture on labour
issues at the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions Silver Jubilee
School.
A senior official at the Zimbabwe consulate, only
identified as
Mapanga, dismissed yesterday's protests as insignificant,
adding that the
consulate had more pressing issues to attend to than
COSATU's
demonstrations.
COSATU is part of South Africa's
ruling tripartite that is led by
President Thabo Mbeki's ANC party and also
includes the South African
Communist Party. But the union has broken ranks
with Mbeki and the ANC on
Zimbabwe. The union has led criticism against
Harare and castigated Mbeki's
quiet diplomacy policy that shuns censuring
Mugabe's government.
The Zimbabwean government, which rejects
COSATU's criticism, has
reacted by deporting two separate fact-finding
delegations from the labour
union over the past two years. -
ZimOnline
The Herald (Harare)
March 7,
2006
Posted to the web March 7, 2006
Wenceslaus
Murape
Murehwa
SEVEN people died of diarrhoea in Murehwa's Chingwaru
area, Ward 3 over the
past two weeks.
The Minister of Health and
Child Welfare Dr David Parirenyatwa, who is also
the MP for the area,
confirmed the outbreak and deaths that occurred in
Gatsi Village last
week.
"There has been a diarrhoea outbreak in Chigwaru and the local
health
personnel are working flat out to contain the disease," said Dr
Parirenyatwa.
At the time of going to Press, the names of only four
of the victims had
been released. These are Juliet Gatsi and her husband
Norman Charakupa, one
Dawa and Olivia Marufu, all of Gatsi
Village.
There had been suspicion that the four had succumbed to
cholera.
But laboratory tests carried out at Murehwa Hospital revealed
that the
stools of people affected by the disease did not contain Vibrio
cholera, the
cholera pathogen. They contained Escherichia coli and Shigella
sp, which are
less virulent germs. Other samples were sent to
Harare.
The local civil protection unit, health personnel, Dr
Parirenyatwa and other
parties held a meeting at the district
administrator's offices last Thursday
before touring the affected area to
assess the situation on the ground.
Dr Parirenyatwa was briefed that two
teams -- which are working day and
night shifts -- have set up a base camp
in the area where they are also
carrying out campaigns on cholera and
diarrhoea.
Each team comprises an environmental health officer,
nutritionist, community
sister, environmental health technician, three
nurses and medical stores
personnel.
The district medical officer, Dr
Reginald Gwisai and the district nursing
officer Sister Taizar Sithole are
heading the teams under the supervision of
Dr Zizhou from the provincial
medical director's office in Marondera.
Three tents have been erected at
the command centre, operating separately
for admission, screening and
recovery.
At least 30 cases had been attended to by last
Thursday.
Besides providing the villagers with chloride of lime and
aquatabs to treat
drinking water -- which they mainly access from wells --
the medical teams
are also involved in case management and
surveillance.
Chairman of the civil protection committee, Mr Maxwell
Mabhuro, who is also
the area's district administrator, said the health
education officer Mr
Andrew Chari was distributing awareness pamphlets
targeting schools, local
leadership and the police.
Mr Mabhuro said
the committee has agreed to put in place preventive measures
on the
potential spread of the diarrhoea at Murehwa Growth Point where
residents of
Magamba high density suburb are living on unserviced stands
using pit
latrines and unprotected water sources.
"All the people in Magamba high
density suburb and villagers surrounding the
growth point are required to
register their names with the local authority
so as to access drinking water
treatment chemicals.
"The problem -- especially in Magamba -- is that
water sources and the
latrines are less than the required 30 metres apart,"
Mr Mabhuro said.
A survey in the Chigwaru and surrounding areas showed
that although people
had access to protected wells, there were very few
Blair toilets.
iafrica.com
Tue, 07 Mar
2006
The government should stop procrastinating over the implementation of an
international agreement which would protect South African property rights in
Zimbabwe - now that Harare planned to nationalise mines, says the official
opposition.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) noted that Implats and Anglo
American were
among those companies which would be affected by the
move.
Investors
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said if South Africa
did not act immediately,
"it would send the most negative message to
international investors we could
possibly transmit".
It was reported
last Friday that the Zimbabwean government - in terms of the
proposed mining
regime - would hold 51 percent of all shares in mines for
energy minerals,
platinum and diamonds, Gibson noted.
"The amendments will ensure that all
existing mines will immediately have to
cede 25 percent of their shares to
the State as soon as the act becomes law
and the remaining shares be
transferred to the State over a five year
period. The Zimbabwean government
however will not pay for these shares."
Gibson noted that the proposed
nationalisation would not only have a
negative impact on investment in the
Zimbabwean economy as a whole, it had
particularly negative consequences for
South African companies with
substantial mining interests in Zimbabwe such
as Implats - the world's
second biggest platinum producer - and Anglo
American.
He pointed out that Implats had already warned that the
government's plans
would violate existing
agreements.
Unacceptable
Gibson argued that it was unacceptable
that South Africa and Zimbabwe had
yet to sign the Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection Agreement
(BIPPA).
At a media briefing in
February this year Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma stated that as
far as she knew an agreement had been concluded
and that it was simply a
matter of the respective trade and industry
ministers signing this
agreement.
"But this has been her refrain for years now. Given the serous
threat to
South African commercial interests in Zimbabwe, it is high time
that the
government fast tracked the signing of this
agreement."
Gibson said Harare needed to be sent an unequivocal message
that it cannot
simply act with impunity when it comes to threatening South
African
interests.
"The reality is that if Zimbabwe embarks on wide
scale nationalisation of
the mining industry and South Africa does nothing
to stop it, then this will
send a message to the world that property rights
are not taken seriously in
our region - the consequences of which for
investment will be devastating."
I-Net Bridge
CNN
Monday,
February 20, 2006; Posted: 7:48 a.m. EST (12:48 GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe
(AP) -- The deputy agriculture minister forecast bleak food
harvests this
year in Zimbabwe, and blamed fertilizers shortages and
technical ignorance
among black farmers resettled on formerly white-owned
land, a state-run
newspaper reported Monday.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sylvester Nguni, in a
rare admission of failures
in the nation's land redistribution program, said
many new farmers who
received land lacked the expertise to produce crops on
what he called a
"commercial and even subsistence level," The Herald
reported.
Even farmers with adequate resources still failed to produce
"meaningful"
crops, Nguni said.
Despite good seasonal rains, Nguni
predicted the harvest beginning around
April would produce half of what had
been expected.
"The truth is, most crops have adversely taken the brunt
of the shortage of
fertilizers, and this has inevitably slashed the yields
by about 50
percent," he said.
In some areas where fertilizers were
used, above-average rainfall had
leached out crop nutrients and
herbicides.
He said many new farmers lacked training and experience. And
the
government's Agricultural Research and Extension department (AREX),
which
provides trainers and advisers, was understaffed and lacked transport
and
gasoline as the country suffers its worst economic crisis since
independence
in 1980.
President Robert Mugabe has insisted his land
redistribution program, begun
in 2000, was intended to correct colonial era
imbalances in ownership.
Critics say, however, that prime farms were
allocated to ruling party
cronies, judges, city business owners, government
supporters and
law-enforcement officials with no farming
experience.
The central bank governor, Gideon Gono, in October criticized
some new
farmers for using their land only as "weekend picnic venues." He
also
castigated some for allegedly using agricultural loans to buy luxury
off-road vehicles for private use and profiteering by selling the subsidized
gasoline available to resettled farmers at black-market prices that were
inflated tenfold.
Nguni was receiving a donation of 28 bicycles for
AREX experts, according to
The Herald, a government mouthpiece. It said the
department now employed
some 3,000 extension officers, about half the 6,000
it needed countrywide.
Last year Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket,
produced about 800,000 tons
of corn, the staple food. The country consumes
around 1.8 million tons a
year. Before the chaotic and often violent
seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms began in 2000, food
surpluses were exported.
Last week, the state-run Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board predicted a
50-percent drop in production estimates for the
main, hard currency-earning
crops this year, citing late and inadequate
loans to growers and shortages
of fertilizer, chemicals and
gasoline.
Official inflation in the crumbling economy soared last month
to 613
percent, one of the highest rates in the world, as the United Nations
food
agency distributed emergency food aid to more than 3 million people
facing
acute hard currency and food shortages.
At least 5 million of
the 12.5 million population were likely to need food
assistance before the
next harvests, and food handouts were now expected to
continue long
afterward, according to U.N. experts and charity groups.
Business Report
March 7, 2006
By
Brian Latham
Maputo - Zimbabwean millers had less than two weeks' supply
of wheat, and a
bread shortage was looming, the Millers' Association of
Zimbabwe said
yesterday.
Wheat supplies from the state-owned Grain
Marketing Board had been cut by 30
percent to between 600 tons and 700 tons
a week, Millers' Association
chairman Mike Manga said in Harare.
It was
the second reduction in two months, he added.
"Most millers have now been
forced to reduce capacity to about 16 percent of
normal production, with
some working only a day and a half a week," said
Manga.
"Bread
supplies will dry up in the next few weeks unless government answers
our
call for more wheat."
Wheat production more than halved to about 95 000
tons in 2005 from the year
before. Zimbabwe normally consumes about 450 000
metric tons of wheat a
year.
Output has slumped since state-sponsored
farm invasions began in 2000,
evicting white commercial farmers to make way
for small-scale black farmers.
Zimbabwe produced about 300 000 tons before
farm seizures began.
Former wheat farmer Mike Murphy said: "The fact is
most of the irrigation
equipment on seized farms has been destroyed by farm
invaders, who don't
have the capital to buy or hire combine
harvesters."
John Worsley-Worswick, the chairman of
agriculture lobby group Justice for
Agriculture, said maize was also in
short supply and he expected harvests to
fall again this year.
The
marketing board, which told the Harare-based Daily Mirror that it would
establish its own bakeries by June, declined to comment.
Zimbabwe
must find food to feed about 4.3 million of its estimated 13
million
population this year, according to the UN's World Food Programme.
A loaf
of bread costs about Z$66 000 (R4.11) after bakers increased prices
last
week.
Zimbabwe's trade minister, Obert Mpofu, told the Zimbabwe
Independent that
police would prosecute bakers, saying the
government-controlled price for a
loaf was Z$44 000.
Burombo Mudumo,
the chairman of the Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe, said
the price was
unrealistic.
"Wheat now costs Z$35 million a ton. That's a 40 percent
increase, and
labour now costs 26 percent more since January, while diesel
has risen over
100 percent. All we're asking is that government sets a
realistic price." -
Bloomberg
News24
07/03/2006 20:16 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's national blood transfusion service has been
crippled by
a lack of foreign currency and mobile teams have stopped
collecting blood,
said local reports on Tuesday.
Mobile
blood-collecting teams bring in about 70% of Zimbabwe's national
blood
stocks, said the state-run Herald.
But, the National Blood Services of
Zimbabwe (NBSZ) suspended collection by
mobile teams on Tuesday, citing
shortages of blood bags and test kits bought
with foreign currency, the
paper added.
The NBSZ's Emmanuel Masvikeni was quoted as saying: "Despite
making
representations with the ministry of health and child welfare and the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, we have failed to get the foreign currency
needed."
Zimbabwe has been in the throes of a severe foreign-currency
shortage for
several years.
The authorities blame Western sanctions,
but critics point to a downturn in
the country's key foreign-currency
generating activities, like tourism and
agriculture.
By Lance
Guma
07 March 2006
Dunlop Tyres, Zimbabwe's sole tyre
manufacturer, has been forced to
shut operations owing to a crippling
foreign currency shortage. It's the
second time in 6 months that the company
has been forced to make such a
decision. Over 820 workers will lose their
jobs with over 30 000 more in
downstream industries also set to be
affected.
Just last year the company halted tyre production because
of the same
problem, opening only after government had made available US$300
000 for
their operation. Workers were invited back but only on reduced
shifts, as
Dunlop could not match previous production levels. This was
because the
forex allocation fell far short of their
requirements.
Government had a special arrangement with the tyre
manufacturer in
which they would collect 100 percent of their export
proceeds in return for
favourable support in future procurements of forex
for raw materials. Last
year in July the company surrendered US$687 000 to
the Central Bank. This is
on average the equivalent of its monthly export
earnings. The company
however got little in return when it needed forex for
raw materials and it
is these shortages that have forced them to
close.
Organisations that will be affected by the closure include
the army,
police and the Central Mechanical Department who all have huge
orders for
tyres from Dunlop. Ironically it will cost the country more to
import the
tyres than for government to support the company with the forex
it needs.
Industry leaders accuse government of giving them an average of 6
percent of
their foreign currency requirements and this they say is
hampering their
operations.
A disastrous land seizure policy,
corruption and economic
mismanagement have all led to the country's economy
collapsing. Sectors that
brought in much needed foreign currency like
agriculture and tourism have
all collapsed and the resulting runaway
inflation has created the fastest
declining economy in the
world.
.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
07 March 2006
On Wednesday March 8th women's
groups around the world celebrate
International Women's Day, a date set
aside as a national holiday by many
countries and commemorated at the United
Nations to remember the important
role of women in history and the struggles
that they have had to face.
Regardless of ethnic background, language or
culture or economic and
political differences, women worldwide celebrate
this day, respecting a
common tradition and their shared struggles for
equality, peace and justice.
In Zimbabwe, no group epitomises
this struggle more than Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). These brave women
consistently organise peaceful
demonstrations in their quest for democracy,
peace and justice, risking
their lives in the face of the brutality of the
Mugabe regime. Many have
been arrested on numerous occasions but they keep
returning to the streets
with their message of love and demand for a
dignified life for all
Zimbabweans.
International Women's Day
is promoted by the United Nations and has
more support that any other
programme. In fact The UN website's page for
this important date has the
following quote: "Today a central organizing
principle of the work of the
United Nations is that no enduring solution to
society's most threatening
social, economic and political problems can be
found without the full
participation, and the full empowerment, of the
world's women." This is
certainly true in Zimbabwe.
The WOZA women have organised demos
around every issue, from the need
for a new Constitution, the unaffordable
price of food and the ensuing
shortages, freedom of speech and the abuse of
women and children. On
Valentines Day this year WOZA women gave out bread
and roses, which was
their theme and symbolic way of demanding enough food
and dignity for every
Zimbabwean. As they say; "If you strike a woman, you
strike a rock." And so
it is only fitting that we at SW radio Africa say to
our brave women, "WOZA
Moya" - with much love and
respect.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
7 March
2006
On 13th and 14th February 2006, women, old and young, and a
few brave
men left their homes to go into the streets calling for Bread and
Roses.
They were prepared to be arrested and to spend nights in police
custody in
order to deliver this message to the country's leaders. In
Bulawayo, 174
women, 7 men and 14 babies were arrested and in Harare, an
estimated 242
women and 5 babies were arrested, many of whom spent more than
three days in
custody.
What made these people leave their
families? Is handing out roses and
asking for food now a criminal offense
deserving arrest? Is a peaceful
procession of singing women a threat to the
powers that be? The answer is
YES! The so-called 'Liberation Government' has
a problem. It cannot feed its
people and give them the respect and dignity
they deserve, represented by
their call for Roses too! When there are
thousands of empty kitchens what
can a mother feed her
children?
Life for Zimbabweans now echoes the song sung by the 1912
strikers in
America: "Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life
closes;
hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us
roses."
The Bread and Roses theme was selected as a fitting
beginning for WOZA's
Social Justice campaign. As we go out onto the streets
in the coming months,
our demands for a socially just Zimbabwe will continue
and become even
clearer. As we continue to protest, we will also be
consulting across
Zimbabwe asking people to share their views and opinions
on what is needed
for dignified living. We will be coming to a place near
YOU and asking you
to DREAM with us! We will also be asking you to join us
in marching to turn
those dreams into POSSIBILITIES. We believe the solution
is in our own hands
and even 'babies' are doing their share of the
work.
As International Women's Day comes and goes, the women still
recovering from their stay in the cells find nothing to celebrate. But they
have high morale as they know that they are doing something towards bringing
about social justice. They look upon their suffering in police cells as work
they do in their fields; hoping to one day reap a better living. They no
longer call it a prison cell or a jail but they call it their 'garden'; some
even say it is a 'park' where you go to relax and daydream of a better
tomorrow.
But this is what really happened to us in the police
cells. In
Bulawayo the cells were too small to accommodate the number that
was
arrested so we were kept in a wire cage in the courtyard of the police
station. As it was raining heavily, we were all soaked to the skin. To keep
warm, we sang at the top of our voices for the more than eight hours we were
outside.
We sang revolutionary songs and danced. Some of the
police officers
joined in and even made requests for us to sing certain
songs. Later that
night, the police bar inside the station was cleared and
all of us squeezed
in with three police guards. Some of us managed to sleep
along the bar
counter and under the pool table, but still many had to sleep
seated. The
next day, three leaders were sent in advance to court but the
prosecutor
advised the state to proceed by way of summons and release all of
us. It
took us from noon to six pm to get everyone out of custody due to
further
harassment. Those who had not gone to court were made to stand in
the
blazing sun for hours before they were allowed to sit down.
In Harare some women were arrested while on their way to the protest
and
some as they completed the peaceful protest outside parliament. For
three
days, their lives were turned into a living hell. Over 100, many
elderly
grandmothers, were forced to remove all of their underwear and
threatened
with rape. They were denied food and water; assaulted by booted
officers;
made to sleep on sewerage and human waste; kept in the blazing sun
without
water; subjected to psychological torture by being threatened with
prolonged
detention and being told they had to pay a fine in order to be
released, in
denial of their right to be formally charged and taken to
court. Many of the
women who are HIV positive were denied food and their
anti-retroviral (ARV)
medication. Eventually the most resistant 63 women
were taken to court on
the Friday after a court order was issued - they are
currently on free
bail.
But will this treatment stop us from continuing? The answer
is a loud
NO! We will continue to visit the park to daydream until we have a
Zimbabwe
where there is a decent standard of living and past injustices can
be
remembered without a sharp stab of pain in the heart because they would
have
been dealt with.
Why is WOZA consulting about social
justice? What are our objectives?
a.. to insist that our leaders
understand the issues
that concern ordinary people
b..
allow the voices of grassroots people to be consulted and heard
and decide
their own future
c.. talk about the basic and fundamental rights that
belong to us
all and build an equal society
d.. come up with
community-driven agenda of social justice around
which we can all mobilise
for action. We must help each other to dream and
to turn those dreams into
possibilities
e.. create and raise expectations of people as to what
political
leaders should deliver and how to hold them accountable in a
non-violent
manner
An overview of initial consultations on
social justice Social justice
can be defined as a way where people have
equal opportunities/access to
social, economic, cultural, religious and
political needs regardless of
race, gender, creed or any other form of
discrimination and where past
injustices have been dealt with.
It includes the following:
a.. Full enjoyment of all social,
political, economic and cultural
rights
b.. An equal society,
including gender and ethnic equality
c.. Respect for human rights,
including women's and children's
rights
d.. Freedoms, including
speech, assembly and association
e.. Respect and tolerance of
diversity - culture and religion
f.. Transparency and
accountability
g.. Equal participation in political and economic
decision-making
h.. Equal application of the law - access to justice
and
understanding of the law
i.. Correction of past injustices
such as Gukurahundi and
Murambatsvina
j..
Gutsaruzhinji/inhlalakahle yabantu (Good living)
k.. Access to
affordable education
l.. Access to adequate and affordable
food
m.. Access to affordable housing, electricity, sanitation and
clean
water
n.. Access to affordable healthcare and medication
including
anti-retrovirals (ARVs)
o.. Equal and fair access to
fertile land, inputs, equipment and
secure ownership
p.. Equal
opportunities to resources, employment, self-help projects
and the right to
earn a living wage
q.. Development of adequate infrastructure and
access to affordable
transport
r.. Environmentally sustainable
usage of resources
The consultation process continues - we would like
your opinion on how
we can make Zimbabwe a socially just nation. Email us at
wozazimbabwe@yahoo.com or write
to us. Join us in the street to see how your
dreams can become
possibilities.
For more info please contact Jenni
Williams, Magodonga Mahlangu on
+263 91 898 110 or +263 91 362 668 or email
us at wozazimbabwe@yahoo.com
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
March 7, 2006,
By
George Nyathi
Zimbabwe (AND) The Zimbabwean government is being
fleeced of billions
of dollars in fuel and travel and subsistence allowances
paid out to three
governors of Matabeleland province following revelations
that the three were
homeless in their provinces of governance.
The three, Cain Mathema (Bulawayo), Angeline Masuku (Matabeleland
South) and
Sithokozile Mathuthu (Matabeleland North) are reportedly
commuting on a
daily basis from Bulawayo to their provinces, as the central
government is
yet to build houses for them. One of the three, Mathuthu
recently caused a
media furore here after she was reported to have been
living a lavish
lifestyle arising from allegations that she had established
a new home in a
Bulawayo hotel.
She was accused of taking her husband into the new
home, with the
couple spending billions of taxpayers' money to settle their
bills. Her
colleague from across the province, Angeline Masuku is also
reported to be
commuting from Bulawayo to either Gwanda or Beitbridge,
depending on which
of the two areas would be hosting a government function.
Cain Mathema, the
Bulawayo Governor, is said to have been commuting to his
Tsholotsho home on
a daily basis with sources saying he was using hundreds
of litres of fuel on
a daily basis.
Said one source: "The three
have been using either rented
accommodation or their homes since they were
appointed to their positions by
President Robert Mugabe some three to four
years back. "The major cause for
this is that the ministry of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban
Development has failed to construct
reasonable accommodation for them as
there are no such funds under its
budget.
This has however forced them to travel to Bulawayo where
they have
found rented accommodation." The three are reportedly paying
hundreds of
millions of dollars to their drivers as well as aides in travel
and
subsistence allowances as they are forced to book them into hotels and
lodges closer to the city.
This is because they cannot afford
to book them into the five star
hotels in Bulawayo whose rates are estimated
to have hit the Z$ 7 500 000
mark. The source also revealed that Masuku"s
house that had been constructed
in Gwanda, the Matabeleland South capital,
was razed to the ground after a
senior government minister, Paul Mangwana
condemned the structure as
"inhabitable" for a person like the provincial
governor. This sad episode is
also reported to be unfolding for two
provincial administrators, Latiso
Dlamini (Matabeleland North) and David
Alfonce Mpofu (Matabeleland South)
respectively.
AND
Zimbabwe
SABC
March 07,
2006, 12:30
Zimbabwe's soccer boss has been jailed for two years for
breaking into and
stealing from a car, 14 years after a court upheld his
conviction in a case
that local media said had been forgotten.
Rafik
Khan, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), was
sent
to prison last night after returning from Johannesburg where he was
commissioner for a African Champions League game, court officials confirmed.
But they declined to discuss details of the case, saying Khan could still
challenge his imprisonment at the High Court. Khan's lawyers and family were
not immediately available for comment.
Zimbabwe's
government-controlled Herald newspaper said Khan was sentenced to
a jail
term in 1992 after being found guilty on charges of breaking and
stealing
from a car in 1989, but his appeal of the conviction was never
heard and he
remained free. The attorney-general's office had recently
pursued the case
leading to Khan's imprisonment yesterday, it said. -
Reuters
The Chronicle
Chronicle
Reporter
THE power cuts that hit Bulawayo since Friday are as a result of
the strong
winds and heavy rainfall that have been experienced in the city,
ZESA
Holdings General Manager Corporate Communications, Mr James Maridadi,
said
yesterday.
Mr Maridadi said the turbulent weather caused trees
to fall on power lines,
which tripped power supplies, but assured residents
that the problem was
being attended to.
The most affected areas included
Hillside, Suburbs, Waterford, Burnside,
Morningside, Matsheumhlophe and some
parts of Nkulumane.
"Most of the power lines broke down, especially in the
low density suburbs.
However, we have since restored most lines and the few
that have not been
restored will be attended to by tomorrow (today)
afternoon," Mr Maridadi
said.
Meanwhile, irate residents continued to
phone the Chronicle complaining over
power cuts, saying their electrical
gadgets had been damaged.
One resident said his refrigerator and television
set were damaged because
of power cuts.
"I have to lose millions of
dollars to repair my electric gadgets such as my
television set because we
know that ZESA will not compensate us," he said.
Mr Francis Juba, from
Suburbs, expressed concern over an electric pole that
fell as a result of
the weather, saying the exposed cables posed a danger to
residents.
"I am
especially concerned about children, who may play with the electric
wires.
If ZESA does not do anything about that pole, this could result in
cases of
electrocution," he said.
The power blackout comes at a time when reports
indicate that Zimbabwe's
electricity import bill has shot up to $600 billion
a month from $5 billion.
The increased cost might force ZESA to increase
tariffs to remain viable.
Zim Daily
Tuesday,
March 07 2006 @ 12:06 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
The ruling Zanu PF party is increasingly
getting unsettled with
MDC pro-senate faction leader Arthur Mutambara, with
government's
intelligence chief Didymus Mutasa alleging weekend that the
robotics
professor was an undercover Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
operative
recruited to pursue the US's imperialist agenda. Addressing a
belated 21st
February movement celebration at Tengwe in Hurungwe East
Sunday, Mutasa
urged a timid Zanu PF audience to reject Mutambara's
leadership alleging he
was a "sell-out" recruited by US President George
Bush to "cause illegal
regime change in Zimbabwe."
Although Zanu PF has over the years sold President Mugabe's
candidature
based on his academic achievements, Mutasa, in a move that
smacked of double
standards, told the Zanu PF supporters that one did not
need to be a
professor to lead."Musatyisidzirwe kuti tine maProfessor aiwa
(Do not be
intimidated by the composition of the MDC faction which has two
professors
(Prof Welshman Ncube and Mutambara)," Mutasa said. "Hutungamiriri
hauna
mhosva nema Professor.
Tine mutungamiriri wedu anoshamisa
asiri Professor. (You don't
have to be a Professor to lead a political
party. We have our own astute
leader [Robert Mugabe] but he is not a
Professor."
In typical Zanu PF fashion, Mutasa digged deep
into the ruling
party's bag of conspiracy theories, questioning how
Mutambara worked for US
space division NASA while several highly qualified
Americans were not
allowed to work in the high tech US centre. Mutambara has
worked as a
Research Scientist and Professor of Robotics and Mechatronics at
the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon University,
California Institute of Technology, FAMU-FSU, and NASA.
Alleging complicit with the US intelligence, Mutasa said:
"Akakusvika sei
kuNASA munhu mutema iko kusingasvikwe nemabhunu? Hakusi
kudzidza kwete.
Ndeumwe wevatungamiriri akati asvika ikoko akaiswa mupoto
dzekubikwa
nanaBush. Vanobikwa neCIA kana vaibva vonzi dzokerai kumusha
kwenyu
munotungamirira. Zvino unonga uchitungamirira vanhu vako here kana
kuti
vaBush? (How did he work for NASA? A black Zimbabwean! There are highly
qualified whites that can work there! He was working under the CIA and they
have indoctrinated him and now they have asked him to return to his country
to act as a front for the US."
While Mutambara has worked
extensively in the US, his CV does
not state anywhere that he worked under
the US intelligence arm. From
January 2000 to March 2002, Prof. Mutambara
was a Management Consultant with
McKinsey & Company in the Chicago
office. While in Chicago, he was Professor
of Business Strategy at the
Kellogg Business School. He was involved in
socio-economic issues while in
the US. He obtained his Doctorate of
Philosophy in Robotics and Mechatronics
(1995) from Rhodes, and an MSc in
Computer Engineering and Electrical
Engineering (1992). At Oxford, he was
President of both the Africa Society,
as well as the Merton Graduate Union
(MCR). Prior to attending Oxford,
Mutambara graduated with a BSc (Honors) in
Electrical Engineering from the
University of Zimbabwe, where he was
President of the Students Union
(1989-1990).
Zim Daily
Tuesday, March 07 2006 @ 12:05 AM
GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
The
cash-strapped Zimbabwe government blew a staggering £1,5
million (Z$258
billion) in legal fees and costs last week defending its bid
to take-over
self exiled tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's UK- registered company.
Government lost
the case. The judge slammed the court action brought by the
Zimbabwe
government in an attempt to transfer control of Mawere's
UK-registered
African Resources Limited to a government nominee company, AMG
Global
Nominees Limited.
The judge said the action amounted to
"grotesque extravagance",
with both parties hiring top London law firms to
represent them. The cash
strapped government spent an estimated £1,3 million
to pay top class UK
lawyers. Zimdaily heard that just for travel to the
court hearing, the
government spent a whopping £150 000 on first class
airfares and five-star
accommodation for its Zimbabwean representatives.
These included government
appointed administrator Afaras Gwaradzimba and
commercial lawyer and
government purse man Edwin Manikai.
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono sent four representatives.
Several
associates of Gono frequently travelled between Zimbabwe and London
for
court hearings. The Zimbabwe government needed the consent of the
English
courts to complete the takeover of Mawere's company after realising
it could
not do so without the court order. Mawere, whose companies were
seized by a
presidential decree, said the judge was able to see that AMG was
a
government front trying to acquire his assets and said it was both illegal
and unjust.
He said this ruling means the takeover of his
assets cannot be
completed by the government. Critics have said the
Reconstruction Order
which was passed into an Act by parliament allows the
government to take
over any private company on spurious grounds of "state
indebtedness" and
insolvency. Mawere said: "If the English court can
recognise an injustice,
and they were the former colonial power, what does
that mean for you, after
26 years of independence? How far have we
travelled. I thought independence
was to free us from this kind of
oppression but 26 years later we are being
exposed to this kind of tyranny
with impunity."
The South Africa-based businessman has in the
past criticised
the fact that the Zimbabwean government, which always
attacks the British,
is being defended and represented by British lawyers in
the UK courts.
Mawere was accused of externalising foreign currency and was
specified under
the Prevention of Corruption Act, in 2004. His mines,
together with
companies in finance, insurance and agriculture were seized by
presidential
decree. He lost his flagship business, Shabanie Mashaba Mines
(SMM
Holdings), which he had bought for US$60m from British company Turner
&
Newell in 1996, to the state.
Zim Daily
Tuesday, March 07 2006 @ 12:03 AM GMT
Contributed by: MDC New Zealand
MDC New Zealand Press
Statement
4 March 2006
Members of Zimbabwe's main
opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) met in Auckland
today and resolved that:
1. The situation in Zimbabwe needs
all people to unite and
confront the dictatorial regime of Robert
Mugabe.
2. It is time concerned Zimbabweans, wherever they are,
get
involved in efforts to bring about change, rather than watch from the
terraces as the situation continues to deteriorate.
3.
MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, has made enough effort to
bring back his
colleagues who have strayed from the vision to remove the
dictatorial regime
of Robert Mugabe from power, but his efforts have been
repeatedly
spurned.
4. Morgan Tsvangirai is the legitimate leader of the MDC
until
congress elects another President.
5. We don't
recognize the meeting held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second largest city last
weekend as an MDC congress, and the one and only
MDC congress to be held in
Zimbabwe this year is the one that will take
place on 18 and 19 March 2006
in Harare
6. The desire by Professor Arthur Mutambara, eader
of the
opposition grouping formed out of the meeting held in Bulawayo by
mostly
former MDC officials, to bring back the break away group into the
MDC, is a
welcome initiative, and should the concerned former MDC officials
realize
the need to confront the regime in order to bring about a better
life for
all Zimbabweans, the door must be kept open for them to do so,
provided they
follow the appropriate procedures in so
doing.
7. MDC New Zealand will respect the resolutions that
will come
out of the 18 - 19 March 2006 congress.
8. MDC New
Zealand will mobilize Zimbabweans based in New
Zealand to work towards
creating democratic space in Zimbabwe.
9. MDC New Zealand
will share notes with other MDC structures in
the Diaspora in an effort to
come up with a common approach for Zimbabweans
in the Diaspora in the
struggle to bring about a better life for all
Zimbabweans.
10.MDC New Zealand will always strive to give a realistic
impression of the
true Zimbabwean situation to the New Zealand and South
Pacific
communities
Ben Magaiza
Public Relations
Officer
MDC New Zealand
Zim Daily
Tuesday, March 07 2006 @ 12:02 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
Zimbabwe's highest institution of
learning, the University of
Zimbabwe, has suspended three student leaders
for allegedly inciting fellow
students to demonstrate against President
Robert Mugabe's government which
recently hiked tuition and accommodation
fees by over 1 000 percent. The
suspension is indefinate. The sacked
students are Mfundo Mlilo, who heads
the information portfolio in the
national coordinating committee of the
students umbrella body - Zimbabwe
National Students Union, Collen Chibango
and Wellington Mahohoma who are
both members of the University of Zimbabwe's
Students Representative
Council.
According to Mlilo, he and his colleagues were
yesterday
escorted out of the varsity's campus by tens of security
personnel. This
means that the students would not be able to attend their
lectures starting
today. The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor
Levi Nyagura,
delivered suspension letters to the students who were asked to
come to
campus by the institution's security department. The students
however
refused to sign the suspension letters arguing that their suspension
was
null and void since they arose from a charge which the Police Criminal
Investigation Department's Law and order dropped.
The
suspension letters read in part: "On 21 February 2006 you
brought the
University of Zimbabwe's name into disrepute by inciting
students at
Masvingo State University and Masvingo Polytechnic College to
demonstrate
against the hiking of tuition and accommodation fees". Nyagura
indicated in
his communication to the students that there shall be a student
disciplinary
hearing of the matter this Friday.
The students
representatives have since petitioned higher
education minister Stan Mudenge
to review the fees arguing that several
students cannot afford the new fee
structures given the economic
difficulties that Zimbabwe is currently
facing. In their petition to the
cabinet minister, the academics made it
crystal-clear that most of them
would be forced out of school if the
education ministry's decision to hike
fees is not reversed.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Pedzisai Ruhanya
HAVING
failed to reconcile, at least as far as I understand the
situation, the two
opposing factions of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) require
fundamental leadership changes to survive. They need to
re-brand both their
leadership and strategies in order to face the
fundamental questions of
legitimacy and governance Zimbabwe is currently
grappling with. A faction
that will come up with a team of national
political leaders, capable to
argue at both political and policy levels on
the domestic and international
arena, is poised to be the legitimate MDC.
The opposition party
needs people who understand the intricacies of
international relations. In
short, there is need to have a versatile
leadership not people whose
legitimacy to leadership positions is based only
on the capacity to denounce
President Robert Mugabe and stating the obvious
economic and political
malaise the country has been facing since 2000.
Sloganeering is not adequate
enough to claim political power. There are a
lot of missed opportunities
that the MDC failed to capitalise on in order to
make Mugabe accept the
realities of the situation and the crying masses'
need for regime change.
The cry-baby syndrome should be abandoned as a
political strategy. There is
need for re-branding the MDC's image, the
implementation of empirical
strategies and getting down to serious national
discourse in townships,
rural areas and the international arena. This can
only happen when either of
the two factions comes up with such a leadership
at their
congresses.
It is my view that any of the two factions that lives
under illusions
that it has the capacity to deal with the problems on its
own will
disappoint its followers and subsequently fail. Given the current
opposition
disarray and the absence of any public strategic position to
tackle the
ailing Zanu PF regime, I want to propose and argue that if each
of the two
factions fails to revamp its top leadership and continue with the
perennial
dead wood that we see in the MDC today, it will be doomed to
fail.
It should be noted in clear terms that since the formation of
the MDC
in 1999, the party has failed to recruit competent people among its
rank and
file because of the fear among the mediocrity in the opposition
that they
will lose their positions. But I think the time has now come for
the party
to critically think and see how either of the factions can
position itself
as the legitimate and democratic MDC. The usual tactics of
elbowing talent
out of leadership positions and protecting illusionary
government posts is
over because the struggle for democracy is long and
needs both road runners
and leadership strategist. Such people are found in
abundance in Zimbabwe.
The political mudslinging that has been
going on between the two
opposing factions will end after the two
congresses. This will depend on the
faction that positions itself as the
most credible through the recruitment
of a vibrant leadership which can take
on the ZANU PF dictatorship at
organisational capacity and argumentative
discourse.
The MDC needs a leadership that has the capacity to deal
with conflict
resolutions. This capacity has been lacking in the MDC. Faced
with its
fallout of 12 October 2005, Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda,
Welshman
Ncube and Isaac Matongo failed to reconcile their differences and
that for
me was a clear indication of lack of leadership. Instead of
addressing their
problems, the MDC leadership started to create phantom
theories of
government infiltration on matters that they could have resolved
on their
own. There was even the tendency to label others tribalists because
they
differed with the leader. To me that was mediocrity at its
worst.
Instead of dealing with issues of substance and problems at
hand, the
MDC leaders started to look at imaginary ethnic theories as if the
crisis in
Zimbabwe is that of ethnicity. Instead of saying that Professor
Ncube or
Tsvangirai was failing to address certain fundamental issues as
they relate
to party governance, some misguided elements started to ascribe
ethnicity to
one's argument or position. That to me showed the greatest
failings of the
MDC leadership. A Zimbabwean from Gwanda has a legitimate
right to disagree
with his or her counterpart from Chipinge without being
labelled a
tribalist. The same should happen to every Zimbabwean. Those who
use the
tribal card to suffocate their colleagues' arguments should have no
place in
Zimbabwe's political space. Some of the country's late
nationalists, notably
Joshua Nkomo, commanded support across Zimbabwe
without being tagged Ndebele
or anything of that sort. I know of people in
the Zaka district of Masvingo
province who do not believe in the current
ZANU PF leadership, who have been
ZAPU through out and are ardent followers
of Joshua Nkomo. That's why when
Nkomo died in 1999 we saw old men and women
in Mbare and Sakubva crying.
They did so because Nkomo was not an embodiment
of ethnic but national
politics. He addressed issues of substance to do with
the national
liberation of Zimbabwe.
The MDC leadership by
allowing itself and supporters to engage in
ethnic politics offended
nationhood because that is primitive. The
opposition party should also
leave up to its claims of being a democratic
party by celebrating diversity
among its rank and file and protecting human
rights in the conduct of its
business. This will put the opposition on high
morale ground to challenge
the undisputed abuses of human rights associated
with the ZANU PF regime.
There should be no equivocation on these democratic
tenets that the MDC has
so far defended well since its formation six year
ago. There is nothing
wrong with keeping spirits high by being consistent.
Both factions
should appreciate the significance of democracy as a way
to promote respect
for human rights - it offers the promise of providing
strategic guidance for
national reforms.
By failing to fully explain to its membership and
supporters events
leading to the fall-out, the MDC has not been fair at all.
There was a
tendency by bureaucrats in the MDC especially at Harvest House,
the party's
headquarters, to substitute the party's structures by involving
themselves
in the political organisation of the party. Elected officials
were sidelined
while part of the secretariat decided to take political
decisions that did
not resonate with the people on the ground because they
were not part of the
structures. In short, the MDC secretariat usurped the
powers of Congress and
indeed the Constitution of the party.
Instead of taking directives from the politicians, they gave orders to
elected officers of Congress and this went on for a long period without any
effective executive restraint. The secretariat even decided candidates for
political office. One example was the Zengeza by-election in 2004 where the
party secretariat connived with the leadership to impose a candidate who
later lost the election. The MDC structures camped for several days at
Harvest House imploring the leadership to take the democratic root but they
were told to go away and others were assaulted by security guards. Instead
of telling the world that party lost the election because they cheated their
political structures, which later refused to campaign for the imposed
candidate, they turned to phantom explanations.
It is my submission
that whichever faction of the MDC contains these
undemocratic elements in
its secretariat is doomed to fail if it does not
reform. The MDC is facing
this crisis because of its activities which went
on unchecked for a long
time. The bureaucrats in the party had the audacity
to challenge elected
Members of Parliament simply because they are close to
the leadership. This
also explains why opposition MPs are so divided. If not
checked, the MDC
could be harbouring paid State agents in its secretariat
who in the end will
destroy it for good. These officials have isolated the
leader of the party
to the extent that he was not even aware that his
councillors were going to
vote for participating in the controversial Senate
elections. If they were
competent advisors, they should have done their home
work well before the
election and advised their leader accordingly rather
than allow him to enter
into a democratic process, lose the vote, denounce
others and refuse to
abide by the out come. That was a poor piece of advice
and the consequences
are there for everyone to see. They should either be
fired or asked to enter
the political ring before it is too late. If not,
they will frustrate even
those who believed Tsvangirai was right. The
opposition leader should be
careful because he may be left alone due to the
naivety of his
bureaucrats.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 03/07/2006 08:51:29
A SENIOR reporter at the
Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group (ZNMG) which was
taken over by the
country's security services has resigned citing
harassment.
Sources
at the newspaper group said the Daily Mirror's award winning health
reporter, Paidamwoyo Chipunza tendered her resignation letter on Monday
saying "undue pressure was being exerted on her".
Chipunza, who
joined The Daily Mirror in February 2004, was also the
Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) Mirror branch chairperson.
Her resignation follows a
purge launched by the Central Intelligence
Organization (CIO) against staff
perceived to be loyal to Mirror founder and
Editor in Chief Ibbotson Day
Mandaza, which has seen a number of journalists
and members of staff being
fired or suspended.
Another senior reporter who was suspended a fortnight
ago was set to appear
before a disciplinary hearing Monday whose outcome
could not be verified
immediately.
"Paida tendered her resignation
letter on Monday citing harassment," said a
journalist at the
paper.
"She said she did not have anything to lose since the paper is
failing to
pay its workers."
Sources said the CIO have put "harsh"
working conditions at the Mirror for
purposes of getting rid of staff in
order to replace them with state agents
and their loyalists.
The CIO
has been struggling to pay workers at the two titles with February
salaries
which were due by the 25th of that month still not paid by Monday
First posted 01:12am (Mla time) Mar
08, 2006
By Belinda A. Aquino
Inquirer
Editor's Note:
Published on Page A15 of the March 8, 2006 issue of the
Philippine Daily
Inquirer
HONOLULU -- It's that time again for David Wallechinsky's
annual list of the
world's 10 worst living dictators. His latest list draws
from various
reports of organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom
House, Amnesty
International and Reporters Without Borders.
A
"dictator" is defined as a "head of state who exercises arbitrary
authority
over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from
power through
legal means." Our Filipino contribution to this "Hall of
Shame," was, of
course, Ferdinand Marcos, who was removed by extra-legal
People Power 20
years ago.
The top three among the 2006 "Scoundrels of the Earth" are the
same as last
year's, but two -- Moammar Gadhafi of Libya and Pervez
Musharraf of
Pakistan -- have slipped out of the cursed circle, "not because
their
conduct has improved but because other dictators have gotten worse."
The
worst three are: Omar al-Bashir, 62, of Sudan; Kim Jong-il, 63, of North
Korea; and Than Shwe, 72, of Burma. Al-Bashir has been in power since 1989,
Kim Jong-il since 1994, and Shwe since 1992.
The Sudanese dictator
has been in the news since 2003 when his ethnic
cleansing campaign began,
killing at least 180,000 civilians in Darfur,
western Sudan, and displacing
an estimated 2 million Sudanese from their
homes. His men have routinely
burned villages until there are no longer any
villages to burn. The attacks
have reportedly gravitated to the refugee
camps.
Kim Jong-il still
leads the world's most tightly controlled society, which
has been in the
news because of concern about its nuclear weapons program.
An estimated
250,000 people are still in "re-education camps."
Malnourishment is endemic.
It is believed that a 7-year-old North Korean boy
is 8 inches shorter and 20
pounds lighter than his South Korean counterpart.
Burma's strongman Shwe
relocated his country's capital from Rangoon to
Pyinmana, a remote area,
giving civil servants only two days' notice. Worse,
they were forbidden from
resigning. Burma tops the world in terms of using
children as soldiers and
forced labor on construction projects.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
is still under house arrest.
Last year's No. 9 has "graduated" to No. 4.
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, 81, in
power since 1980, has gone "from bad to
worse." Unemployment has risen to 80
percent, and the AIDS rate to 20
percent. Inflation in Zimbabwe is the
highest in the world. Mugabe launched
the "Clean the Filth" project,
evicting some 700,000 Zimbabweans to prevent
them from demonstrating as the
economy deteriorates.
Only No. 15 in
last year's ranking, Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, 67, is this
year's No. 5.
Quite a "promotion," and that's because on May 13, 2005, he
ordered a mass
killing in Andijan, in which scores of men, women and
children, who had
gathered in the town square to air their grievances, were
massacred. A 2003
law made Karimov and his family immune from prosecution
"forever."
China's Hu Jintao, 63, and last year's No. 4, improved to
become No. 6 in
the 2006 listing. At least an estimated 250,000 political
dissidents are
believed to be still in re-education camps. The government
censors mail and
monitors phone calls, fax, e-mail and text messages. In
preparation for the
2008 Olympics, about 400,000 Beijing residents have been
reported evicted.
Also in a better position at No. 7 is King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia, 82,
last year's No. 5. According to Amnesty International,
police routinely use
torture to extract "confessions." Phone calls are
recorded and phones with
cameras are banned. Public employees cannot "engage
in dialogue with local
and foreign media." Women must cover their faces and
bodies in public. They
cannot drive and must not appear in public with men
who are not their
relatives.
Turkmenistan's Saparmurat Niyazov, 65,
has retained his No. 8 ranking. He is
said to have created the "most
pervasive personality cult," which includes
ordering his country's doctors
not to swear to the Hippocratic Oath but to
him instead. He has whimsically
banned such things as lip-synching and
playing recorded music on TV or
during wedding ceremonies. He is also
reported to have replaced 15,000
health care workers with untrained military
conscripts.
A newcomer is
No. 9 Seyed Ali Khamanei, 66, of Iran, who was only No. 18
last year. Though
Iran held a presidential election in 2005, the country is
really run by a
12-man Guardian Council overseen by the Ayatollah Khamanei.
He has
reportedly ordered the shutting down of the free press, the torture
of
journalists and the execution of homosexual men. The council has the
right
to veto any law that the elected government passes.
Finally, Equatorial
Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 63, also retains his
ranking at No. 10.
Investigation is usually done by torture. There is no
freedom of speech and
the only private radio station is owned by Obiang's
son. Most of the people
live on less than $1 a day, and after major oil
reserves were discovered in
1995, Obiang has reportedly siphoned off $700
million into special US bank
accounts. Among the top 10, Obiang, who seized
power in 1979 from his uncle,
has been dictator for the longest time.
Dictators never die. Some have
faded but others have taken their place. As
grim as it sounds, this world
will probably not be rid of dictators, even in
the long run.
Belinda
A. Aquino is professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa where she is also director of the Center for
Philippine Studies.