.
Copyright, Tom DeWeese,
2003
Natal
Witness
No time to waste
ALLISTER
SPARKS
If Zimbabwe is going to
recover, tobacco must be planted by
September
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that President Thabo Mbeki and his colleagues, Nigeria's
Olusegun
Obasanjo and Malawi's Bakili Mukluzi, are at last engaged in a
serious
effort to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, it is time to look ahead to
a
post-Mugabe era and try to assess the country's recovery
prospects.
How much of the economic damage
inflicted by President Robert Mugabe's
madness is permanent, how much is
recoverable, and how long might a recovery
process
take?
Even a rough assessment reveals one
stark fact that Mbeki and his
colleagues should note. Time is of the essence.
There is a tight window of
opportunity, between June and September of this
year, when a fairly swift
recovery will still be possible. After that it will
become rapidly more
difficult and full recovery will be less
likely.
Already some of the damage is
permanent. Zimbabwe has suffered a
serious loss of skills, especially in the
industrial sector and in the
professions. Some 60% of the country's trained
professional people -
engineers, accountants, lawyers and doctors - have left
the country. Few
will return.
The
industrial sector has been the worst hit. Scores of enterprises
have been
forced to close down and others have moved to neighbouring states
in a
disinvestment process that eclipses anything South Africa experienced
during
the apartheid years.
One estimate is that
half a billion U.S. dollars of industrial
investment has left the country
annually for the past three years. Again, it
will be hard to persuade any of
these enterprises to return.
The mining
sector has suffered the least harm. Although mining is
being badly disrupted
by power cuts at the moment as foreign electricity
suppliers, Eskom included,
demand up-front payments that the crippled
Zimbabwean fiscus cannot meet, the
mines have suffered no structural damage
and could quickly be brought back to
full production.
And, ironically, although
the agricultural sector was the target of
Mugabe's wildly disruptive "land
reform programme", which has been the root
cause of Zimbabwe's economic
collapse, it, too, could be substantially
revived in a relatively short
time.
This is because what Mugabe
unleashed was not in reality a land reform
programme at all but a mindless
spasm of legalised theft and vandalism that
brought agricultural production,
and thus the economy as a whole, to
a
standstill.
But the wonderfully
fertile land is still there, and, given bold
policies to reverse what has
been done, it could be brought back to levels
of production within a few
years where Zimbabwe could at least feed itself
and pay its way once
again.
Some permanent damage has been
inflicted in agriculture too. A quarter
of the evicted commercial farmers,
including some of the most valuable
producers of specialist crops like seed
maize, have emigrated to prosper in
Australia and New Zealand, and they will
not return. But three-quarters of
the farmers are still in the country,
having moved into the cities and towns
and clung to their title deeds in the
hope that things will change.
At the same
time, between 60% and 70% of the farms from which these
commercial farmers
were evicted are now vacant, abandoned by the black
"settlers" who were
unable to operate them because of a lack of expertise,
financial resources,
labour and government back-up.
Travelling
across the country, as I did recently from Harare to
Bulawayo, reveals a
remarkable sight of lush grazing - the livestock
population has been
decimated to a quarter of what it was only three years
ago - and unworked
farmland. Large fields that used to yield crops of maize,
soya bean, sorghum
and tobacco, now lie unploughed and overgrown with
weeds.
A leading Zimbabwean rancher and
agricultural specialist, Michael
Clark, describes what he saw during a recent
trip through the once thriving
Masvingo and Chatsworth farming areas.
"Although there were a few isolated
settler huts," Clark writes in an
e-mailed memorandum, "there was nothing
else. No crops, no cattle, no people,
no wildlife, no farmers,
no
production."
Through most of the
rest of the country it is the same, he says. "Just
an empty void." Clark
describes one farm he visited, which used to run 22
000 head of export
quality cattle, and which is now deserted.
What this means is that, with a bold and determined reversal of
policy, the
farmers who are still in the country could be returned to their
unoccupied
farms. A substantial part of the agricultural economy could
be
revived.
This should then be
followed by a legitimate and sensible land reform
programme, with land
properly acquired with fair compensation for occupation
by authentic black
farmers, who should be provided with the financial
support to acquire the
seeds, fertilisers and other equipment they need to
make productive use of
it.
But speed is
critical.
Zimbabwe is bankrupt and to get
it up and running again it needs to
have a tobacco crop in the ground by
September. Do that, says John
Robertson, the country's leading independent
economist, and Zimbabwe could
possibly match its 1999 export earnings of
US$600 million next year,
compared with the miserable US$150 million it
earned from tobacco sales this
year. This would be a lifesaving injection of
foreign exchange, the
essential starting point on the road to
recovery.
But, Robertson warns, to achieve
that requires getting the bulk of the
available commercial farmers back on
the abandoned farms by June or July.
In
other words there is no time for further timidity and egg-dancing
by Mbeki,
Obasanjo and Mukluzi in their dealings with
Mugabe.
More critical still, if a
settlement is delayed until next year it
will be too late to plant food crops
for the 2004 harvest. Starvation,
already ravaging the rural population, will
then become worse, with no
chance of recovery until the 2005
season.
The timeline is achievable. What
is needed is a swift agreement that
Mugabe should retire immediately, with a
guarantee of immunity from
prosecution for all his crimes to ease him on his
way, and for a new leader
with some local and international credibility to
take over the leadership of
the ruling Zanu-PF
party.
Former Finance Minister Simba
Makoni, whom Mugabe fired last year for
suggesting the Zimbabwe dollar should
be devalued, would clearly be the most
competent successor, but he lacks a
solid support base within the party and
other old party hacks are hungry for
the job. Again Mbeki and company should
use their influence to get the right
man appointed, for international
credibility is vital to the recovery
process.
That done, negotiations should
then take place between the new Zanu-PF
leadership and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for a
joint transitional administration
to take over and prepare the ground for
internationally supervised elections
to take place, preferably before the
end of the
year.
That would be enough to win
international endorsement of the deal. The
World Bank and International
Monetary Fund would then come on board and,
with the support of the police
and military, the reconstruction programme
could begin even before the
election.
But if there is any further
diplomatic soft-shoe shuffling, another
agricultural season will be lost and
the misery will turn into
catastrophe,.
Allister Sparks, former
editor of the Rand Daily Mail, is a
veteran South African journalist and
political commentator.
themercury.co.za
The
beginning of the end is only weeks
away
May 7,
2003
It has gone deafeningly quiet in
Zimbabwe. The usual early morning
revving of a multitude of engines as people
start their cars for work has
been reduced to only one or two. The country
has now run out of petrol and
diesel and even the recent 320% increase in the
price of fuel has done
nothing to improve
supplies.
According to the government-run
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe,
which has been riddled with corruption
scandals, no supplies have entered
the country for the past week. Zimbabwe
has no foreign currency with which
to pay for imported fuel and at last our
suppliers have said - no money,
no
fuel.
This all sounds like a bit of
a predictable disaster, but the effect
it is already having on our daily
lives is enormous. We simply can't go
anywhere anymore, twice weekly trips to
the supermarket have become once a
fortnight and even that is a pretty wasted
trip because, with no petrol,
there are hugely reduced deliveries and so less
and less food to buy.
All week in our
little town there have been rumours of a petrol tanker
heading our way.
Suddenly a deserted petrol station looks like a huge public
occasion as
hundreds of cars converge along the road. Six or eight hours
later everything
gets back to normal and everyone disappears as it becomes
clear that it was
just another rumour and there isn't any
petrol.
Schools reopen again next week and
we will be cycling to school.
Zimbabwe is teetering on the edge of complete
collapse now. There is little
left for Mugabe's government to seize or
control, there is no fuel and very
little food and the population seems to
have found both its voice and
its
courage.
After the latest hugely
successful three-day national strike, people
are champing at the bit for a
huge push that would see the desperately
needed changes to our governance.
Neither the opposition MDC nor the trade
unions are prepared to say what or
when the next call for public action will
be but it seems inevitable that it
will be very soon as people have simply
had enough. We've had enough of being
hungry, had enough of rocketing
inflation and had enough of being scared. I
am certainly not alone in
feeling that the beginning of the end is now only
weeks away.
Cathy
Zimbabwe
The
Star
Mugabe charges on despite
'cool it' pleas
May 7,
2003
By Basildon Peta and Brian
Latham
A visit by three peacemaking
presidents has provided no let-up in
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
siege of terror against his opponents.
As
he met with presidents Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo and Bakili
Muluzi,
police forcibly removed Harare executive mayor Elias Mudzuri from
his home
and office.
At a summit in Harare, Mbeki,
Nigerian President Obasanjo and Malawian
leader Muluzi shuttled between
Mugabe's State House and the 14th floor of
the city's Sheraton Hotel to speak
with Movement for Democratic Change head
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The trio of presidents
described the talks as good.
But after the
talks it emerged that 79-year-old Mugabe had demanded
that the MDC recognise
him as the country's legitimate leader and drop an
electoral challenge
against him, currently awaiting a hearing in the
High
Court.
MDC spokesperson Paul
Themba Nyathi said: "No way are we ever going to
consider that, because
there's no relation between the political process and
the legal
action."
The MDC warned that the stalled
negotiations would not stop the
party's planned mass
action.
The party also scotched
speculation that the talks to end Zimbabwe's
crisis had made
headway.
While this was going on, riot
police raided Harare City Council office
premises and confiscated the keys to
Mudzuri's official residence.
They took
the action against Mudzuri because he had defied his
suspension from office
last week by Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works
and National Housing.
The Combined Harare
Residents' Association, a civic group representing
the interests of
ratepayers, is to challenge Mudzuri's
suspension.
His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa,
said there was no basis for
the
suspension.
Mtetwa said the
legislation under which Chombo suspended Mudzuri
required that there be
reasonable grounds for the suspension, but Chombo had
failed to list
these.
"In our view, you have failed to
properly comply with provisions of
the law, with the result that the
purported suspension is null, void and of
no
effect."
Mtetwa said Chombo had
misconceived his powers as set out in the act,
"in addition to failing to
understand the very clear differences between
council powers and the
functions of the mayor".
Mtetwa said
Chombo's ministry had refused to grant the council
authority to borrow money
for capital projects, resulting in its failing to
discharge its duties
appropriately.
Fuel shortages in
Zimbabwe have worsened in recent weeks, while
the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority has been plunging industrial sites
into unproductive silence on a
daily basis.
Yesterday, Harare lurched
through a four-hour power cut that saw
thousands sitting idle waiting for
lights, machines and computers to power
up. -Independent Foreign
Service
This is
letter written to Jonathan Manthorpe, an acclaimed writer on Intl.
affairs
for the Vancouver Sun Newspaper. He has great knowledge of African
affairs,
having lived/been a reporter in Zimbabwe for a period.
Hello
Jonathan,
Particularly appreciate your succinct grasp of
International affairs,
with the spotlight on Africa/Zimbabwe.
No
doubt you will be aware of the failed attempt by Mbeki, Obasanjo and
Muluzi
yesterday(Monday 5/05) to convince Robert Mugabe to relinquish his
grasp on
power in Zimbabwe. That is if they had the intestinal fortitude to
tell the
rascal face the face, that he is well past his sell by date.
He
appears to have been obstinate once again, refusing to face the fact
that his
policies have destroyed/bankrupted a bountiful country. It would
appear from
news reports,that once again his giant ego has gotten in the
way. He
continued to insist that prior to any talks beginning with the
opposition
M.D.C., that the M.D.C. recognize his Presidency, and withdraw
their legal
application to the High Court.
The M.D.C. submitted legal proceedings
to the courts asking to have the
entire Presidential election of MAR 2002 be
declared declared null and void.
They have substantial proof of election
irregularities inc. ghost voters
being counted towards his
re-election/refusal by the Registra-General to
release the voters role to the
M.D.C./verified letters from the Commander of
the Army, recommending they
take control of the whole process, of course
rigging its outcome in Mugabe's
favor. Naturally they forgot the
mathematics, the final voters roll numbers
just did not add up.
I have it from good authority, a recent former
President of the C.F.U.
told me personally of his delegation being subjected
an hour of Mugabe's
unbelievable egotistical belief, that he is the chosen
leader of Zimbabwe,
for his lifetime!! Finally they were allowed the final 10
minutes remaining
in the allotted time period, to try to gain his attention
to the effects of
his ruinous land invasion policies.
He has shown
absolutely no interest in the welfare of his people, only his
current
attempts to subvert international justice/find a method of escaping
the
repercussions for his unleashing his Fifth brigade army unit(trained by
the
North Koreans) genocide of the Matebele people during the
period
1981-85.
The newly organized African Union (A.U.),
desperately wants to show the
rest of the world at large that they can
control Africa's tyrants. Thru peer
review, show that they are liable for
undemocratic behaviour/ human rights
abuses.( Or risk Africa continuing to be
the laughing stock/ignored by the
first world). Financing NEPAD would of
course be significantly reduced if
the Africans fail to show they can censure
their own.
One needs to also understand why Mugabe has such contempt
for his younger
African leaders, they too have skeletons hiding their
respective cupboards.
Mbeki has apparently huge periods where he is
inebriated,publicly failing to
comprehend the complexities of HIV/AIDS
relationship. In addition his ANC
ruling party acknowledged Mugabe's illicit
Presidential win, and now find
they were duped, with more and more
revelations of corruption bring exposed.
Obasanjo has recently been
re-elected in his country Nigeria,but in some
states there more votes than
voters/ his voter numbers were also hugely
inflated , causing embarrassment.
European election observers also condemned
this election as significantly
flawed.
Muluzi from Malawi has members of his cabinet, who sold Malawi
maize
reserves for personal gain, whilst they were aware that the forthcoming
crop
was not going to be adequate to feed the nation for the coming
year.No-one
has been prosceuted for this as yet. Muluzi has also publicly
voiced his
lowly opinion of women in Malawi, denigrating them on stage, much
to their
outrage. So much so that his own wife tried to commit suicide last
year.
Note: all these Info Sources from MALAWI newspapers etc can be seen on
the
website .
Now, I
note that suddenly the British foreign secretary (Jack Straw) and
the
American Secretary of State for African Affairs, Walter Kansteimer are
to due
to both visit Botswana next week. Ostensibly they are there to
discuss the
crisis in Zimbabwe and other Southern African issues. Can it be
seen that
they are going to increase pressure on Zimbabwe's neighbouring
states into
not further procastinating over dealing with Mugabe, by
insisting his
timely/immediate exit? Why is it that Africa cannot deal
African problems,
deal with her own errant dictators?
Imagine if Ian Smith, whilst he
lead Rhodesia, had starved his own people.
He would have been dealt with
immediately by the E.U. and other world
powers, and brought before the
International Court of Justice. Is it simply
because Zimbabwe has no
oil/W.M.D.(unlike Iraq), that Mugabe has been left
to continue his own
disgraceful actions against his own people?
Or is it because Mugabe, a
black racist has embarrassed the all the
world's white liberals, by becoming
the first blackman to turn all their
preconceived notions upsidedown( that
only white racists are a problem to be
disarmed/removed from office like
Milosovic?).
Let's not hold our collective breaths over this
British/U.S. visit next
week, after all Straw has been lead by the nose by
Mugabe before. Straw has
failed to understand how slippery Mugabe is, he made
statements acclaiming
their "Ajuba Agreement" some two years ago. Mugabe
promptly disgarded their
"agreement"completely, leaving Blair's Labour party
government red-faced.
Mugabe should not be allowed to escape any of
his criminal actions,
genocide and torture, otherwise we have definitely a
case world double
standards.
Look forward to your
comments,
Sincerely, Lovemore.
P.S. I was former Zimbabwean
farmer who was removed from his property
illegally.
Olonga urges Test protests
Paul Kelso
Wednesday May 7, 2003
The
Guardian
Henry Olonga has urged
spectators at the forthcoming Test matches between England and Zimbabwe to use
the opportunity to protest against human rights abuses by President Robert
Mugabe's government.
Olonga, who was thrown out of Zimbabwe's World Cup
squad and forced to leave the country after he and fellow player Andy Flower
wore black armbands in protest at the "death of democracy" in their country,
said protests would be more constructive than a boycott by spectators.
"The Test matches will help draw attention to the
human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. People should come along to the matches but do
something with placards or whatever to make their point. That would be better
than the silent approach," he said.
Protesters, including the activist Peter Tatchell and
the former sports minister Kate Hoey, have vowed to protest at Zimbabwe's two
matches at Lord's later this month and at Durham in early June. There was a
small protest at Edgbaston for the tourists' match against British Universities.
A spokesman for the ECB said it respected the right
of people to protest peacefully and lawfully. "We should be grateful that we
have the democratic right in this country to protest, and we will respect that,
as long as people respect the right of other people to watch the cricket. If it
impinges on other people's enjoyment then that is a problem."
Unlike in football stadiums, ECB ground regulations
do not explicitly prohibit political statements being made by spectators, but
there are a number of catch-all clauses that could be used to prevent banners or
placards or banners being displayed. One such prohibits banners that could "be
construed as offensive to other spectators".
MCC members attending today's annual general meeting
will face protesters at the gates of Lord's lobbying them to cancel the Test on
the grounds that the Zimbabwe squad has been politically vetted by the Mugabe
government. Mugabe is patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
A spokesman for the touring side yesterday denied
there had been any political input in selection.
Zimbabwe's two-Test series comes just three months
after England boycotted their World Cup fixture in Harare, ostensibly on
security grounds, after the ICC refused an England and Wales Cricket Board
request to have the match relocated because the England players hd received a
death threat. Olonga said he felt that had the team known the ICC would reject
the request then Nasser Hussain's squad would have boycotted the match on moral
grounds.
"Nasser was very clear that he did not want anyone
going to watch the game to get hurt or caught in trouble caused by the match,"
he said.
·The West Indies wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs has been
included in the 14-man squad for the fourth Test against Australia, which starts
on Friday. Jacobs missed the last two Tests against Australia because of a groin
strain.
Daily
News
Council defies
Chombo
5/7/03 7:35:26 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
A DEFIANT Harare City Council has
resolved to ignore Local Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo's suspension of
Executive Mayor Elias Mudzuri, who
it said would continue to receive his
salary and benefits.
Chombo suspended
Mudzuri last Tuesday, citing alleged incompetence,
and ordered that his
salary and benefits be stopped, although he could
retain his official car and
continue to live in the mayoral mansion.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Harare City Council said Mudzuri,
who
was overwhelmingly elected in March last year, would continue to be
mayor
unless residents of the capital city rejected
him.
The council said: "We shall continue
to discharge our respective
duties with His Honour the Executive Mayor and
shall accordingly disregard
the purported suspension as it is of no moment or
consequence to His Honour'
s office."
It was not possible to ascertain from Mudzuri yesterday whether he
would
continue with his council duties, but his deputy, Sekesai Makwavarara,
said
the mayor had reported for work at Town House in the
morning.
She said Mudzuri had made plans
before his suspension to go on leave
from Thursday this week. Makwavarara
referred all further questions
to
Mudzuri.
The city council said in
its statement: "We note, with utter dismay,
that the minister was operating
under a serious misapprehension of the
relevant Act. For the record, a mayor
assumes office strictly to pursue and
implement resolutions of
council.
"The duties can, therefore, not
be divorced from the activities of
council. In fact, they are dovetailed. The
suspension of a mayor ipso facto
(by that very fact) means a suspension of
the entire council."
The council said
Mudzuri's suspension was "baseless, irrational,
fallacious and
malicious".
It said: "The withdrawal of
the misplaced, ill-timed and ill-conceived
court application is a vindication
of the foregoing."
Chombo last Friday
withdrew a High Court application to bar Mudzuri
from performing his duties.
He filed the application after he heard that
Mudzuri was seen in Bulawayo
during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair,
wearing his mayoral
regalia.
The council said: "As far as
council is concerned, a mayor works in
conjunction with council in the
enforcement and implementation of council
resolutions and policies. We,
therefore, do not recognise the purported
suspension of our duly elected
mayor."
The council said Chombo's decision
was not surprising when looked at
from a historical perspective and "clearly
demonstrates that extraneous
considerations entered the fray. The
decision-making process is, therefore,
fraught with
maladies".
"We would also like the
minister to note that the deputy mayor assumes
the duties of mayor in his
absence as provided for by Section 52 of
the
Act."
When he suspended
Mudzuri, Chombo gave the deputy mayor a letter
appointing her acting mayor,
which he is not required to do by the Urban
Councils
Act.
Mudzuri went into hiding during the
trade fair in Bulawayo last week
when he heard the police were hunting for
him. He was back at work at Town
House on Monday morning, but was forced out
by armed riot police.
Daily
News
ZCTU reverses decision to
call for boycott
5/7/03 7:43:37
AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
The ZCTU has reversed its
decision to call for an international
boycott of the Zimbabwe Posts (Pvt) Ltd
(Zimpost) after the parastatal
hurriedly reinstated postal workers it had
dismissed for taking part in the
three-day national job stayaway last
month.
Zimpost fired more than three
quarters of the 2 800 workers with
effect from 23 April but recalled them
when clients, among them police
officers and soldiers who are paid through
the post office, complained about
the resultant poor
service.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the ZCTU
secretary-general, said: "We were not
going to take it lightly. We had
sensitised the international labour
community on the development and we were
going to call for the imposition of
sanctions on
Zimpost.
"There would have been no
incoming or outgoing postal services."
Chibhebhe said the short-lived
suspensions were not acceptable and were
"pure
victimisation."
He said: "The net was
being cast wide but they were zeroing in on the
president of the
Communication and Allied Services Workers Union of
Zimbabwe
(CASWUZ)."
Lovemore Matombo is
the president of the CASWUZ , the former Zimbabwe
Posts and
Telecommunications Workers Union. He is also president of the
ZCTU, the
largest trade union umbrella body.
Daily
News
ZCTU warns of another
stayaway
5/7/03 7:45:17 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff
Reporter
There was fighting talk against
the government by the ZCTU and
hostility for The Daily News from the
pro-government Zimbabwe Federation of
Trade Unions (ZFTU) as the newspaper
sought a review of last Thursday's
Workers' Day celebrations from the two
organisations.
Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU
president, said a national job stayaway can
come any time from now because of
the government's refusal to reverse last
month's fuel price
increases.
He said: "I hope the message we
gave that we are going ahead with
stayaways got home. We are no longer going
to give dates. Now we are going
to do it quietly through the ZCTU
structures."
The government ignored the
ZCTU's first demand for a reversal of the
fuel increases, resulting in the
three-day stayaway last week, and a second
demand for a reversal on Monday
this week.
Amos Midzi, the Minister of
Energy and Power Development, said the
ZCTU was
dreaming.
Matombo said: "It is they who
are dreaming and they are likely to
dream until the last day. If the fuel
price is not reduced, this will shape
the future of Zimbabwe because the
government cannot have it both ways."
The
ZCTU held its main celebrations at Rufaro Stadium while the rival
ZFTU was at
Gwanzura Stadium. Matombo said the police in Chitungwiza
tear-gassed people
at Chibuku Stadium, resulting in cancellation of
the
event.
At Rufaro Stadium, a man
carrying a large bag was beaten up by workers
when he ran towards Matombo in
what was probably a planned attack.
Matombo said: "He was about two metres away and reaching into his bag
when he
was caught by workers and intercepted. I think he had a weapon in
there and
intended to attack me."
The man was
rescued by the police.
Joseph Chinotimba,
the vice-president of the ZFTU, was hostile and
went on a tirade when
telephoned.
He accused The Daily News of
lying about the attendance at the
Gwanzura Stadium, venue of the ZFTU
celebrations.
Told that the general view
was that most people had gone to the
stadium primarily for the musical
entertainment and the soccer match between
Dynamos and Black Rhinos,
Chinotimba said: "What's wrong with that? Even if
they came for that they
heard what I said. Kunonzi kugona kuronga (that is
good organisation). I can
organise better than Chibhebhe."
Wellington Chibhebhe is the secretary-general of the
ZCTU.
Daily
News
Mliswa granted $50 000
bail
5/7/03 7:47:11 AM (GMT
+2)
Court
Reporter
Themba Mliswa, the controversial
fitness trainer, who has been in
remand prison since last month in Karoi for
assaulting commercial farmers,
was yesterday granted $50 000 bail by a High
Court judge.
Mliswa and his 10 farm
workers, who were each granted $10 000 bail,
were asked by Justice Lavender
Makoni to report three times a week at Karoi
Police
Station.
Don Moyo, Mliswa's lawyer said:
"Since the judge ordered my client to
report three times in Karoi, we agreed
with the State that Mliswa
reside
there."
According to the State,
Mliswa, in the company of the Chinhoyi-based
"Top Six" Zanu PF gang, on 7
April attacked the two farmers, the policeman
and the messenger of court at
Springs Farm in Karoi.
The incident
happened after John Coast and Allen Parrson went to the
farm, equipped with a
High Court order allowing them to remove their
personal belongings from
properties they own in the area.
Both
farmers are directors with Hesketh Park Estates (Private)
Limited. Parrson
runs Meadville Investments (Private) Limited which owns
Springs Farm,
occupied by Mliswa.
Mliswa had been denied
bail by Karoi magistrate Samuel Muyemeki after
the State said he was
unrepentant.
He is on a $20 000 bail for a
separate charge of common assault. He
allegedly assaulted Parrson's wife,
Jenny.
Daily
News
Masvingo scales down
operations
5/7/03 7:47:41 AM (GMT
+2)
From Our Correspondent in
Masvingo
THE city of Masvingo is scaling
down its operations by about 50
percent and has shelved capital projects
because of budgetary constraints, a
council official said
yesterday.
The finance committee chairman,
Fabian Mabaya said the 2003 budget
falls far short of the council's needs and
the local authority might be
forced to come up with a supplementary budget,
six months into the year, to
cater for the
shortfall.
"We are looking at cost-cutting
measures. We have to scale down our
operations by about 50 percent as a
result.
"The 2003 budget is no longer
sustainable due to inflation. If we are
to operate within that budget then it
means some of our projects will have
to be
shelved."
Chaimiti said some capital
projects which had been budgeted for would
be shelved. The critical projects
include a $2 billion water
augmentation
project.
The city's water
system is too old and can no longer cope with
demand.
The water system was designed to
cater for only 52 000 people and the
population has since
trebled.
The council this year unveiled a
$1,3 billion budget which saw rates
and tariffs going up by about 75
percent.
According to Mabaya, the council
needs more than $3 billion to
effectively implement its capital
projects.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Another
betrayal
5/7/03 7:36:08 AM (GMT
+2)
Once again Zimbabweans have been let
down.
With President Robert Mugabe
virtually hanging on by the thread
because of Zimbabwe's fast deteriorating
economic crisis, all Presidents
Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo and Bakili
Muluzi needed to do was to apply a
little pressure to bring Mugabe to the
negotiating table without any
preconditions by
him.
But a golden opportunity to relieve
Zimbabweans of the pain wrought
upon them by the retrogressive policies of
this government has been lost -
all because Mbeki and company would rather
have solidarity with the ageing
dictator than with the long-suffering masses
of Zimbabwe.
Lost too, was an opportunity
to relieve the region of the burden of a
chaotic and collapsing economy in
its midst and redeem southern Africa's
tainted image as a worthwhile
destination for foreign investors.
That
Mbeki, Obasanjo and Muluzi would, in the first place, entertain
Mugabe's
demand that talks between him and Movement for Democratic Change
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai could only happen if Tsvangirai first recognises
Mugabe's
controversial re-election last
year, was most
dishonourable and a shameless betrayal of the trust
innocent Zimbabweans
placed in the three leaders.
What else, we
ask, would there be to talk about once Tsvangirai grants
Mugabe the
recognition and, therefore, the legitimacy that he so
badly
wants?
And yet it should have
been clear to all that far from genuinely
wanting to help resolve Zimbabwe's
fast deteriorating crisis, Mbeki and
Obasanjo's one vocation has always been
to try and buy legitimacy and,
therefore, acceptance by the international
community for Mugabe and his
embattled
administration.
This is, of course,
despite the unprecedented violence and alleged
fraud that marred Mugabe's
re-election last year, let alone the blatant
human rights abuses and
lawlessness that continues unabated even
today.
It is Mbeki and Obasanjo who have,
since Mugabe's controversial
re-election last year, marshalled African and
regional opposition to
international sanctions against Mugabe and his top
officials, making the
smart sanctions imposed by the rest of the progressive
world against the
government virtually
ineffective.
The Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) has remained a
hapless bystander as Zimbabwe
burns, sending several spineless delegations
to Harare that have failed to
move Mugabe not even an inch.
This, all
because Sadc's leading voice, Mbeki, would never do or say
anything that
might in the slightest endanger Mugabe's stranglehold
on
power.
And, worst of it all, it was
Mbeki and Obasanjo again who torpedoed
the Commonwealth troika that had been
tasked with whipping Zimbabwe back
into line, even shamelessly lying to the
world that Zimbabwe be admitted
back into the councils of the Commonwealth
because all was getting well
again in the
country.
Never mind the blood of innocent
Zimbabweans that continues to be
spilt by pro-ruling Zanu PF party thugs and
militias nor the pained cries of
orphans and widows because of hunger caused
by Mugabe's chaotic and
destructive land
reforms.
And these are the same people who
want donors to pour their
hard-earned money into their New Partnership for
Africa's Development
(Nepad) programme and strangely enough because Nepad is
supposed to commit
Africa's rulers to good governance and the respect of
human rights. What a
shame!
Perhaps the
only lesson to draw from Mbeki, Obasanjo and Muluzi's
deplorable action - if
at all anybody needed reminding - is that oppressed
Zimbabweans are alone in
their fight to free themselves from a government
gone mad with
power.
Daily
News
Mugabe's legitimacy stalls
Zanu PF-MDC dialogue
5/7/03
7:48:51 AM (GMT +2)
By Sydney
Masamvu
THE legitimacy of President Robert
Mugabe's government and the impact
of the Zimbabwe crisis on southern Africa
are among the issues that took
centre stage during talks convened on Monday
by African leaders attempting
to break the impasse between the country's two
main political parties.
Government sources
told The Daily News yesterday that Mugabe indicated
to South African
President Thabo Mbeki and his Malawian and Nigeria
counterparts, Bakili
Muluzi and Olusegun Obasanjo, that he had no intention
of entering into any
dialogue with the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), if the
opposition party did not first acknowledge him as the
constitutionally
elected President of Zimbabwe.
"President
Mugabe did not dither about what he expected from the
opposition. He told the
leaders that they should recognise him or there is
no dialogue," said an
official close to the talks.
The official
said Mugabe was preoccupied with the issue of legitimacy
and told the troika
to raise the matter with the MDC, which he said was
behind an international
campaign to isolate his government.
The
European Union and the United States of America have refused to
recognise
Mugabe's government, accusing it of rigging last year's
presidential
election, in which Mugabe defeated MDC leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Officials close to
Monday's talks said Obasanjo set discussions held
with the MDC in motion by
telling the party's leaders that it was a
"mistake" on their part to
petition the courts challenging Mugabe's
re-election as
President.
Tsvangirai and his
secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, however pointed
out to Obasanjo that there
were legal and political factors taken into
account in the decision to
challenge Mugabe's re-election.
The MDC
told members of the troika that if the party dropped the legal
action, it
would have no basis to "cry foul" over the alleged rigging of the
March 2002
election, disappointing Zimbabweans who the MDC leaders said
wanted the issue
of the government's legitimacy resolved.
Sources said Tsvangirai told the troika that Mugabe's demands were
like the
African National Congress being forced to recognise the apartheid
regime in
South Africa before the two sides could enter into
talks.
The sources said Mbeki, who has
been criticised for his "quiet
diplomacy" stance on Zimbabwe, acknowledged
during Monday's meeting that the
MDC had the right to challenge the
presidential election result in court.
Muluzi forcefully pushed for dialogue between the MDC and Zanu PF to
resume
urgently, pointing out that the Zimbabwe crisis was adversely
affecting
regional economies, a concern that was also expressed by Mbeki,
sources said.
The sources told The Daily News that this week's talks were
arranged when
Mugabe sought help from Mbeki three weeks ago to ease the
country's economic
crisis, worsened by acute fuel and power
shortages.
Commenting on the talks,
Tsvangirai, who yesterday briefed diplomats
in Harare on Monday's
discussions, said his party would welcome any
initiative that could help
resolve the country's crisis. But government
officials said despite Monday's
meetings, there was no immediate
breakthrough in the impasse between the MDC
and Zanu PF.
"A beginning has been made.
It was a good effort, but with no
break-through. With a little bit of shoving
and probing, talks will resume,"
a top Foreign Affairs official told The
Daily News.
Observers, however, said the
two parties had to prioritise the
interests of the nation and abandon their
hard-line stances.
Daily
News
Leader Page
When you
enter God's House you leave war
behind
5/7/03 7:36:57 AM (GMT
+2)
By Fr Oskar Wermter
SJ
"The man was obsessed with the issue of
land," wrote Alexander
Kanengoni about the liberation war leader Robert
Mugabe (The Daily News, 12
April 2003).
Precisely, he still is. He is so obsessed with land that he no longer
cares
about the people on the land, now or in the
future.
Land points at a collective trauma
from the past. It needs healing.
But simply restoring the past is not enough.
Land needs to be part of a
vision for the
future.
The great hope had been that
restoring the land to the people would
restore to them their lost dignity as
the original owners of the land. But
somewhere along the line the enterprise
went horribly wrong.
What dignity is this
when we see the tortured, torn flesh of fellow
human beings in pain and
agony? What dignity is there in the haunted eyes of
internal refugees from
injustice and terror knocking at my door and asking
for shelter? What dignity
is there in economic refugees running away to
Britain, the very country
everybody had been so proud of being independent
from? There is much
humiliation and very little dignity left.
What went wrong? "The land is the economy, and the economy is the
land." This
is economic nonsense and morally a fundamentally wrong choice.
People are the
economy, and the economy is the people! Land, and everything
that goes with
its proper use, must serve the people, and that makes change
necessary,
certainly.
But they have turned things
upside down and made the people serve the
land, and for the economic and
political power interests, land stands for
sacrificing fellow citizens to the
idol of their own glory.
They have turned
land and what they hoped to gain from it into an end
in itself and made
people mere means towards that end, pawns in a deadly
game. Their ideology
made land something sacred, something to die for, even
something to kill
for!
"Man is the source, the focus and the
end of all economic and social
life." (Vatican Council II) This one sentence
smashes all the altars on
which human beings have been slaughtered for the
sake of so many obsessions
with wealth and ownership, political supremacy and
egos gone mad. It puts a
world which was upside down back on its feet. People
always come first. The
rest are mere
tools.
We have been bored to tears so many
times by the leader haranguing us
endlessly because he knows everything and
we, the people, apparently know
nothing, nothing at least that would interest
him. We need leaders who
listen to us, we who have entrusted them with power
by our vote.
We have been silenced by
endless monologues. Instead, we need
dialogue. Alas, that is what a dictator
fears most: he never asks questions
because he has all the answers. In
holding a monologue, he is in control, in
listening to people speaking their
minds he is not. So, running no risk, he
dictates what they have to
answer.
We have been vilified, insulted,
threatened. Verbal violence has
finally produced physical violence, terror,
torture. What we need is
recognition of our common humanity, even in the
foreigner, the opponent -
yes even the old
enemy.
We jump to our feet when the leader
enters anywhere, we cringe before
him in the dust when we are pushed aside by
his screaming police cars, we
put his picture everywhere lest someone
suspects us of disloyalty.
We do not need
slogan-shouting masses, raised fists, demonstrations of
submission and meek
obedience.
What we really need are leaders
who respect the people, humbly
acknowledge we are all human, frail and prone
to error, the greatest and the
least, apologise when they fail to fulfil
their promises, and accept
responsibility for the life and well-being of all,
friend and foe alike.
Would you ever
accept an invitation to someone's house for dinner and
then go and insult the
host? But that is what the leader of the nation did
when he attended the
funeral mass for Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa. Speaking
as a party politician
rather than Head of State, he abused the privilege of
being allowed to
address the congregation by attacking one of the bishops,
contemptuously
ignoring the sign of peace the bishop had gone out of his way
offering
him.
This was an insult also to the late
archbishop whose memory as a man
of peace we were celebrating. And all this
happened just after we had shared
the moment of divine presence in communion
with one another. "This is not
what we have come for," grumbled a good many
as they were leaving.
What is possessing
ambitious men so they lose all proper human
feelings and decent manners? When
you enter the House of God you leave war
and weapons behind. It is a
sacrilege to carry on fighting in a
sacred
place.
We are not prisoners of
the past and the vicious circle of violence
and revenge. We can make a new
beginning. We are not condemned to fighting
the old battles over and over
again as if we had no future.
We no longer
sacrifice people for some higher purpose. There is no
higher purpose than
people themselves.
We mourn the dead and
hold their killers accountable precisely because
we do not want any more
blood spilled. We must draw a line under the chapter
which is now past. The
time for bloody combat is over.
The time
has come for the peaceful contest of ballot and debate, for
the bloodless
battle of wits.
The other day we saw a
government minister listening to an opposition
Member of Parliament, taking
in attentively what she had to say. Let this be
a hopeful sign for better
things to come.
We need a more profound
transformation than any revolution
can
provide.
When we see leaders
listening in respectful silence to unemployed
youths at street corners and
asking the old what they hope for, we will know
the great transformation has
begun.
Fr Oskar Wermter is based at St
Peter Claver, Mbare
Daily
News
Letters
Junior
minister widens hate catchment
area
5/7/03 7:38:25 AM (GMT
+2)
It is very clear to
every fair-minded Zimbabwean that the unelected
junior minister, whom I will
not name, is one of the chief architects behind
the torture and assault of
MDC activists in this country.
The
overzealous rocket scientist has widened his hate catchment area
from the two
Chitungwiza MPs - the young Tafadzwa Musekiwa and courageous
Job Sikhala - to
virtually all MDC supporters.
From the
days of the draft constitution the man has never looked back.
Consider how he
carelessly crafted the widely condemned Access to
Information and Protection
of Privacy Act as well as his role in coming up
with the Public Order and
Security Act - to cast evil spirits towards
opposition
politics.
I did not see the list that the
MDC published, but from the reports
made it glaringly is missing something.
To be meaningful and comprehensive,
it should include the dirty masters
behind the scenes like the Nutty
Professor himself, Elliot Manyika, our
digressed President, the partisan
police commissioner etc. The picture should
be complete.
But what never ceases to
amaze me is how the poor minister has for the
love of bloody money changed
ship from an academic of some repute to a
pathetic power-hungry Zanu PF
politician who hates opposition politics
despite emerging from it
.
When the day of reckoning comes, we will
surely not forget you,
foul-mouthed junior minister. But in the meantime,
stop lying and fooling
even yourself.
Maxwell Nyangu
Southerton
Harare
Daily
News
Letters
Chombo
masquerading as government
minister
5/7/03 7:39:06 AM (GMT
+2)
It seems to me that Ignatius Chombo
may have started something when he
accused Elias Mudzuri of masquerading as
the mayor of Harare.
Mudzuri can be
confident that he was well and truly elected, despite
the best efforts of
Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General.
However, Robert Mugabe is certainly masquerading as President after
losing
the presidential election.
That makes all
of his appointed "ministers" part of the
masquerade.
Then we know that the majority
of Zanu PF MPs are masquerading as
legislators because they are there under
false pretences having themselves
lost in the parliamentary
election.
Chombo, who was noted for waving
his gun around like an old-time
cowboy during this election, is chief among
those acting an illegitimate
part in the Zimbabwe soap
opera.
So we have a bunch of clowns and
actors masquerading as the government
of Zimbabwe - no wonder the country is
a disaster.
Let's get rid of the clowns
and get a real government - urgently!
Charles Frizell
UK
Daily
News
Feature
A good nose
for bad politics might save us
5/7/03 7:28:35 AM (GMT +2)
NOSES come in
all shapes and sizes - big, very big, small and very
small. If yours is in
the "very" category, boy, are you in
trouble!
As one of the orifices in your
body, your nose is not to be toyed
with. There are substances in the twin
holes which you really don't want the
public in general to
see.
I am grateful most women of my
acquaintance do not trifle with their
noses, but I now suspect that because
of Zanu PF misgovernance, many women
have thrown caution to the winds and
with it their delicate femininity.
The
spectacle of men poking their fingers into their nostrils in
public is
disgusting enough, but women? It makes you want to plead with them
not to
cause such odium to their sex.
I had
always thought a woman from kumusha or emaguswini could probably
get away
with this nauseating conduct. But a woman bred in the city? Would
she not
have been told at school, the clinic, in Sunday school, the church
or the
supermarket, that women who poke their fingers into their noses, as
if
digging for gold, are a disgrace to all
womanhood?
But I turned away as this woman
sitting next to me on the bus seemed
determined to get to the bottom of what
was down that Connemara mine of her
nose. What was even more disgusting was
that she would bring out her finger,
stare at the muck it had unearthed from
all angles, then wipe it off on
her
dress.
I consoled myself with the
conviction that she could not be an
urbanite: she was one of those
unfortunate victims from the boondocks,
looking for a job in the city because
the government has rendered many parts
of the communal areas politically
uninhabitable because of the Green Bombers
who believe all young people are
MDC supporters.
So who are the Green
Bombers - men afflicted with a bizarre form of
stunted
growth?
But let's return to the noses:
Jimmy Durante and General Charles de
Gaulle had very large noses. Were they
in trouble then? I suppose the public
poking fun at them was enough
trouble.
For those too young to remember
these essential details on noseology,
Durante was an entertainer with a nose
entitled to its own name - they
nicknamed him "The Schnozzola" because of its
size.
He competed with Bob Hope, whose
nose is an award-winning shape. He
said of their two noses: "When it comes to
noses, you're a retailer, I am
a
wholesaler."
I've heard people say
men with unusually large noses excite women in a
manner men with normal-size
noses cannot. I have yet to substantiate this
with noseologists - not with
your average ear and nose specialist.
De
Gaulle, on the other hand, was a politician and was the president
of France
when things were not going too well for that republic, born out of
a prison
riot.
But he was a cartoonist's favourite
because of his very large nose.
Back home,
it's downright dangerous to cite local characters with
large or small noses.
The laws of libel and defamation are such a Stalinist
minefield, you could
find yourself being hauled, not into court, but to
jail, before they can
prove the nose was indeed very big or very small and
that your comment was in
the public interest, not malicious.
A
comment on the relative size of the noses of two people embroiled in
a
political feud - Elias Mudzuri and Ignatius Chombo - would probably end up
as
a cause celebre.
Certainly, a comment on
President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai's noses
could land you into a big
stink of a legal stew. Mugabe has commented
disparagingly on Tsvangirai's
physiognomy, prompting others to speculate on
his features, which are notable
for their agedness.
Incidentally, it also
laid bare the paucity of solid political
gunpowder in his arsenal: he is
firing blanks.
The nose is of paramount
importance to any journalist. A reporter said
to have a good nose for news,
even if he is a lousy writer, is such an asset
to the editor there is
psychologically a ready supply of nasal and/or other
sophisticated drugs in
case he develops the journalistic equivalent of the
flu or catarrh, and loses
his sense of smell.
But a good nose for
bad politics is what we all need right now. Zanu
PF politics stink to high
heaven. How easily can you smell a political
stink? I doubt that anyone
endowed with even the smallest nose would be
unaware that this 23-year-old
country needs to be rescued.
People who
insist politics died with independence in 1980 have been
partly responsible
for perpetuating the myth that once the black people took
over from the white
colonialists, there was no more need for
politics.
To some fly-by-night political
analysts, commentators or political
scientists, this proposition may sound
weird, or rooted in ill-informed,
half-baked speculation. But this is based
on much more tangible evidence
than their own ill-cooked and indigestible
data culled from the woolly
ruminations of the mandarins who inhabit Shake
Shake building, spending most
of their time checking on how much foreign
currency their vendors are
selling on the black
market.
The evidence of the scarcity of
political savvy became clear after the
referendum in February 2000. The
result of that plebiscite had Zanu PF on
the ropes, literally praying for the
final blow which would put the party
out of its
misery.
Then the most amazing
transformation took place a few months later.
Zanu PF, revived by political
smelling salts of the most potent variety, got
its second wind and knocked
out the people who had almost flattened it in
the
referendum.
After that, people who had
received a strong whiff of political wisdom
during the referendum suddenly
lost their sense of smell completely and
could not distinguish the stench of
political chicanery from the fresh
fragrance of political
renewal.
In practice, it meant they
reverted to the myth that freedom had been
won and there was no need for
change: the people were in control of their
destiny, and not the
colonialists.
But even friends of the
Stone Age party now seem to recognise that
their own noses had been put out
of joint by the powerful propaganda from
Zanu PF: the pan-Africanist
fulminations which accompanied the killings in
the fields during the farm
invasions of 2000 and the butchery of political
opponents later that year
were rotten lies. Everybody - friend and foe of
Zanu PF - can now smell the
rat that died in the party's HQ.
If there
are people whose nose for political skunks is still
underdeveloped, then they
must be advised to see their specialist political
nose surgeons. In the end,
this is what could serve the country from the
fire and brimstone whose deadly
fumes some of us can feel tickling our
nostrils
today.