Zimbabwe TV slams UK poll 'fraud' Zimbabwe state media
have criticised the recent election in the United Kingdom, saying it
involved fraud. Zimbabwe Television's (ZTV) Friday evening bulletin
spoke of "a lack of transparency, suppression of media freedoms and fraud"
in the UK poll.
International observers have accused Zimbabwe of
fraud and intimidation in elections in recent years.
President
Robert Mugabe's campaigning has frequently singled out the UK and Prime
Minister Tony Blair as enemies.
The ZTV report interviewed members
of the public who said Britain had no right to tell African countries how to
run democratic elections when the UK poll was characterised by lack of
transparency.
Black boxes
Similar allegations were
made in the Saturday midday bulletins.
The reports identified the
UK's use of black ballot boxes - as opposed to translucent ones used in
Zimbabwe - and the use of postal voting as problem areas.
The
conduct of the UK election "raises a lot of questions about the democracy
preached by the British," ZTV reported.
Thursday's election in the
UK secured a third successive term of office for Mr Blair's Labour Party,
although with a smaller majority than in the previous two elections.
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 5:42 PM Subject: Faces and
spaces
Dear Family and Friends,
The moon was still up and a
handful of stars shone in the sky when I left home before dawn on Friday
morning. It didn't take me long to get to the petrol queue and I coasted into
place behind an old Peugeot. There were more cars coming in behind me and all
were saving precious fuel, switching off their engines and rolling down into
the queue. I had bought a book but it was still too dark to read so I locked
my car and walked along the line to see how many cars were in front of me and
tried to work out how long it might be before I got to the front. There were
22 vehicles ahead of me and in almost all of them the drivers were huddled
under jackets and blankets, asleep. The petrol station whose big sign boasts
"24 hour" service, was actually closed. It would only open at 6 am and even
then it wouldn't really be open because they had no fuel to sell
anyway.
We were all queuing on the back of a rumour that had persisted
for over 24 hours that a petrol delivery was imminent. The tanker hadn't
arrived yet but still the people waited. The latest rumour was that the
tanker driver had a puncture and was delayed in Harare but that had been many
many hours earlier but, in true Zimbabwean fashion, we were ever hopeful and
so we waited.
Just after dawn broke I saw a man walking along the
fence line of the petrol station. He was thin and barefoot and his clothes
were very dirty but he was intent and kept bending down and carefully picking
weeds. He wasn't pulling out the weeds, which I know as Blackjacks, but
breaking off the younger leaves at the tops of the plants and collecting them
carefully in a bunch. The cooked leaves of young Blackjacks are edible and
in amongst the plastic bags, crisp packets , cigarette ends and
street litter, the man was obviously collecting food. Soon he had a large
bundle of leaves in his hands and left.
As the light of day increased,
the queue at the petrol station became a jungle. Young men with dreadlocks
and backwards baseball caps came in cars with blaring radios. First they
cruised the line, looking at faces and spaces, and then they stopped wherever
they decided they were going to jump the queue, pointing their cars at the
place they intended to squeeze in. Petrol pump attendants, waiting to have
something to do, find themselves as the most sought after and popular people
and it doesn't take much looking to see money changing hands and notes being
tucked into pockets. A momentary diversion from the boredom and the waiting
came with four women of the night who strut and swagger alongside the queue
in skin tight jeans and high heels. The contrast between the man
picking Blackjacks and the women with crimson and bright blue highlights in
their hair, is stark and surreal.
As the day got hotter and the sun
higher, still the tanker didn't come and people started giving up. I gave up
after three hours. A fruitless line for a few litres of petrol seemed a far
cry from the incessant crowing on the propaganda TV and radio all week about
our newly acquired Chinese aeroplanes. If the propaganda is to be believed
these two new aeroplanes are going to "turnaround" the economy, "revive
tourism" and flood the country with foreign currency. I can't help wondering
if these Chinese planes also need fuel to operate as frankly the irony of new
planes and no fuel is just too staggering. Until next week, love cathy
Copyright cathy buckle 7th May 2005
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 12:41 AM Subject: A cost-benefit analysis of the
past 25 years
A cost-benefit analysis of the past 25 years
By
John Robertson
After 25 years of independence, we Zimbabweans should be
feeling proud about our achievements and eager to boast about our social,
economic and political progress. Sadly, we can share feelings of honest pride
in very little.
If anything, the comparisons we can all make between the
benefits and costs of recent events should generate anger, rather than
pride.
So many things have gone wrong, become worse, failed or fallen
apart, and so few things have improved that we all know which group would
form the longer list. Worse than that, the few things that a few people might
say are improvements would be disputed, if not rejected outright by almost
everybody else.
In other words, narrowly subjective opinions apply to
most of the claimed benefits, but broadly objective facts describe the
horrendous costs that have been inflicted on all but a privileged
few.
A good place to start is the value of our savings and our currency.
People who cautiously saved for whatever reason have seen even respectable
sums turned into almost valueless waste paper. Well-run countries have
stable currencies. A measure of how well Zimbabwe has been run is that our
currency has lost 99% of its value since the beginning of 2001. This is not a
matter of opinion, it is a cold fact revealed by simple, dispassionate
arithmetic.
Almost the identical figure is reached by comparing our past
and present official exchange rates against the US dollar. This was Z$55 to
one US dollar at the beginning of 2001 and had reached Z$5 700 by the end of
2004. As 55 is less than one hundredth of 5 700, the dollar at the end of
2004 had the value of a January 2001 cent. The exchange rates prove that we
now need more than a hundred times as many Zimbabwe dollars to buy one US
dollar.
Our gross domestic product in 2001 was about Z$654 billion and in
2004 it was about Z$31 700 billion, a 48-fold increase. Most of the gap
between 48 and 100 is accounted for by the shrinkage of our economy, and this
ties in with estimates that our economy is now only about half the size it
was in 2001.
Zimbabwe might have broken a few world records with this
achievement. This is simply because no other country appears to have suffered
such a sharp decline without having been attacked by a ruthless foreign enemy
or by domestic insurgents. A war has been waged in Zimbabwe, but it was not
the result of an attack by an external enemy and neither was it because of
an attack from within.
What has happened in Zimbabwe is best described
as the effects of a ruling party decision to withdraw the protection of the
law from a specific economic bloc - the collection of large-scale business
enterprises usually referred to simply as Zimbabwe's commercial farms. Then
the same party enthusiastically joined in the resulting looting and pillaging
of the unprotected business assets.
Their attempts to formalise and
legitimise their actions through constitutional amendments and new Acts of
Parliament have not brought as much as a hint of legitimacy or morality to
their actions. Neither have they offset the massive injustices inflicted on
the people whose personal endeavours, sacrifices and lifetime commitments had
created the businesses that were mostly destroyed by the aggressive
confiscation process.
The claimed benefits that were said to have emerged
from this now amount to almost nothing. Apart from homesteads acquired for
nothing by political heavyweights, the changes have created small farms in
place of big farms, but they all need subsidies that the country cannot
afford.
Vast areas of the country that used to deliver large tonnages of
valuable crops and earned considerable sums in foreign exchange are now
delivering, at best, a little comfort to some of the resettled
families.
Statistics are usually too cold and impersonal to convey the
facts about the human consequences of bad decisions, but in Zimbabwe these
are glaringly obvious to everyone. Hundreds of thousands of people used to
have jobs on the farms, regular cash incomes, houses for their families,
schools for their children and clinics that could help them stay
healthy.
What is left of these barely rates a mention, but the losses to
the affected people are profound. Very few of the family heads have found
alternative jobs or accommodation, most have had to settle for subsistence
farming or charity and millions of children have seen their prospects of a
reasonable education destroyed.
Vagrants and street-children are now
far more numerous in the urban areas and the appalling conditions have
dramatically reduced life-expectancy across wide swathes of the
population.
The architects of the chaotic conditions focus only on the
relatively small number of farmers they have displaced. They dismiss as
irrelevant the wider social issues, but the destruction of about four
thousand large-scale farming businesses has impacted directly upon about 400
000 employees, suppliers and customers and indirectly upon every other member
of Zimbabwe's 12 million population.
Zimbabwe's ruling party will go
down in history, not for recovering for the country's population of 12
million the land that was sparsely inhabited by half a million people a
century earlier, but for wiping out the benefits of decades of painstaking
development that had brought benefits to everyone.
Food production has
fallen to about a third of our requirements, investment inflows have almost
stopped and very few of the 1,5 million school-leavers of the past five years
have yet found the kind of employment they need.
In 2005, Zimbabwe is
producing fewer manufactured goods than it produced in 1971 when our
population was less than half its size today. And this year our export
revenue is likely to closely match the US dollar values of our exports of 23
years ago in 1982.
The Zimbabwe dollar/US dollar currency conversions for
1982 are not difficult because during that year our respective dollars were
almost of equal value. Now you will need lots of luck or good connections to
buy a US dollar for Z$6 070, and if you are not one of the fortunate few, the
price will be closer to Z$15 000 each.
Having seen our exports fall
back to the values of 23 years ago, we can now afford to pay for imports of
only that value too, but our situation is even worse than that. Back then we
had a perfect debt service record, so we had credit lines, foreign loans and
aid donations to help pay for imports. We could therefore cope with temporary
set-backs like poor harvests.
Now our overdue debt repayments and debt
service arrears have pushed our country risk and credit ratings to the lowest
levels possible on their respective scales. We are getting no balance of
payments support, budget support or commercial loans and we must now pay cash
in advance for just about everything we import. Food imports can be paid for
only by cutting the imports of just about everything else, so shortages of
all kinds are mounting by the day.
Our crippled economy is certainly
nothing to be proud about. Policies deliberately chosen and spitefully
enforced on our long-suffering population have been backward-looking,
destructive and painfully inappropriate. The costs are mounting still, even
as the claimed benefits rapidly crumble away.
We should now be
considering the potential costs and benefits of an angry response to the
ruling party's callous abuse of its power. It is long overdue.
LONDON, May 7 (IranMania) - The only overseas mining
project involving Iranian companies would become operational in Africa next
year, said a senior Ministry of Industries and Mines official here on
Friday.
Hedayatollah Aqaei, deputy minister for mining affairs,
told ISNA that Iran owns 51% stakes of the bauxite alumina mine in the
Guinea.
The Guinean government takes 49% shares of the mine, whose
products will be transferred to Iran for processing, he added.
"Mining Development and Renovation Organization of Iran has taken charge of
the mine and is planning to extract bauxite alumina in Guinea and process it
in Iran,"
he said, stressing that Iran has invested $25 mln in the
mining projects.
The official said the project needs no further
investments by Iran, adding that the Guinean government is required to make
new investments in the transportation section of the project.
"There are very many good mines in some African and Asian countries and
Iranian companies can invest in mining projects there," he said, adding that
Iran could extract minerals from these mines and then process them at home
in order to create jobs.
Aqaei said Iran is studying investment
opportunities in Zimbabwe, Sudan and Greece, adding that the priority has
been given to domestic mines as far as extracting gold is
concerned.
Greater trade ties with Africa have always been a high
priority on Iran's foreign policy agenda. In recent years, the government
has been striving to prepare the ground for Iranian businesses to boost
non-oil exports to Africa.
Given the high transportation costs
involved in the export of goods to Africa, the government will undertake
some of these costs to encourage exports.
The Khatami
administration has approved $450 mln for economic activities in
Africa.
The funds will be used to boost exports to Africa and cover
relevant risks.
In the first phase of the program, some $300
mln would be channeled from the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund to finance
export of goods and technical and engineering services to Africa as well as
for implementing several projects in that continent.
The
government's Africa Headquarters was established in early 2004. Trade
between Iran and Africa totaled a meager $280 mln in the year to March
2004.
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union
(ZCTU) was on Wednesday granted an interim peace order by the Harare
Magistrates' court against affiliates challenging its leadership, as the
power struggle in the 300 000-member union deepens. The ZCTU secretary
general Wellington Chibebe, its president Lovemore Matombo, Lucia Matibenga,
and Thabitha Khumalo are the applicants in the matter. Langton Mugeji and
Nicholas Mazarura of the Zimbabwe Leather Shoes and Allied Workers Union,
and the Construction and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe respectively, were
cited as first and second respondents. Part of the interim relief granted by
the court on May 4 2005 reads: "This order operates with full force and
effect as if were a final peace order pending the return date restraining
the respondents to forthwith desist breaching applicant's peace and that
should the respondents breach this order they should be arrested by any duly
attested member of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and brought before the Court
for contempt of Court." In his founding affidavit seeking the peace order,
Chibebe, the first applicant in the case, claimed the business of the ZCTU
was under continuous interruption from the respondents. He alleged that
on March 19, 2005, Matombo convened an executive meeting at a Harare hotel
the respondents disrupted. "It is during this meeting when the first
respondent (Mugeji) instilled fear in me by stating that I can disappear at
any time. He also uttered words to the effect that the second applicant's
leadership is illegitimate, that he should not lead the ZCTU and had used
his position for personal political ambitions and that if he continues to
conduct ZCTU business he will be putting his life into danger," Chibebe
said. He alleged Mugeji also threatened Matibenga saying her days were
numbered before advancing on Khumalo. "The first respondent advanced
towards the fourth applicant (Khumalo) and grabbed her throat threatening
that he was going to kill her. He was later restrained by ZCTU security
officer Mr Joseph Nyarambi and other members of the general council, namely
Collin Gwiyo and Ngirazi," Chibebe said. He further claimed that Mugeji hired
hooligans comprising full time employees of some unions and unemployed
youths to disrupt the meeting. Mugeji and Mazarura allegedly verbally
threatened Chibebe and Matombo at the same venue on April 6 during the ZCTU
prepatory meeting for the Wokers Day. Chibebe said Mugeji also accused
Matombo of maladministration and of causing the current shortage of basic
commodities. "The first respondent later advanced towards the third applicant
(Matibenga). He pointed a finger at her charging that she was non-existent,
illegitimate and that he was going to finish her. He tried to uplift a chair
to strike her but was restricted by one of the general council members, Mr
Ngirazi," Chibebe said, adding Mugeji also threw a glass of water at Khumalo
and threatened to deal with her. He said the meeting was consequently
aborted, as it had turned violent. Mugeji is further accused of disrupting a
ZCTU meeting at a Bulawayo Hotel on April 23 2005 organised by Matombo for
presentation of reports from the secretary general, the treasurer and
committees. Said Chibebe: "The first respondent interjected when the second
applicant had called for the adoption of the agenda. He told the second
applicant he was illegitimate. Subsequently a group of hired hooligans from
Harare forced their way into the conference room. They manhandled second
applicant and dragged him out of the conference room." He added:"The first
respondent advanced towards me, verbally and physically assaulting me. He
then hit me on the mouth with his clenched fists." Mugeji and Mazarura
allegedly instructed the hooligans to drag Matibenga out of the conference
room, which they did. Chibebe also accused Mugeji of assaulting Khumalo with
clenched fists at the same meeting leading her to report the matter to
Bulawayo Central Police. The respondents were arrested and later released
after paying admission of guilty fines. Chibebe said the Bulawayo meeting
was reconvened with police intervention, noting the respondents' threats and
assaults were unprovoked. ".At all material times, both respondents conducted
themselves in a rowdy manner, exhibiting unwarranted threatening behaviour
towards the applicants and that made all our meetings aborted," said
Chibebe. "I now fear for my life." Chibebe's claims were supported by
affidavits from Matombo, Matibenga and Khumalo. Mugeji and Mazarura are
yet to respond to the allegations.
IN a new turn of events to the
capital's water woes, it emerged yesterday that Harare City Council
commissioners were misinformed on Thursday that Highdon Investments -
contracted to supply 1 000 tonnes of water treatment chemicals - had made
available a paltry 29 tonnes resulting in the commission's decision to dump
middlemen. Sources close to the on goings in the council told The Daily
Mirror that instead, Highdon Investments had since last January supplied
council with 440 tonnes of algae kill, with the latest delivery of 55,2
tonnes (delivery notes numbers 1 424 and 1 425) made yesterday. The
sources alleged that the water treatment chemical procurement had turned
political, as some commissioners were determined to revisit a contract won
by Highdon Investments to effectively overturn a earlier council resolution
that awarded the contract-a move they said would be unprocedural. Highdon
Investments, the sources said, was contracted on the strength that it had
the capacity to deliver and it was puzzling why council had gone out of its
way to falsify the tonnage of water chemicals delivered. Yesterday, an
official with the company said: "We do not do business in the newspapers.
Find out from council. We have our records," the official said. Council
spokesperson, Leslie Gwindi yesterday declined to comment on the matter
saying he would issue a statement on the matter in due course. According to
media reports, the city commissioners gave Highdon Investments an ultimatum
of up to May 31 to honour the supply contract, or it would be terminated.
It also resolved to stop using middlemen in procuring the algae kill, and
buying it directly from manufacturers. "That council management places
Highdon Investments on terms for the supply and delivery of the oxidizing
agent within a specified time frame. Failure to meet the terms set would
result in the cancellation of the contract," read minutes adopted by the
council on Thursday. The commissioners made the resolutions after
deliberating on council minutes dated April 11 2005, which claimed that the
private firm had supplied only 29 tonnes of algae in the first four months
of this year against an order of 1 000 tonnes. This was, however, despite
the advise of commissioner Terrance Hussein - a lawyer - that splitting the
tender after it was awarded to Highdon Investments would be problematic for
the city council. Hussein recommended that council assess the firm's
performance and recommend accordingly by month end.
From Our
Correspondent in Bulawayo issue date :2005-May-07
THE newly appointed
Minister of Industry and International Trade and former Matabeleland North
Governor, Obert Mpofu, is tipped to take over as Zanu PF's provincial
chairperson for the province. Impeccable sources in the ruling party, told
The Daily Mirror yesterday that Mpofu - the only Zanu PF legislator in the
province - would take over from acting chairperson, Headman Moyo. Moyo
became the caretaker leader of Zanu PF in Matabeleland North after the
suspension of Jacob Mudenda for chairing the infamous Tsholotsho meeting,
which also claimed the scalps of five other provincial
chairpersons. "The party's national secretary for commissariat, Elliot
Manyika is expected to dissolve the provincial executive any time from now.
A number of the current provincial executive members attended the Tsholotsho
meeting and the party wants to get rid of such people," a senior ruling
party official told The Daily Mirror. A number of the provincial
executive, including newly appointed governor and politburo member Thoko
Mathuthu, were linked to the Tsholotsho debacle allegedly convened at the
behest of sacked junior minister Jonathan Moyo to scuttle the nomination of
Joyce Mujuru into the party's presidency. "There is fear within the ruling
party that Moyo might manipulate the executive as his spring board to come
back into the party. There is need that all Moyo's remnants in the province
be destroyed," added another source. Manyika could neither confirm nor deny
that Mpofu was destined for the party's provincial chairmanship, but hinted
that elections for the post were on the cards."I cannot speculate on
anything, but what I know is that we still have to set dates for elections
in provinces where the (provincial) elections are supposed to be held,"
Manyika said. He added that the elections for suspended chairpersons would be
held in some provinces, while others would simply co-opt suitable
leaders. Efforts to get a comment from Mpofu at the time of going to print
last night were in vein.
THE
Goromonzi Magistrates Court on Thursday granted temporary relief to families
that were ejected from Chabwino Farm through a provisional order it issued
against their eviction. The former farm workers went to court represented by
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), a day after the police allowed
them back into their homes. The human rights lawyers said the court
action was meant to safeguard their clients against future unlawful
eviction. The provisional order reads in part: "Respondents and all those
acting through them are hereby restrained and interdicted from evicting
applicants and all those claiming occupation through them from their homes
at Chabwino Farm in Goromonzi. That any duly attested member of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police be and is hereby authorised to serve this order upon the
first respondent." In the application for ex parte interdict, Fernando
Albino and 14 others are the applicants, while Itai Charungu (a member of
the neighbourhood watch), the district administrator for Goromonzi (name not
given), the Officer in charge Juru and police commissioner Augustine Chihuri
are the respondents. In the founding affidavit, Albino said that sometime in
2000 the farm was designated for resettlement and about 30 families
benefited. He added that on May 1 this year, a group of people clad in police
uniform led by Charungu went to their homes and forcibly evicted them saying
the property did not belong to them.Albino said he managed to positively
identify one of the culprits as a policeman based at Juru Police
Station. "We humbly submit that we are being threatened with eviction yet
people have already been resettled on the farm with adequate space to
construct their own dwellings and we have been staying in our homes since
their resettlement for some years now. We are now living under threats of
eviction, with some of us having been told to leave by the 8th of May 2005,"
Albino said in his affidavit.
Most of the cane and
game farmers who remain here have coexisted with the A2's or settlers to be
able to earn a living in the hopes that change would come soon in the form of
a new government. These farmers are now been targeted and more of their land
is being pegged, many have lost all their remaining land and equipment. Some
farmers have been approached by government officials and told that if they
relinquish their title deeds and drop all cases against the government and
settlers they will be given a lease.
This week a delegation of police
with government officials have barged onto farms and businesses in Chiredzi
and made inventories of farmers equipment, saying that they would get offer
letters later on. When the delegation came to my premises I refused to sign
the inventory of the equipment that was in my yard, this resulted in some
threats and a police constable has been left to guard the equipment. I was
also told that there were no white farmers only ex white farmers in
Zimbabwe.
There is very little maize meal in the lowveld and people
having anything to do with the MDC get none what so ever, even the lower
ranks in ZANU are having problems getting food
now.
Has student activism in Zimbabwe died a natural death?
The country's universities and colleges used to produce icon after icon.
Arthur Mutambara, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tendai Biti, Obey Mudzingwa, Brian
Kagoro, Job Sikhala, Learnmore Jongwe, Nelson Chamisa, Daniel Molokela and
many others. Then the conveyer belt stopped. What happened? This week on
Behind the Headlines, Lance Guma speaks to Nelson Chamisa, MDC National
Youth Chairman and Daniel Fortune Molokela an activist now based in South
Africa. Both are former student leaders and discuss what went wrong. Is the
student movement being marginalised in politics? Is this why mass action
seems remote? Is there division between workers and students on the way
forward? Don't miss the answers, Thursday 28 April 2005, between
8:00-8:30pm. Listeners online can either listen live or access the archives
after broadcast.
The information and advice provided regarding the
wages and allowances of domestic workers is appreciated. However there is
another aspect of the increase which warrants urgent attention.
I am
referring to the impact that the increase will have on the gratuities payable
on termination of employment.
There must be many employers who have
long-serving domestic workers and who will now be faced with having to pay
out large, unaffordable, sums of money when services are terminated. Many of
such employers, like myself, have been pensioners for many years and pension
increases have lagged far behind the rate of inflation.
Using the
newly-gazetted wage figures to calculate the gratuity, the resultant amount
is now several million dollars for employees with more than 20 years
service........talk about panic in the home!
I would be interested to
know whether there was any amendment to the method of calculating the
gratuity as set out in S.I. 377 of 1992.
Instead of using the final wage
in the calculation, the use of an average of the monthly wages over a period
of years would seem to be more appropriate.
If notice to terminate
employment on 30 April was given by an employer on or before the 31 March,
what effect would this have, if any, on the calculation of the
gratuity?
I would be grateful for any information or advice on these
matters.
Regards,
Ernest
Goodall
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Agriculture.